The Dirty Names Bring Rock & Roll to New York City

"You've been putting bad ideas in good kids' heads and we can't have that in our school." That's what the high school principal told The Dirty Names' lead singer Harrison Cofer, later accusing him of freebasing crack off of the school urinals. And with that, another music career was born.

The Dirty Names cut their teeth in the maritime town of Annapolis, Maryland, where band members alternated between playing sailor-filled, local bars, working in local ship repair shops, and winning regional battle of the bands contests. Their new album, Double Your Pleasure, which brings newcomers up to date on 11 original songs, came out November 13, 2012.

wOriginally, the band connected with an idiosyncratic record collector who fancied himself as a music producer. Together with him, the band spent a year building a performance studio in a garage to finally have a place they could rehearse uninterrupted. "...Except for this fing asshole neighbor who had it out for us from the get go," explains lead singer Harrison Cofer. "Wooglemooth was his name, which always made me think of a troll. He was the mean neighbor who would call the cops on us. For a while, we were just having cops and cops and cops."

The evil neighbor inspired what later became the title track of The Dirty Names' first EP Rock and Roll Mind Control (2011). "The idea was me going in and winning his daughter's heart and having him know about it and rubbing it in his face," says Cofer. "It goes 'He called the man on me for the 20th time, because I kept playing his daughter rock and roll.'"

Much of this period was spent with the producer playing classic and rare rock and roll vinyl from Chuck Berry to [another cool rock influence]. "What he was doing was turning us on to s that might take somebody until they were 30 or 40 to find," explains Cofer. As the band would write and rehearse music, the hot-tempered producer would yell at them, sometimes even throwing a hammer at band members. Between the constant police disruptions and the unorthodox training methods, the band and the producer parted ways. The band's new training grounds became the live stage.

"We respect the art of the show," says Cofer. "People can play and sing great, but they don't draw you in because half the show is visual. We don't have big light shows or anything, so we try to create fireworks with our performance."

As a result, the band has chosen to live out of a tour van for 2012, constantly playing shows-including sharing the stage with Portugal the Man, ZZ Top, Stone Temple Pilots, Yuck, The Felice Brothers, and Ty Segall-building their fan base, and mastering the live show one city at a time.

Their 2012 EP Sweat Box captured that live energy as well. "We recorded that on the hottest day of the year," recalls bassist Sam Wetterau. "It was 118 degrees in a warehouse with a metal roof. We were dripping sweat. We were so warm and loose it gave us very raw energy."

The two EPs-previously available on tour and on the band's website--have been combined with a new song, "I Get By," which make up their full album Double Your Pleasure. The band's music takes inspiration from Chuck Berry and The Rolling Stones, among others. Lyrically there's a lot of focus on love, lust, and the occasional philosophical insight.

"Salt Water Jackie" is about a flirtatious woman the band knows form working in a bar. She still doesn't know the song is about her. Meanwhile, the song's music video won best music video at The Williamsburg International Film Festival, was featured on FUSE TV, and was an official selection in The LA Film Festival & Music Weekend.

"I went swimming with your heart in my pocket and now it won't beat anymore" go the lyrics of "Swimming," inspired by a friend destroying his cell phone in a swimming mistake. "It's Breaking Your Heart" was written while Cofer and drummer Mat Rose were living in a crappy apartment. The song basically says I've got nothing, but you love me anyway. One line goes "I ain't got a car, but I got me a bike, and I'll take you out whenever you like."

"A lot of people hide behind sarcasm or irony so if someone doesn't like it they can say 'I wasn't serious about it.' We try to let our sound do the talking, but we don't hide behind it. We're fing dead serious and we're not scared."

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