DOGTOWN EP REVIEW
A word to the wise: don’t mess with Dogtown. In particular, don’t mess with Shell, Dogtown’s lead singer. Things could get messy.
Of course, Shell doesn’t quite put it like that – as the third track on the band’s “DEMOlition EP” ably demonstrates. It’s called “Don’t F**k With Me”, a song so festooned with expletives (or the same expletive) that it would give Frankie Boyle cause to blush.
Other musical treats include the slightly more moderate sounding “Bitch In Me” and a caterwauler of a track, “It’s Not The Same”, which is as full of fear and self loathing as it’s possible to be.
It’s a suicide note of a song: “I don’t think I could do this/it seems like life has left me behind/now I want to leave this pain and misery behind” is the first line of the song. Bleak, despairing and honest.
Surprising then that final track, “Without You” is a love song. Yes. That’s right. A love song. Amid the turmoil of dirty grunge and grainy punk out pours a series of lyrics about undying live that would match anything by Barry Manilow.
Though whether Mr Manilow would consider crooning to the tones (and I use the word in its loosest of senses) of fuzzy guitars and thundering bass lines is a question you can probably answer for yourself.
For the most part though, the lyrics are as angry as the music suggests. By their own ambition, Dogtown are “unashamedly lo-fi” and produce an “unsophisticated noise”. It’s a philosophy they bring to their lyrics and Shell’s delivery of them as much as they do to the thick, recorded-in-a-tin-bucket sound you’ll find on the EP.
Shell’s performance on “Bitch in Me” is banshee-like. A raging mass of anger – and no small amount of glee to boot – this could be a post-op Johnny Rotten. Jenny Rotten, maybe.
“You pissed me off/you made me mad/you’re gonna wish that/you never had” runs one line from the song. With a rhyming scheme like that, they could probably do a great trade in anti-Valentine cards – if such things ever existed.
The theme continues in “Don’t F**k With Me”, a resolute manifesto of girl power which makes The Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” look like a press release from the Taliban.
Want proof? Just check out these lyrics: “Don’t tell me where to stand/Get in the way I’ll break your hand/I don’t need you to hold the door/you best get back to your blonde little whore.”
Well, that’s shown me!
Dogtown’s songs have a swampish density to them that recalls the gloriously chaotic first days of punk. A rebellion against the clear as crystal productions found in other bands from the area, the band are radical. For all the man hating, self loathing and general angst, there’s even a bit of fun in there too.
Listen to Dogtown at your peril. Your ears will feel considerably well bashed by the end. If, that is, you have any left.
Find out more about Dogtown, and listen to their EP on their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/dogtowntheband