Dress British Look Irish Think Yiddish

D.B.L.I.T.Y. was a Pennsylvania-based rock band who developed a potent following on the Pennsylvania/New Jersey club scene during the mid-’70s before heading out to Los Angeles in search of the elusive major-label record deal that never materialized. Listening to Dress British, Look Irish, Think Yiddish (check those initials), a collection of recordings the band left behind, it’s not impossible to see why they didn’t catch the brass ring, but there’s enough smarts, hooks, and potent guitar work to suggest they could have matured into a Cheap Trick-styled hard rock juggernaut under the right circumstances. If “Rock and Roll Magazine,” “Jailbait,” and “Get Down or Get Out” aren’t always as clever as the band seems to think they are, they’re still unexpectedly witty stuff with full-bodied guitar leads from Obby Noxious and hyperactive drum work from T.L. Gross (though its hard to know who they thought they were fooling with the names, since there’s nothing at all punk about this stuff). “Any Buddy Holly Song” is a likable half-parody, half-tribute to the legendary Texas rocker, and the group offers a polished and authentic-sounding stab at country rock with “If You’re Goin’ to Carolina,” showing the variety that came from playing three sets a night on the bar circuit. On the 15 cuts here, D.B.L.I.T.Y. hardly sounds like a “great lost band of the ’70s,” but they also come off as smarter and more imaginative than their competition at the time; for rock archaeologists, this is a subject meriting further research, though you probably had to have been there to get the most from this disc. Sound quality is generally good, but a number of speed faults have been left uncorrected on this release. – Mark Deming