The Dwarves (and related)
The Dwarves have been very important to me since my teenage years. This is (most) of their discography in (mostly) my order of preference.
Thank Heaven for Little Girls (Sub Pop)
Most people may gripe with me about this being number one on my list, but it was the first Dwarves album I bought and, in my extreme teenage depression, I felt like I wasn’t along when I heard Blag Dahlia sing “I hope that I get lucky tonight and die!” and “I don’t give a f*** about anybody but me!” It’s a classic that sticks with me today.
Blood, Guts & Pussy (Sub Pop)
Many people consider this their finest moment and in many ways those people are right. The Dwarves took their dirty ’60s riffs and sped them into hardcore punk with debauched lyrics of sex and drugs, and even more sex and drugs.
Sugarfix (Sub Pop)
This was another album that meant a lot to me in my teenage depression. The overall tone of the album is very dark and I could completely identify with songs like “Anybody Out There,” “Reputation” and “Wish That I Was Dead.”
Free Cocaine (Recess)
This excellent collection documents the band in their transition from psychotic ’60s rock & roll to hardcore punk. It’s 39 songs in 51 minutes. That should tell you something.
Lick It (Recess)
I still have my original Voxx Records CD of Horror Stories, the first Dwarves album. When I first bought it, I was really confused, as it sounded nothing like The Dwarves I was listening to, but I knew I loved it and that they were the best ’60s revival band I’d ever heard. This excellent compilation collects The Dwarves from their earliest years as Suburban Nightmare to the paisley psychopaths they became on Horror Stories.
“Underworld” EP (Sub Pop)
Two alternate versions that I actually prefer to the versions on Sugarfix and one track available exclusively here.
The Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking (Theologian)
I hated this album when I first heard it, but now I consider it one of their best.
Penetration Moon – unreleased album (n/a)
This was actually a Blag Dahlia side-project that only released a 7” on Sympathy for the Record Industry (which I used to own), but recently, I found an entire album this lineup recorded at the 7” sessions.
Blag Dahlia “Let’s Take a Ride” 7” (Sympathy for the Record Industry), Venus With Arms (Atavistic) & Hewhocannotbenamed Sunday School Massacre (MVdaudio)
Blag’s solo recordings and Hewhocannotbenamed‘s new solo album (reviewed by me here) are excellent and natural progressions of The Dwarves.
The Dwarves Come Clean (Epitaph) & How to Win Friends and Influence People (Reptilian)
How to Win Friends… is a “best of…” collection of rerecorded Dwarves classics. Come Clean, though it has some truly awful songs on it, still has a few other songs that are stellar, as compared to their last album, The Dwarves Must Die, which is just horrible from beginning to end.
