Get ready to enjoy some genuine classic pure punk rock, courtesy of the former Phoenix band, Dirty Laundry. Now Dirty Laundry was around before my time, and the band formed when I was only three years old. I do remember hearing the band name from several of my older friends over the years, although I've never been able to hear any of their music. Dirty Laundry never allowed any of their material to be made available on the Internet, and all of the bands albums have been out of print since the early 2000's. Lucky for us, Dirty Laundry released a special 3 disc box set featuring the entire catalog of the bands music. That's over 3 hours of music, and the box set contains all of the tracks from each of their past releases, as well as several rare tracks from compilations and tribute albums, and previously unreleased songs.

"Harmonies from the Hamper" has all types of goodies! I opened up the box set and the first thing I did was pull out a couple a Dirty Laundry stickers, followed by a promotional poster for the bands first release, the "9 1/2 Months" EP, and their last release, the "Harmonies from the Hamper" box set. Next I pulled out a booklet with a list of all of the various band members who had been a part of the band throughout the span of Dirty Laundry's career. I was surprised to learn that Dirty Laundry went through several members over the years from various 90's local bands, including Corrupt Citizen, Subject Mad, and D-I-X.

The box set also contained a discography featuring detailed information about each of the bands previous releases. Dirty Laundry released a couple demo cassettes in 1994, but the bands first release was the "9 1/2 Months" EP in 1994, and was followed by the "All Washed Up" EP in 1995. In 1996, the band released a cassette titled "Jiz Mac Attack in the Butt Crak", which was their only live album, and it was limited to just 100 copies. That was followed with their first studio full length album, "Tales from the Laundry Room", and then the "Re-Elect Nixon" limited edition seven inch record. The band then released their second full length, "Songs To Wash Clothes To" in 1997., They released a Christmas seven inch record called "Songs for the Holiday Season" in 2001, which ended up being the bands final release.

The box set also had a booklet with lyrics for all of the songs, as well as a pretty detailed biography of the band that is about 40 or 50 pages long. The bio was written by former band member, Chase Stain. If that name sounds familiar, it's probably because Chase Stain has been a staple of the local Phoenix independent music scene over the years, and has an impressive resume. Stain is president of the local Phoenix record label, Bad Stain Records, and has performed both as a solo artist and in various bands, including Numbers On Napkins. Now I may be to young to remember Dirty Laundry, but Numbers On Napkins performed frequently during my twenties, and generated a solid fan base over the years.

It took me about twenty minutes to read the bio, which was well written and actually pretty interesting. The bio allowed me to learn all about Dirty Laundry, and I was stoked to find out all of the details regarding this popular 90's band that I never had a chance to hear. For years, I've heard so many different stories about the band, and it was pretty damn cool to actually find out how the band formed and progressed over the decade that Dirty Laundry was a part of the local music scene. I was surprised to learn that Dirty Laundry went through tons of members over the years, but it all started off with the bands original lineup which was drummer Kory Ochsnar, bassist Chase Stain, and guitarists Brandon "B-Hound" Jamison, and Jonathan "Jones" Woodruff. Shortly after forming, Ochsnar left the band and was replaced by Corrupt Citizen drummer, Charles Duffy. The band went through a few drummers in the early years, and guitarist "Jones" left the band and joined the skate punk band D-I-X. Eventually, Dirty Laundry ended up with a solid drummer named Ryan Hamilton, who stayed with the band for years before quitting to go to college in Northern Arizona. Guitarist "B-Hound" left the band in December of 1996, leaving Stain as the only remaining original band member. "B-Hound" rejoined Dirty Laundry after Hamilton left the band, and took over as drummer from March of 1999 until August of 1999 when the band broke up. Then in November of 2000, Chase Stain reformed Dirty Laundry with a totally new lineup, and took on the role of guitarist and lead vocalist of the band, rather than bass and vocals. Johnny Laundromat became Dirty Laundry's other guitarist, with Justin Bleach on bass and Joe Detergent on drums. Sadly, Detergent passed away in 2001, and the band underwent another lineup change, adding Tom Lynch on drums and Stain went back to bass. Laundromat stayed with the band as guitarist, and they added a new guitarist and second lead vocalist, J-Sin Daily. Laundromat left a few weeks later and was replaced by Troy "Yort" Bueno, and three months later Lynch was replaced by Tad Gurthman. I'm not even going into details regarding several other band members, so as you can tell, the band went through some very big changes during their history.

After reading the bio, I picked up the last booklet, which contained info about all of the tracks on the three different CD's. The first disc starts off with all of the studio recorded tracks that the band never released, featuring the last lineup. Dirty Laundry is the most polished and commercial sounding during these tracks. Guitarist and lead vocalist J-Sin Daily had a graspy and gruff voice, and the style is pop punk with guitars that sound like classic rock n' roll.

The following songs are five tracks originally released on the "Songs for the Holiday Season" seven inch record, which was a Christmas themed EP featuring some extremely hilarious and just plain awesome pop punk songs like, "I Caught Santa Clause Fucking My Dog" and "The Night Santa Got a D.U.I.". This was the only time that Chase Stain played guitar for the band, rather than bass, and his style is solid. The overall recording is not as polished as the first few tracks, but still not that bad either.

After that the band included all of the tracks from "Songs To Wash Clothes To", which was the bands last full length album. The recording is okay, but it almost seems like the band recorded all of the songs on the first or second take, and you can tell that they had the attitude of, "who gives a fuck if there are mistakes, it's just punk rock". That attitude fits pretty much the rest of the songs on the CD, as well as the other two CD's.

Dirty Laundry plays punk rock, but throws a bit of pop punk into the mix at times, with a dash of ska punk and hardcore. The band referred to themselves as "Humor-Core", because many of the songs are just silly and fun. This can especially be heard on disc two, when most of the songs were recorded with Stain on bass and vocals, Ryan Hamilton on drums, and B-Hound on vocals and guitar. This is also the lineup that the majority of Dirty Laundry fans remember, although several people also liked the lineup with Tokyo Billy Jacoby on guitar instead of B-Hound.

Disc three gets really rough, with the bands first studio release that sounds like it was the first time that they recorded, sloppier than any previous tracks. The CD also contains demo songs and "The Drunk Sessions", a cassette with a couple of songs that members recorded in B-Hounds bedroom. I did enjoy listening to the last few tracks, as they were all live songs from a performance at The Mason Jar (an iconic venue famous for supporting glam bands from the 80's that closed its doors over two decades ago).

I can't recommend this box set enough! This is almost like a piece of history from the local music scene. It doesn't have great production, and the songs aren't stellar, but there are several little gems throughout the over eighty tracks on the CD's. But you get the chance to hear music that inspired dozens of musicians throughout the Valley of the Sun, and for that, I give the album an "A"!