Dirty Honey keeps Sunset Strip Rock alive – but only the good parts

They are not much hours before Dirty Honey and singer Marc LaBelle's show, he's backstage at Nashville's Brooklyn Bowl, wearing sunglasses indoors. The rest of the band sits on the wall next to him, all lined up to ask questions about their latest album, I can't find the brakes; changes within the group (they have a new drummer). and whether it is possible to live the rock star lifestyle in an age where everyone is always watching and judging.

The sight of LaBelle hiding his eyes in the green room of a bowling alley suggests the answer is yes. Whether the long-haired singer is nursing the aftermath of a late night on this wintry day or simply leaning into the tortured artist archetype, he looks pretty much like the last rock 'n' roll star on earth.

He and Dirty Honey sound the same. Since the release of their self-titled debut EP in 2019, the Los Angeles-based band have unapologetically flown the flag for bluesy hard rock, the genre that dominated the 70s, revived in the mid-80s by groups such as Guns N' Roses and the Black Crowes, and they largely disappeared in the 90s. Dirty Honey went on to tour with both the Crowes and GN'R and, like the opening act before them, found an audience that needed, well, some warming up.

LaBelle still gets goosebumps at the memory of kicking off the Black Crowes' 2021 reunion tour at an amphitheater in Nashville.

“I was miserable,” she says. “You're playing the first of 40 shows, coming out of Covid, and we've started the gig and it's maybe a quarter full of people sitting on their hands. I was like, “This shit sucks. This will be my whole summer.”

Chris Robinson, who has since become a friend, brought him back down to earth. He said, 'Motherfucker, I opened for Metallica when 'She Talks to Angels' was one of the biggest songs in the country and people were throwing shoes and beer bottles at me. Did someone throw a shoe at you last night?' LaBelle recalls. “He said, 'Just close your eyes and have fun,' and the next day I had a blast. Exactly the same situation, different mindset.”

It's these small adjustments, whether mental or musical, that have helped make Dirty Honey one of the most self-aware and successful rock bands to come off the Sunset Strip. Once the epicenter of vibrant, hip and often decadent rock and roll, beginning in the 60s, the 1.7-mile stretch of nightclubs and bars like the Whiskey a Go Go and the Rainbow became a breeding ground for unoriginal ideas in the late eighties.

Dirty Honey, who moved to Los Angeles to chase GN'R-style success in 2017, was determined not to ape what came before. Their LP 2023 I can't find the brakes, despite hints of an anatropaic sound, makes guitar rock relevant for a pop-dominated century. There are elements of vintage Led Zeppelin, but tracks like the ferocious “Won't Take Me Alive,” the power ballad “You Make It All Right” and the adventurous “Roam” show a band rooted in the present.

“I liken it to Amy Winehouse's success. At first, the haters were like, 'Oh, this is a '60s girl thing, he remembered,'” says John Noto, the band's folk guitarist and self-proclaimed “Slash disciple.” “But if you really listen to her records, they're very modern. Contemporary bass selection. Contemporary drum selection. Modern sound. And I think it's just about liking what you like, but being alive now and following your meter into something real.

“So, for example, the riffs I write are inspired by Guns N' Roses, I don't give them the green light until I change them enough,” he continues. “What else can I add to that? Otherwise, I'm just a tribute. Once you embrace that, it doesn't matter if you're influenced by music that's 50, 40, or 30 years old.”

LaBelle, Notto and the rest of Dirty Honey—bassist Justin Smolian and new drummer Jaydon Bean—admit that in the beginning, their audience consisted largely of older fans who emerged during rock's heyday. But now, like fellow rock revivalist Greta Van Fleet, they're seeing more and more youthful faces in front of the stage.

“You know, rock & roll isn't pop culture right now,” LaBelle says. “It's an underground thing with the kids that's really cool. And there's a whole fashion element to what we're seeing, especially in Europe. We're going to play in Milan and it's a fucking show.”

Notto credits some of the band's new audience with the decision to pursue ballads I can't find the brakes. “Roam”, “Coming Home (The Ballad of the Shire)” and the wonderful “You Make It All Right” are each irresistible in their own way. The band recognized their intergenerational appeal while writing them.

Finishing “You Make It All Right,” in particular, was “magical,” LaBelle says, while Notto recalls friends texting him after he sent them the demo. “It was like, 'Me and my girl are crying,' and 'I'm pissed, man,'” the guitarist says. “Moments like these should be recorded.”

Even if management disagreed with them at first.

“We had to fight for this to happen. There was a little pushback, like, “Three ballads? Guys, it's a rock band!” says Notto. “So we started listing albums that had three ballads. I think our big proof was Aerosmith Come to your senses. And they were all successes!”

But the power ballad is about the only trend from Reagan/Bush era rock that Dirty Honey will adhere to. Smolian compares similar groups of the era to “boy bands,” and LaBelle makes it clear that, aside from GN'R and the Crowes, he doesn't really like the music made back then. He is particularly disappointed by the retrograde lyrics of the time. “The misogynistic lyrical content was never really my thing,” LaBelle says.

Instead, the band gets a kick out of more innocent puns. During registration I can't find the brakes In Australia with producer Nick DiDia, he was mistakenly heard saying “Ballina Shire”, where the studio is located, as “Ballad of the Shire”. It became the interstitial subtitle of “Coming Home,” making it seem if not Zeppelin-inspired, then at least Tolkienesque.

“When I thought of the song, I thought, yeah, a mountain of Zeppelin-y stuff happened in New Zealand,” LaBelle says with a smile. “But it's not that at all. It was literally an accident.”

You can almost see his eyes light up.