Los Doggies originated in the late 90′s, while writing 60 Second Pop Songs for their house band’s answering machine. Their self-titled debut, Los Doggies, released in the summer of 2001, captures the spirit of this earlier recording process – lickety-quick one-take wonders. The traditional song formula of Verse-Chorus-Verse is abandoned for a ceaseless crossfire of choruses, each vying for the stage like a vaudevillian folk-rap revue. The album contains 18 1-minute-long tracks, from such cruising classics as “Aquaman” (written inside a moving car), the J-popping “Di Di Di Di Di Di Di, I Love You” (written in a sushi bar), as well as covers of the “Martin” Theme Song (written at a college party), and a prepubescent parody of “Yesterday” (written in Mcartney’s nightmares). This album laid the thematic and stylistic foundation for Los’s future works – low-cult allusions, use of “found” pop materials, squirrley pitch-bended vocals, metaphysical video game experiences, and least of all, inappropriate hyper-charged pansexuality.
The follow-up sequel album Dos Doggies continued much in the same vein, now with a fully Electronic sound. The song formula changes slightly, allowing for more progressive movement in the space of two minute miniature epics. The album begins with the memorable “Dodo Suite”, and contains many other songs still a part of the band’s live repertoire like “Your Urine” (based on James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake), “Sodapopinski” (the first in a series of Love Ballads for virtual bosses), “Rule of Thumb” (a pansexual odyessey through the origins of the color purple) and “Tigerbutter” (played recently at a power-down library show). Both Los and Dos are now available on one disk through the band’s website.
Beginning in 2004, the band devoted 3 years of life to the recording of their first studio effort, Onebody (pronounced “one-buddy”). Los’s first song ever, “Caramel Bug Nuts”, written during the Answering Machine Sessions, was finally given the standard 3-minute Pop Treatment. This more traditional album contains 12 tracks and clocks in at just over an hour.
The songs are much longer on Onebody, but still contain the eclecticism and offhand spirit of Los’s original work. Take the B-movie prog-rock requiem “Tackleberry”, or the direct musical translation of cult-classic Midnight Madness into the syncopated tongue-twister “Hugem”. Lyrically, this album expands their usual mantra-like one-liners, into all-out narrative tales in “Two Abobos” (yet another Love Ballad to a virtual character) and the latin-flavored “Fantastic Life”. The Lisa Loeb-inspired “Vulva” picks up some of the sexual slack on an otherwise cerebral album.
The closing track “Duck Touch” embodies the true essence of Los Doggies – inane mantras that flirt with psychedelica and pansexuality, adventurous musical movement heavy on the guitars and melodies, and the big anthemic Pop payoff at the end. Chock full of cognitive consonances and dissonances, Onebody is a gift for all Children of the Eighties.
The year is 2010, and Los Doggies is currently working on a full-band follow-up to Onebody. This album will feature a Playground Suite, metasongs that are self-referrential, plenty of B-culture allusions, and a rockin’ cover of “The Oldest Song”.
The band performs live around the United States as a three-piece band. Jesse Stormo plays guitar, Evan Stormo plays drums, and Matt Ross plays the Matt Ross Bass.
E-mail the band: losdoggies@losdoggies.com
