Dynamite Brothers

It’s as if core Brothers Mitch Rothrock (guitar, vocals), Shane Hartman (bass, keys, vocals) and Scott Nurkin (drums, vocals) dynamited a crate of LPs labeled “’60s through ‘90s.” Pieces of Houses of the Holy, Superfly, We’re Only in It for the Money, Controversy and 3-Way Tie (for Last) float down from the sky to be collected and taken to an indie rock lab for madcap reassembly. It would explain the name Dynamite Brothers and the defiantly patchwork sound: Horn sections and horny, hazy female vocals are stitched in liberally, as are keyboards alternately slinky and sleazy. What emerges is made up of percussion-heavy intros and slow-gyration outros, funk workouts and psychedelic hoedowns, hard-rocking Friday nights and Philly-soul sunrises. The groove is just gravy. 

But it’s not as if the Bros are spending all their time blowing stuff up. There’s much effort directed toward getting songs in television shows and movies— for instance, “In Time,” one of the highlights from the band’s second record, Again, was featured in the HBO series Eastbound and Down—and the guys have been doing some even more aggressive genre-hopping to create tunes for future commercial use. Then there’s the Dynamite Extended Family project, an offshoot of having guests on both Dynamite Brothers records and occasionally backing other folks live. The plan is to recruit local heroes for collaborations, cutting across a variety of styles in the process, of course, with Ivan Howard, Greg Humphreys, Taz Halloween, John Howie, Jr., and Shirlette Ammons among those already onboard with the idea. More things to blow up. More things to blow your mind. —Rick Cornell