Spectreview: Dusty – Something I Can Hold

Released: October 22, 2021

Rock
(Punk)
(Alt-Country)
(Alternative)

-DEEP PINK-

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“I apologize
For absolutely nothing
To absolutely everyone”

I don’t know why I’ve been assuming the bands I’ve been enjoying for years would just carry on in perpetuity for the rest of my days. That’s egregious. They’re not my bands, after all. Making music is hard when you have a life to live, because the two are becoming more mutually exclusive every year.

One more for the trail, then. Mike Sampson’s eclectic trio happen to release their second full-length, Something I Can Hold, as an ersatz swan song. In its perfectly lean half of an hour, it reminds us of what they do so well: passionate, restless, creatively structured rock at the crossroads of punk and alt-country.

The record kicks off in high gear with the stuttering, rollicking “Father,” with chunky verses that gets the band as close as it’s even been to nü-metal. “Interstate” is far more winding than its titular inspiration, with chorus chords that sneak past Hyrule Castle and Joe Holcomb’s wandering bass line emphasizing Sampson’s bewilderment of living for so long “having no sense of place.” That sentiment feels like a thesis statement, actually, for throughout the record (as on the accelerating “Dog Fight” and the volatile instrumental “March”) Dusty refuse to stay in one spot for too long. It makes their musicality that much more appreciable, as they blast through whole movements with an easy confidence.

The band recorded Something I Can Hold during the pandemic without an inkling of the band’s eventual break up, which makes any sense of impending finality unintended. But it does surface by the time Sampson breaks into harmony on the slow-burning “A Prayer,” which forms Side B’s dual climax with the circuitous “Old Crow.” On these songs, Sampson’s voice is an even-keeled marvel, the element that guards the trio from cheap Magnolia Electric Co. comparisons and imbues their songs with a bloody, beating heart. Afterward, the band finally draw the curtain on “22,” a brief, fiery punk number akin to early Modest Mouse that closes as abruptly as their activity.

When you’re leaving things in the rearview, all you can really ask for is something that looks good in the distance. By celebrating Dusty’s best qualities, Something I Can Hold makes for a fantastic end to a quiet yet powerful act. “Old Crow” is introduced and concluded with a pair of moments that find Sampson in an epiphanic daze, subject to a mysterious power that renders him in ecstasy. It’s the image we’re ultimately left with, and it’s all that needs to be said.

Recommended for worn shoes.