Thursday, January 29, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: Garage rock sale

Mick Collins takes the Dirtbombs out of storage

By Newt Briggs

As of April 1, 2003--the official release date for the White Stripes' dazzling four-track opus Elephant--Dirtbombs frontman Mick Collins had it made in his shades. Collins, after all, was a battle-scarred veteran of Motor City rock--the former captain of Rust Belt riffraff such as The Gories, Blacktop and King Sound Quartet--and thanks to the Stripes, it would not be long before the mere mention of "Detroit garage rock" would have major label A&R execs creaming in their gabardines.

In other words, it looked like Collins would finally get his hard-earned due, and he immediately went out and did the obvious: He made a pop album. On top of that, he cut a single called "Stuck in Thee Garage"--a fist-pumping fuck-off to the lo-fi scene. Recently, the Mercury ran down Collins at his Detroit pad to chat about his musical change of heart as well as the Detroit scene and his pal Jack White's black-eye-inducing brush with Von Bondies lead singer Jason Stollsteimer.

Mercury: Does it bother you that you've been at this for almost two decades, but you're only getting national recognition as a sidebar to stories about the White Stripes?

Collins: I don't really see the Dirtbombs as being a part of all that. That I'm getting mentioned at all is actually kind of an anomaly. When they talk about me now, it's usually in the context of the Gories, which was the only garage band I was ever in and that was 15 years ago.

M: Then what is the Dirtbombs?

C: It's a regular rock band. No, it's really more of an arty, noise-rock band--more that than anything else.

M: If that's the case, then why does Dangerous Magical Noise sound so much like a pop album?

C: That was the intention. In '92, when I first put together the band, I made a whole list of albums that I wanted to make. I wanted to do a soul album, a pop album, a bubblegum album. But all I really wanted--and somehow this seems to have backfired on me--was a band that would in no way be considered garage rock. That was all I wanted to do.

M: And that didn't work?

C: Not at all. Now, not only do people think we're a garage rock band, they think we're the garage rock band. I have a feeling that if we pulled up to a club with a van full of synthesizers, they'd still say we're garage rock.

M: So what do you make of this big hullabaloo about Detroit and the supposed rock revival?

C: Hype. There's no revival. Rock never went away in Detroit. Rock went away everyplace else. People have been playing rock music here as long as I've been alive.

M: But this is the most publicity you've ever gotten behind a record, right?

C: Yeah, this is easily the biggest promotional thrust we've ever had behind an album. And I don't know what to think of it just yet. On the one hand, because I decided to make the pop album right now, it's all very calculated--you know, we make an LP of car commercials and then we get a big publicity push and the whole thing. On the other hand, all of it just kind of flies in the face of everything I want to do in a rock band. This is not my scene at all, man. I'm just kind of a French broadcaster. Normally, I'm off in the shadows making my weird noise. That's where I'm most comfortable.

M: You mean you don't want to be a rock star?

C: Naw, that's Jack, man. Jack's got everything it takes to be the rock star now. I'll just be his producer. That's cool.

M: Since we're on the subject, do you think that Jack White actually beat down that guy from the Von Bondies?

C: Oh, I'm absolutely sure he did.

M: I think he's pleading innocent.

C: Well, okay, maybe he didn't. Somebody hit him--that's for damn sure. All I know is it wasn't me.

M: He really got thumped, huh?

C: Are you kidding? I see black eyes like that all the time. I'm from Detroit, though. That's what makes this thing out of the ordinary. Around here, people get their ass beat like that all the time. Usually, though, you're man enough to do something about it besides going to the police.

M: Is Mick Collins a fighter or a lover?

C: [Laughter] Mick Collins is the guy in the straightjacket over there in the corner.