Shame Shame Shame

Dr Dog are one of a number of American acts I love. There album ‘Fate’ has been played to death on my iPod. So when the new album ‘Shame Shame’ was announced I was very excited.

From Philadelphia the band found fame after supporting My Morning Jacket on tours.  There live act consists of the same tight and powerful harmonies you’ll find on the recordings but with that additional sparkle you get with a great live band. Coming from London I don’t hear a lot about this band. I follow them on the internet and tell all my friends about them but they just don’t seem to have broken it in the UK yet.  

Signed to Park The Van in the States who’s roster is made up of some fantastic Americana bands, Shame Shame was released in April this year. The first track ‘Stranger’ takes you straight back to ‘Fate’ with the tight rhythm section, a jumping bass line working with simple drums. The comparisons to The Beatles are obvious, but for me these are what make it so great. The back and forth between vocalists Toby and Scott adds texture to the record. I’ll be controversial and say I prefer Scott’s but let that take nothing away from the former.

The real 60’s style comes out in track four ‘Unbearable Why.’ A slick drum fill into a spacious verse which makes great use of minimalistic instrumentation, drums, piano and vocals. The harmonies come into there own on this track which crescendo’s into an outro that breaks my heart every time I listen. The duet guitar outro is an interesting idea used on a number of tracks and really accentuates the guitar lines. These show a great use of space again with just bass, drums and organ to work underneath the guitars.

Track 5 is another stand out track for me, ‘Where’d All The Time Go?’ demonstrates such subtle dynamics that can lift a verse to a chorus but not over amplify it. My favourite line from the album falls in the build to the chorus, ‘that aint no way to sweep up the mess that we’ve made,’ which progresses and builds perfectly.  

‘Someday’ is my favourite track with Toby on vocals. It’s a simple track with delicate backing vocals weaving in and out through the chorus. There’s a quality little guitar lick also which reminds me of Disney’s Robin Hood, if any of you spent your childhood watching this film you’ll know what I mean.

Title track ‘Shame Shame’ builds and falls in dynamic bliss, an overview of the album as a whole really. A slow and meandering start finds itself in a thick chorus section with a falling bass line that drives the track. It features a fantastic guitar sound throughout and a beautiful sounding piano line and seems wrapped in sentiment.

The production for the album allows for so much instrumentation and depth yet still manages to find space for each section to have its own characteristics and feel.

Dr Dog are definitely one of my favourite acts of the moment and in my opinion are highly underrated. Definitely worth a listen, both there recent albums are full of little sections of quality that any fan of guitar pop can’t help but love.

http://www.myspace.com/drdog

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Everywhere Everywhere

Everything Everything. I wasn’t expecting this, I really wasn’t. Everything Everything’s debut album ‘Man Alive’ is packed with ideas and influence. I’m a huge Modest Mouse fan and I have never found an act that goes on seemingly pointless and distracting tangents, or whose lead singer makes such strange sounds from his mouth, that even comes close to them.

I’ve not seen EE live before but I did see Opera House who guitarist Alex used to play for. I remember commenting on his ‘wizard hands.’ The slick and seamless guitar style he plays layers tunes in a way you could never achieve with a keyboard, most notably in ‘Schoolin.’

The single ‘MY KZ, UR BF’ is a complex tune whose structure although relatively straight forward is full of so many layers and ideas every listen offers something else. The staggered, sometimes linear drum beat really grounds the tune back and keeps it under control. I love the singer Jonathan’s weird style of singing through the verses, expelling air in a crazed tuneful sort of way, and then settling into a very catchy and memorable chorus.

My favourite section of the album has to be the end of ‘Qwerty Fingers.’ Like with all quirky style bands there are often hidden gems of emotion and power. I don’t mean this in a Bloc Party way where every tune attempts to be the dance filler of the summer but in a raw and unexpected way. The tunes are extremely diverse with random comparisons such as ‘Tin (The Manhole)’ which could easily be influenced by folktronica specialists Tuung.  

A couple of tunes jump out as singles but I would say this is an album to be enjoyed as an album. The songs complement and flow with each other and although there may be sections you are waiting to finish so you can hear the next, isn’t that quality? Coming back to my earlier comparison of Modest Mouse who’s album ‘Good News For People Who Like Bad News,’ has tunes you wouldn’t dream of listening to on there own. 30 second rants with them wishing someone dead are what make them brilliant, you’re sat waiting for the next section you do like and for that to randomly turn emotive then back to weird again.

There haven’t been a lot of British acts that I’ve picked up on in the past couple of years. Nothing that’s really grabbed my attention but Everything Everything have definitely interested me. This is my first blog for this page and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this band as my starting point. I’d say ones to watch but they seem to have arrived already.

http://www.myspace.com/everythingeverythinguk

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