Demolition Doll Rods “Tasty” 1997. In the Red Records. Noisy, lo-fi garage rock. The debut LP from the Detroit three-piece, known for their outrageous performances in the 90’s/early 2000s. Though it’s a great record, I’ve been avoiding writing about it for almost 6 years now because I really really dislike the cover art. I pulled Tasty to listen to back at the end of August 2019 after a rather surprising Doll Rod performance at the teeny tiny Circle A (now closed) bar in Riverwest (Milwaukee) where we and like just 25 other people were in attendance. The band was touring with Jon Spencer at the time; he played Harley Fest but my guess is the Rods weren’t invited on that bill so ended up opening for local Milwaukee act Ifihadahifi’s record release party. I was almost nose-to-nose with Dan Kroha (aka Danny Doll Rod, also of the Gories) during the show, arching my back on the barstool to get some photos. Original singer/guitarist Margaret Doll Rod was there, too but original drummer Christine Doll Rod was not (she left the band in 2006). I got a chance to chat with Dan for a bit after the show, which was a huge treat. Super-nice guy!

Tasty is both noisy and sparse, infused with blues punk and a Midwest industrial no-frills attitude. My top tracks are the ass-shaking “If You Can’t Hang…,” the snotty “Maverick Girl,” the more angular and experimental-leaning “Psycho Kitty,” the classic-blues infused “Lil Darlin”

And while I’m not entirely sure what two songs these are (other than they are not on Tasty), here is a couple of songs from their show in Chicago just a couple night after we saw them in 2019 since there is close to zero internet content from the Dolls from Tasty: