In Pursuit Of Something Interesting: Dingus' "Who Cares?"

Full disclosure: I have had this record for over a year. I saw it in the back of a crate full of local releases while shopping for Record Store Day and was intrigued by the name Dingus and the record's cover. The photo of three dudes sitting in inner-tubes and the name Who Cares? called to me. So I bought it, listened to it like one-and-a-half times and put it on the shelf with my countless other records. Since this column is all about crate digging and finding new tunes, I thought it would fit in perfectly.

Grabbing it off the shelf and dusting it off, I could not for the life of me remember what Who Cares? sounded like. I knew it was a pop punk album but that was it. As the Dingus launches into "Irob," the bands technical abilities are made abundantly clear. The band's guitarist throws in some major riffage that adds melody you likely would not find on a Midwestern pop-punk song. The very next track features an intro that almost sounds like a chamber ensemble. While guitar plays the main melody, the drums and bass play a counter melody that makes the song sound almost like a fugue. It's something one wouldn't expect in a genre that relies on barre-chords. It shows the listener that a lot of thought and care has gone into the music and instrumentation. It is not there just to serve as a support to the lyrics. The tracks "The Zombies" and "Don Quixote" shows off these sentiments off yet again.

The lyrics are another highlight on this album. While your typical pop punk themes make their appearance here and there, most of the tracks on Who Cares? tell these grand tales of zombies falling in love, the battle of Kursk, and Don Quixote. There is a level of cleverness that makes its way into these songs. "Kursk" has the line "He put on his game face and entered the fight, joined the foreigners front to make the Nazis go 'Shite!'" that always makes me chuckle.

The one downside to this album is the vocal mixing and performance. The vocals are presented in a very raw form that takes awhile to get use to. They are not always in tune either, but that fits the style of DIY punk. There are some issues with the way some songs are mixed but these are also small issues that are easily over looked.

Overall, I highly recommend this record. I am not a pop punk fan in any sense of the word. To me "pop" and "punk" should not be in the same sentence, but Dingus throws in an extra layer on Who Cares? makes me absolutely love it.

You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, and Bandcamp. If you are lucky, you may even be able to find it in your local record store.