The Dents 1979/80

Cincinnati quintet the Dents were “early American pioneers of what would retroactively be termed synth punk: a scorching fusion of futuristic synthesizers and grinding, garage-y guitars. Too tough for the synth pop lightweights and too contemporary for the brutes who dared not deviate from the guitars-only Ramones/Pistols template. In 1988, I started gathering material for the compilation that would ultimately become 2019’s We Were Living in Cincinnati on HoZac/Shake It. Keyboardist Doug Hallet made me a tape of some choice cuts, and I loved what I heard: squealing synths, growling vocals, chunky guitars, propulsive bass, and four-on-the-floor drums, the collective machine driving a clutch of great, super-catchy tunes. That tape got lost during the intervening decades, but Doug, Vivien, and I connected via Facebook when I resumed work on the comp and they sent some more tracks. The music sounded even better than I’d remembered it. In fact, ‘Sleeping Around,’ a defiant, ahead-of-its time (or, perhaps, right-on-time) anthem of female sexual independence, in particular, proved to be a total revelation—an instant-but-overdue classic that had blown-away listeners asking one question, loudly: 'When can we hear more Dents?' The answer: Right now. Right here. This cache of cool originals and sagely selected covers culled from two riotous gigs by the band offers ample evidence that the Dents were truly one of Midwestern American punk’s top undocumented acts. If they’d been in, say, San Francisco or L.A. circa ’79/’80, instead of, yeah that’s right, Cincinnati, Ohio, it’s not hard to imagine them being snapped up by some seminal label to cut a solitary single whose sound would be emulated by young bands around the globe 40-plus years later. Once upon a time, geography was a bitch. Not anymore, though. Here ya go, kids.”—Peter Aaron, 2021