The Dwarves
Bio
Vocalist Blag Dahlia and guitarist He Who Cannot Be Named were joined by a host of characters such as The Fresh Prince Of Darkness, Thrusty Otis, Rex Everything (Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age and Kyuss), Wholly Smokes, Gash Money and Trevor Whatever, amongst many others.
They are a bunch of loud punks who write fast songs with funny lyrics and simple (some may say ‘no’) musicianship. After the release of their first album, ‘Horror Stories’ in 1986, the band toured non-stop throughout the United States leaving behind them a trail of drug-related anecdotes, blood, tales of bizarre stage-show sex acts and numerous 15-minute-long live shows.
Their album covers gave visual appeal – naked women and dwarves, covered in blood for ‘Blood, Guts and Pussy’ and naked women and dwarves, covered in soap suds for ‘Come Clean’ – whilst their lyrics were comical and controversial in equal measures. For example, from a song entitled ‘Free Cocaine’ from the 1991 album ‘Lucifer’s Crank’: “Pussy, carbohydrates, sometimes acid rain/I just want a sniff of your free cocaine/You know the best things in life are free/And if they're free why don't you give it to me/Free cocaine, free cocaine.”
The Dwarves have a seventeen-album discography, including gems such as 1997’s ‘The Dwarves Are Young And Good-Looking’, 2001’s ‘How To Win Friends And Influence People’ and most recently, ‘The Dwarves Must Die’. They have released these albums on many different record labels, most famously Sub Pop – but they were dropped due to many different pranks, such as the long-running hoax that guitarist He Who Must Not Be Named had died.
An appearance at 2005’s Download festival shows that The Dwarves are a band that have not changed their sound and their shock-rock tactics in seventeen years, but that’s just the way they like it. Long live the band who wouldn’t die!
by Robyn