Dharma Dogs have been making waves around Madison for over a year with their intense, destructive and extremely LOUD live shows that leave listeners wondering if the chaos could possible be captured on tape. Well! It can…and it has…in all it’s noisy glory on the new 7″ EP, “Drown”, released via the Madison based Kitschy Manitou imprint. The word on the street is that Kitschy Manitou will be releasing the excellent “Barb’s Trailer EP” by the fresh new Madison punk band Fire Retarded that I spoke highly of about a month ago HERE.
Known for a highly combustible mix of grunge, punk and garage, Dharma Dogs turned more than a few heads around the Midwest when they hit the road in June to support their first vinyl release, a 5-way split 7″ called “The Obvious Sampler Vol. 1″. With the new EP, “Drown”, the band gets the well-deserved full attention of the whole 7″ format to give you three choice highlights from their ever evolving live show. Essentially this is the band’s debut vinyl release (since the first record was a 5-way split 7″ that didn’t really let the band shine), and it’s quite a rocker. The A-Side consists of two rippers (“Laxadaisy” and “Fluke and Flounder”) fronted by guitarist/vocalist Chris Joutras, and the B-Side features a longer, jammier cut called “Deep Wound” fronted by drummer/vocalist Nate Karls. It’s nice to see the band utilize both singers on the short release. On record the band sounds incredibly sonically charged. Think ’89 Nirvana meets Melvins sludge with the production of classic lo-fi garage rock The Sonics. In a nice twist of formats the band compiled the tracks on the “Drown” 7″ alongside four other songs recorded at the same session onto cassette they entitled “Drown B/W Moon Rocks and Speed”. You can pick up either of the releases at shows or through the band’s Bandcamp. I highly recommend the vinyl treatment since the record’s got a top notch package that includes some primo candy blue vinyl.
Check out “Fluke Or Flounder” below:
Dharma Dogs on Facebook
Buy the record from Dharma Dog’s Bandcamp
