Dirty Looks (band)


Dirty Looks was an American hard rock band from San Francisco, California, United States.

History

Originally from the Erie, Pennsylvania cover-band Crossfire, the Danish born vocalist/guitarist Henrik Ostergaard and fellow Crossfire band-mate and bassist Jimmy Chartley traveled to San Francisco to form Dirty Looks in 1984. Fellow Crossfire bandmate Boyd Baker joined them a year later.
While in California and upon their return home to Philadelphia, the group had a revolving door membership, yet released an EP and three independent albums before Atlantic Records offered them a recording contract. For their major label debut, Dirty Looks consisted of Paul Lidel, Jack Pyers and Gene Barnett. The resulting album, Cool From The Wire in 1988, entered the Billboard chart, while getting substantial airplay on MTV for their video for the song "Oh Ruby". Produced by Max Norman, it is still regarded by many as one of the best hard rock albums of all time. Twenty five years later, Cool From The Wire continues to sell online and in record stores all across the globe.
For the follow-up album in 1989, there were conflicts with their original record producer Beau Hill, and the original recordings for Turn Of The Screw were scrapped, but the re-worked album would be the group's most successful release reaching higher on the Billboard chart. The President of Atlantic Records and the higher-ups of their new management team Hard To Handle thought that it would benefit the band if they hired a producer who had current albums on the Billboard charts. Beau Hill was hired to record the album but the band felt that he was not capturing the street sound that they were looking for. The Hill sessions were scrapped and John Jansen was brought in to produce Turn Of The Screw, which was released in 1989. After the album was released, the band toured in promotion.
Their album of outtakes, Bootlegs was released in 1991, then the group broke up in 1993 following the release of Five Easy Pieces with Ostergaard forming Rumbledog with Robin Crosby of Ratt and Paul Monroe of XYZ, Lidel hooking up with Dangerous Toys and bassist Brian Perry resurfacing in Jake E. Lee's "Wicked Alliance" and in Prong.
Ostergaard began recording under the Dirty Looks moniker again in 1994, to record the Chewing On The Bit album. Then he worked with Rumbledog again, releasing an album in 1995. Original drummer, Todd Yetter was replaced and not credited. The lineup continued with bassist Jassen Wilber, drummer Ron Sutton, guitarist Mike Ondrusek and guitarist Mike Smith. Ostergaard put out two releases as Dirty Looks in 1996.
With the personnel above, minus Ondrusek and adding singer Gabriel Scott Robison, Ostergaard took a back seat in the vocal department and formed the Burning Orange project who released an album splitting up in 1996. After that, Ostergaard retired from the music industry to focus on family life. In early 2007, Ostergaard nearly died from alcohol poisoning. With the changing climate of the music scene, the release sold moderately...prompting the current band members to branch off into different directions and pursue other projects.
According to their Myspace page, Dirty Looks reformed in 2007, and released a new album, Gasoline. Two more studio albums were released in 2008; Superdeluxe and California Free Ride.
At the end of 2009, Dirty Looks signed with the Nashville, Tennessee based label, FNA Records. In 2010, they re-released three albums.
On February 5, 2010, bassist Greg Pianka was stabbed to death in a bar brawl at Hi & Dri Pub along West Lake Road in Erie.
Henrik Ostergaard died, at the age of 47, on January 27, 2011. The Erie County, Pennsylvania coroner stated that he had died of liver failure while under hospice care.
In December 2019, it was announced that members from the band's Cool from the Wire album, Paul Lidel, Jack Pyers, and Gene Barnett, along with former Broken Teeth vocalist, Jason McMaster, whom Lidel plays with in Dangerous Toys, and Broken Teeth guitarist, David Beeson, would be performing two shows in 2020 with the tagline Dirty Looks - As Close As It Gets. The group is scheduled to perform Cool From The Wire in its entirety at Ballroom Blitz Music Festival in Glen Burnie, Maryland and at a fundraiser held in the DH&L Fire Station in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

Members

first namelast nameinstrumentstart yearend year
Paul AnthonyStagebass19841984
Scot T.Garciaguitar19841984
JimmyChartleybass19841985
Paul Anthony "Buck"Dulledrums19841985
HenrikOstergaardguitar19841996
HenrikOstergaardvocals19841996
JohnPelinskibass19851986
SteveMcConnelldrums19851986
BoydBakerguitar19851986
A.D.Adamsdrums19861987
JackPyersbass19861990
ChrisBenschguitar19871987
GeneBarnettdrums19871990
PaulLidelguitar19871994
ChrisCafferyguitar19881989
DaveNarobass19901991
CaryDevoredrums19901991
RickMartyguitar19901991
JackPyersbass19911991
EdCollinsdrums19911991
J.MichaelDavisdrums19911991
BrianPerrybass19911993
JamesHarrisdrums19911993
GeneBarnettdrums19931993
PaulMonroedrums19931993
RobinCrosbyguitar19931993
SteveMcConnelldrums19931996
Idzibass19941994
JohnAllendrums19941994
RonSuttondrums19941994
ToddYetterdrums19941994
AlexKaneguitar19941994
NickyKayguitar19941994
RickMartyguitar19941994
KeithBarrowsbass19941995
CharlieGeorgedrums19941995
MikeOndrusekguitar19941995
JassenWilberbass19941996
MikeSmithguitar19941996
RickMartyguitar19961996
GabrielScott vocals19961996
HenrikOstergaardguitar20062011
HenrikOstergaardvocals20062011
TrevorHusterbass20072007
JasonMcMasterbass20072007
JeremyHummeldrums20072007
SteveMcConnelldrums20072007
BruceRiversdrums20072007
RonSuttondrums20072007
DougWelserdrums20072007
TrevorHusterguitar20072007
MikeOhmguitar20072007
PaulLidelgutiar20072007
JackPyersbass20072011
DougPhillipsbass20082008
EdCollinsdrums20082008
RonSuttondrums20082008
EricBrewerguitar20082008
ChristopherShanerguitar20082009
JeffSmithdrums20092009
GregPiankabass20092010
BillDaileydrums20092011
ScottParmenterguitar20092011

Discography

Studio albums