The Daily Texan Weekend Feature 2/02/07

The Dirty Hearts Hard work pays off as local punk band kicks off tour Friday at Hole in the Wall

By Patrick Caldwell

The Dirty Hearts, as the name implies, have paid their dues.
Since forming in 2005, the local foursome has spent their share of time in the trenches, performing in dive bars across Austin. And those months of slowly but surely earning a reputation as one of the city's most engaging rock acts is beginning to pay off. With a well-received self-titled LP warming the shelves at Waterloo Records and End of an Ear, songs getting airplay on KUT, KVRX and 101X, and their tour throughout the American Southwest kicking off at the Hole in the Wall this Friday, the Austin nightlife has clearly smiled upon the Dirty Hearts.
"One thing I love about doing those dive bar shows is that you don't know what's gonna happen. You could be walking out with your teeth in your hand," joked guitarist and lead singer Frankie Medina.
"Besides," he added, "the audiences have more personality. At some of the more dedicated music venues, it's like the crowds are trying to out-cool the band."
The sense of pride in their choice of venues serves the band well. After all, the sound of their self-titled effort sports plenty of gritty, hard-edged charm. Equal parts pop, punk and alternative rock, with clear influences including the likes of Iggy Pop and The Stooges, The Ramones and The Clash, it manages occasional darkness while never betraying the band's ethos as identified by keyboard player and vocalist Calida: "We're a fun band."
"The key ingredients of the Dirty Hearts were rock 'n' roll with memorable hooks and bringing back the fun element," Medina agreed. "Because a lot of bands are just, 'whine whine whine, and I hate myself, and I wanna kill myself.' We love punk rock, but we're thinking early punk rock: The Ramones, The Stooges, The Clash, people who played filthy, harder rock 'n' roll but were always having fun with it."
Variety and accessibility coupled with a lack of pretension have the Dirty Heart's first album a local success, garnering healthy airplay on Austin radio and bringing out larger and larger crowds to the live shows.
"Now we don't have to just invite our friends anymore," Calida said.
That success has made the group's first tour a reality. They depart from Austin for a week of shows throughout Nevada, New Mexico and California — including homecoming shows for Medina and drummer James Sheeran, Santa Fe and Las Vegas natives, respectively. The tour will include a brief stop in Los Angeles to shoot the group's first video, for album opener "New One," currently planned to be filmed on the former set of "The West Wing."
"Yeah, we'll be shooting it in the Oval Office," Medina said. "We're not a political band, but of course when people see a band playing in the White House and singing 'I want a new one,' the audience is going to assume something right away. Hopefully, when they see the video and how playful we handle it, they're gonna see something different."
Despite the recent release of their first LP, the Dirty Hearts are already in the stages of working on their next album, with plans for a 2007 release. The band cites the desire to sustain momentum as the rationale for such a quick turnaround, as well as a fervent hope to not fall into the ruts that can sometimes plague initially popular local bands.
"I think it's important to follow up relatively quickly after a success. In a city with such massive overload of bands and things to do, people have short attention spans. So in order to survive and keep that momentum going, you need to introduce something new and something fresh," Sheeran said. "You don't want to sit on an album for two or three years and have audiences get bored with the songs and bored with the live show."
When their tour is behind them and their video released, the Dirty Hearts will be back in Austin, playing the same venues where they built their fanbase. From the sound of it, that suits them just fine.
"One thing that's sort of magic for any band is the dynamic between its members. And you can't just build that up from scratch. That chemistry has to come naturally," Medina said. "There are lots of great musicians who, for some reason or another, never find that other person who makes their sound work. We feel really lucky to have this opportunity with this band."
The Dirty Hearts will be playing at Hole in the Wall Friday at 9 p.m.