Dirty Heads

Huntington Beach outfit Dirty Heads, taking cues from fellow Californians Sublime, blend hip-hop, reggae, and rock with an easygoing Southern California outlook. The band surfaced in 2008 through Any Port in a Storm and has held steady on Billboard rock and alternative tallies via praised releases such as Sound of Change in 2014, Swim Team in 2017, and Super Moon in 2019. Their eighth studio album, Midnight Control, surfaced in 2022.

Dirty Heads came together in 2003 after punk rocker Dustin Bushnell, aka Duddy B, enlisted rapper Jared Watson, aka Dirty J, for a project centered on uplifting moods and catchy rhythms. Watson broadened his range by adding singing, and with percussionist Jon Olazabal the acoustic trio began gigging and gathering listeners.

They linked with producer Rob Cavallo to track a Warner Bros. debut, but label friction sent them seeking other paths. They kept most of the recordings, among them drum sessions from Josh Freese and keyboard work by Billy Preston, the late Beatles associate, in one of his final appearances. Any Port in a Storm reached stores in 2008, with a deluxe edition arriving in 2010. The expanded set contained “Lay Me Down” featuring Rome Ramirez of Sublime with Rome, which hit the top of Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart just before summer 2010.

Two years afterward came Cabin by the Sea, followed by an acoustic rendition of the title track that prompted the full acoustic album Home: Phantoms of Summer in 2013. Sound of Change, the next release, marked a breakthrough for the seasoned group, bowing at number eight on the Billboard Top 200 and leading both the Independent and Alternative Albums charts after its May 2014 arrival.

Capitalizing on that momentum, Dirty Heads recruited multiple industry hitmakers for their self-titled 2016 follow-up, which climbed high on the Billboard Top 200 thanks to its mainstream pull. The sixth studio album, Swim Team, landed in 2017 and featured the singles “Vacation” and “Staloney” along with “So Glad You Made It” featuring 311’s Nick Hexum. The single “Listen to Me” appeared in early 2019 and later appeared on Super Moon, the Dave Cobb-produced seventh album that charted on Billboard; Dirty J called it a “70s sci-fi kung fu Western car chase soundtrack.” In 2021 the band issued the greatest-hits collection The Best of Dirty Heads, which added new collaborations with Travis Barker of blink-182 and Aimee Allen of the Interrupters. Early in 2022 the Common Kings-assisted single “Heavy Water” preceded the August release of the eighth studio effort, Midnight Control.