Any Port in a Storm


Any Port in a Storm is the debut album by American reggae-rock band The Dirty Heads, released on September 23, 2008. The album was initially set to be released on Warner Bros. Records until the label and band mutually separated. The Dirty Heads, having kept the master recordings, later released the album through Executive Music Group, a division of Universal Music Group. The album was mixed by Mario C, best known for his work with Beastie Boys. The lead single, "Stand Tall", was also featured in the 2007 movie "Surf's Up" before the album came out.
Any Port in a Storm was re-issued in 2010 with a few bonus tracks, including Lay Me Down, which features Rome Ramirez from Sublime. Lay Me Down was the band's first hit song, reaching #1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in May of that year. Nine weeks later it established a record as the song with the longest stint atop the chart for an independently released title, surpassing the previous mark set in 1999 by Everlast's "What It's Like". "Lay Me Down" peaked at number 93 on the U.S. Hot 100 and number 76 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart.
Billy Preston plays keyboards on multiple tracks on the album, in what would be one of the final sessions he recorded before his death. "Lay Me Down" was released as a single from this album. It peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart.

Reviews

Any Port in a Storm received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Writing for Allmusic, Ritchie Unterberger said the band "comfortably combine hip-hop and reggae with somewhat lesser dollops of conventional rock songwriting and arrangements" on the album. Dan Raper of PopMatters called it a "scattershot debut" and remarked that the Dirty Heads' "simplistic rhyme schemes and disconcerting use of the F-bomb... quickly demonstrate there are leagues between this dick-hop and the intelligent, twisted witticisms of Why?"

Personnel

All credits are adapted from Any Port in a Storm's liner notes.

The Dirty Heads

  • Dustin Bushnell − vocals, guitar
  • Jared Watson − vocals
  • John Olazabal − percussion
  • Matt Ochoa − drums
  • David Foral − bass

Additional musicians

Production

  • Stan Frazier − production
  • Steve Fox − production
  • Mario C − mixing
  • Lewis Richards − engineering
  • Viet Pham − 2nd engineer
  • Ed Cherney − additional engineering
  • Nate Kunkel − additional engineering
  • Patrick Mundy − additional engineering
  • Big Bass Brian − mastering
  • Bernie Grundman − mastering
  • Mike "Cheez" Brown − management