Just in time for summer: The Dogs of Winter

I know that in the blogosphere, timeliness is next to godliness and the more you post, the more you’re read and the more you’re read, the better chance you have of becoming the next Perez Hilton.

That said, I try to post at least three or four times a week, but there are days when I’m just not inspired. Maybe I haven’t heard anything worth sharing, or maybe I can’t find a particular song I wanted to post. I’m sure no one’s noticed but there has been the occasional post I’ve just “phoned in” – you know, the ones with a song or two and a bunch of copy-pasta from Wikipedia. I try to keep those to a minimum, but it happens.

The last few days have been low-inspiration days. I looked and looked again through my hard drive and couldn’t find anything I felt like posting. I could have taken the easy route and posted a live show and some pictures and been done with it, but where’s the challenge in that?

As luck would have it, when I checked my mail today, I found an album from the Brooklyn-based trio Dogs of Winter. Heavy in the classic power-trio mode, Dogs of Winter remind me musically of late 70s-era metal; the British metal band Tank comes to mind. The vocals, though, take it to a different level. The Dogs use a tandem vocal style, with singers Brian Grosz and Ryan Dowd trading verses over the driving beat.

Dogs of Winter have been together a few years, releasing a couple of EPs along the way. Their new disk, From Soil to Shale, is their first full-length release. The ultra-cool thing: Starting May 12, they’re giving it away.

The title of the first single, “Player Piano,” comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s debut novel about a dystopian society: “It’s more what we intend / Than what we act or say or do / Ignorant and out of touch.” Certainly not every day you hear a song with lyrics inspired by a 50-something-year-old novel. But that’s what’s cool about Dogs of Winter. Check ‘em out.

Player Piano.mp3
Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover).mp3