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Cool from the Wire | 
 enlarge | Artist: Dirty Looks
Label: Atlantic / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $8.90
You Save: $1.08 (11%)
New (12) Used (6) from $3.13
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 112418
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 81836
UPC: 075678183621
EAN: 0756781836214
ASIN: B000002IMB
Release Date: October 25, 1990
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Tracks:
| • | Cool from the Wire | | • | It's Not the Way You Rock | | • | Can't Take My Eyes off of You | | • | Oh Ruby | | • | Tokyo | | • | Wastin' My Time | | • | Put a Spell on You | | • | No Brains Child | | • | Get It Right | | • | It's a Bitch | | • | Get Off |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Cool from the Wire November 18, 2008
Decent album with some good riffs. Sounds like old school AC/DC with Bonn Scott. "Cool from the Wire" and "Oh Ruby" are notable.If you like this, check out "Turn of the Screw" a much tighter album throughout.
 Real Rock n' Roll June 18, 2008
I remeber hearing "Oh Ruby" on the radio for the first time while riding thru Atlanta,Ga. The DJ on the radio station had this section every night called "Smash or Trash?"
He introduced the song saying that the band was called Dirty Looks and if you played it loud enough that is what you would get. I was blown away. It was the voice of Bon Scott mixed with the sleaze of hairbands.
It took me 2 weeks to find the cassette. Once I found it I wore it out.
The whole this awesome.
In 1989 I got to see the play live. They were awesome. It was real, there was no BS in there show. It was all about the music.We met them after the show. They were some of the coolest people I have ever met. We had a beer with them and they actually took time to talk to us. It was not a 30 second greeting.
It lasted about 45 minutes. I will always remember that night.
"Oh Ruby"
"Cool From The wire"
8/8/08...
I have recently picked up the hairbands again ( never forgot them). This is by far one of the best recordings of the 80's. They are the absolute complete package of what a band should be. The wrote what they wanted and played the music that they loved so much. Definately one of the top 3 underratted bands of the 80's
One of the best bands from the 80s you never heard November 6, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Being from Pennsylvania, I discovered Dirty Looks in a roundabout way. I had gone to college at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987 and, admittedly, I wasn't really ready to be taking my studies seriously. Hormones were driving me crazy and I spent more time studying female anatomy than my major of mechanical engineering. One of the places I frequented on the weekends was The Back Room, a place that would feature showcases of about 4 bands each night of the week, with the most popular local bands appearing on Fridays and Saturdays. I would usually arrive pretty early, having to rely on public transportation, so I'd spend a lot of time sitting drinking soda and admiring the scenery of big haired, made-up, metal chicks while waiting for the bands to go on stage. It was during this time that the DJ at the club would ALWAYS play the first four songs on the COOL FROM THE WIRE album. It was instantly catchy from the very first note of the title track, which opens the album, although I had no idea what was being said in the chorus (I thought it was something like "you, you from the wild"). The second track, IT'S NOT THE WAY YOU ROCK, also caught my interest. Here was a band that was playing straight-ahead hard rock in an era of increasingly over-produced, cheesed-up, synth-heavy poseur metal that favored image over substance. This song ended up on the soundtrack of 1988's Johnny Be Good, although it is hardly even noticeable in the film.
As the third track, CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF OF YOU, played, it was somewhat of a cooling off period. Not quite as catchy, at least upon first listen, but still was a pretty solid song. The wordplay within the song had a certain charm which made me think, "I don't know what he's saying, but he sounds good saying it." As it turned out, one of the lines that I got a kick out of was "Oh shimmy shimmy co-co gimme gimme more of... more of what you got for me." I still think it's pretty cool today. Then came the song for which they actually had a video - OH, RUBY. It suddenly struck me. Is this an old Bon Scott AC/DC album I had never heard? There is a place in this song where Henrik, the vocalist, breaks into a spoken part in which he sounds like a dead-ringer for Bon Scott... a band who also just happened to be on the same Atlantic record label with them, albeit now 8 years into the growling Brian Johnson era. To me, this band sounded like what AC/DC with Bon Scott would be like if AC/DC had updated their sound with a bit flashier guitar playing, i.e. more than 3-chord songs and faster solos. Upon closer listening, the Bon Scott style voice started to shine thru in all the songs, just slightly higher pitched. I had to track down this album.
When I finally found it and could afford it (I was a starving college student), I bought it and played it to death. My favorite songs from the rest of the album would include PUT A SPELL ON YOU, NO BRAINS CHILD, and GET OFF, although that's not to take away from the remaining tunes. But if I had to pick the "best of" from this album, it would include all of the songs I mentioned, possibly excluding EYES... It's such a solid album that, other than the song TOKYO, it's an album I can listen to from start to finish repeatedly and almost never grow tired of it.
But here's the major problem with this album, and quite possibly the reason for it's failing to make any impact at the time. It was released in 1987, when the LP was still a very popular music format. In fact, I don't think it was even released as a CD until 1990. Couldn't Atlantic have spared at least a LITTLE bit of money to give this gem of an album a DECENT COVER? Imagine looking at this album's cover in 12" x 12" size. What would you make of it? In an era where looks was everything, they put a black and white extreme close-up of the singer (and the singer only) making a not-so-dirty-look, and then overlaying the band's logo in hot pink over his left eye. Compare this to Poison's LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN or Cinderella's NIGHT SONGS and you'll see there's no comparison (well, the hot pink logo would match Cinderella at least). Who did Atlantic think they were marketing this to? Granted, they didn't wear the make up or outrageous clothes those two bands did, but the audience was still the same. I'd venture to say fans of those bands would have snagged this one if it only had a cover to lure them in. The album title also didn't help matters, even though the song itself is great. Seriously, if I said to you "Hey, check out Cool from the Wire," who WOULDN'T say "...huh?" Unfortunately, listeners of the time judged the book, or I suppose I should say ALBUM, by its cover and its title just gave no indication of what to expect.
Amusingly, it appeared I had to move to Texas to hear a band that hailed from my home state. The local Austin Z-Rock affiliate radio station played a few of the band's songs on a semi-regular basis, but the band just never seemed to catch on with the glam-crazed fans of the time. What amazed me was that this debut album, as good as it was, was about to be topped by their follow-up album entitled TURN OF THE SCREW, which was met with even less fanfare than this one. Truly a shame.
All Time Dirty Looks Classic October 23, 2007
This is the quintessential Dirty Looks release and the one that put them on the map. All the attitude and swaggar you could ever ask for an more. Great sound, great tunes even a "cool" album title.
Of course, this is only one of many great Dirty Looks releases so don't stop here.
It's almost senseless to try to pick out favorite tracks due to the fact that this album is similar quality all the way through but if I have to pick it would be "Cool From The Wire", "No Brains Child", "It's A Bitch" and "Oh, Ruby" which was actually on a few minor releases by Dirty Looks prior to this ground breaking first MAJOR release.
In fact, there are four or five tracks on there that came from previous minor DL releases over the previous years. They threw everything they had into this release and it shows.
Here is my Dirty Looks release ranking:
1. Cool From The Wire (1988) A+
2. Turn Of The Screw (1989) A
3. Five Easy Pieces (1992) A
4. Gasoline (1997) A-
5. Bootlegs (1991) A-/B+
6. Slave To The Machine (1996) B+
7. Chewing On The Bit (1994) B
8. *One Bad Leg (1994 Rockworld Version) B
9. **Rip It Out! (1996) C+/B-
*One Bad Leg is listed at eight mainly due to size, I am ranking the original release which included two live tracks and one previously released track so only 7 exclusive tracks. Based on material quality this one could go as high as number 4 so the European release which includes 5 additional tracks, 4 of which showed up on Slave To The Machine could bump this one up a lot higher.
**Rip I Out! is also a bit small including only seven exclusive tracks. I think you could say this is not a major release but it does still have some good material. Sound is more modern like on Slave To The Machine and Gasoline both of which contain a more crowded and powerfull sound than classic Dirty Looks releases.
too cool!! October 4, 2007
This is some of the best hard rock that I recently found,man!I'm behind
I've got practically every cd imagined,except for this.I missed out on
this band.Especially this very cd,it's their best,I think w/5 easy pieces.
The others are really good as well,but I think this and 5 easy pieces
was their best.If you don't know this band better get on the band(wagon).
You won't be dissapointed!!
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