Musical trends may come and go, but it seems like the dirty garage rock of the Stooges, the Pixies, and Nirvana will live on forever. Case in point, Austin's finest, the Dirty Hearts, and their 2008 effort, Pigs. Led by members Frankie Medina and Calida, the group seems to live to straddle the fine line between raw guitar riff rock and tuneful/haunting melodies. Look no further than the album opening "Record Store," which rocks as ferociously as just about anything you're going to hear nowadays. But then take a track like "Cold Feet," which features cool sax lines and late-night smoky bar atmospherics. From there on out, it seems like the remainder of the album can be placed in either one of the aforementioned stylistic categories, including "Where I Come From" and "No Strings Attached" in the former style, and "Sin Ataduras" and the depressed album closing "Miss Me?" into the latter. And there's even a track or two that defies these two categorizations, including the title track, which features some pretty nifty Cure-esque music. As evidenced throughout Pigs, the Dirty Hearts have learned well from their aforementioned influences.
© Greg Prato /TiVo