After the demise of NJ/NY hardcore band Mucky Pup (see prior post here) a few of the members formed Dog Eat Dog. Apparently their demo fell into the hands of Billy from Biohazard and he passed it on to Roadrunner records. Roadrunner then released their debut CD in 1993 cleverly (or not so cleverly) titled "Warrant" as the glam rock band of the same name, Warrant, had released their CD "Dog Eat Dog" one year prior. The band went on to release three more full lengths "All Boro Kings" 1994 (a name that some members later used as a band name after Dog Eat Dog), "Play Games" 1996 (featuring guests Ronnie James Dio & Wu Tang's Rza hahaha), and their last CD "Amped" in 1999. The band didn't really seem to catch on in the US as I can't recall anyone really caring much but evidently MTV Europe voted the band Breakthrough Artists of the Year in 1995 and they also toured quite a bit worldwide.
It wasn't until about 2 years ago at work we would pop on the "Warrant" ep and have a good time singing along to it, that it really caught me. I was guilty, I liked it. It's pretty much a cross between a poor man's Leeway and obviously Mucky Pup, without the quite overly obnoxious lyrics as MP. The later CDs aren't quite as good as they incorporated a Saxophone player and some more horns into their sound. You gotta remember Mighty Mighty Bosstones was huge at that time so maybe this influenced them in the whole "party rock", lollapalooza, alternative phase of the mid nineties. The sax kind of drives me nuts but there are still some decent songs on the other albums. When I decided to go back and get a few of their older CDs I searched online. I think I spent less than $8 total on half.com and ebay buying 3 of their cds including postage. I literally paid like $.37 for one of them plus $2.49 shipping. Here's their debut EP "Warrant" minus one track that was just a remix of another song that just didn't seem worth posting. It's from 1994 and was released on Roadrunner Records. Give this a chance because it's pretty infectious after a few listens. It's simple and fun and sometimes that's a good thing.
1. "It's Like That"
2. "Dog Eat Do"
3. "World Keeps Spinning"
4. "...In The Dog House"
5. "Psychodrama"
---------------------------------------
Previous post update: Seth (singer of Initial Reaction) actually came across the blog and posted a response. Apparently he plays a mean stand up bass as is appearing on the upcoming Tom Waits CD. You can read his response here. Pretty cool!
8 comments:
this is actually my frist time ever even really even hearing about this band in general. i really love how the bass sounds on some of the songs really sticks to me. i am gonna start scouring around for their cds on amazon and half.com. thanks for turning me onto sumthin new
ok so i went to cd warehouse and on a whim i looked for dog eat dog nd found play games for under 4 bucks picked it up i dont like it as much as the ep but its still pretty solid. the song with dio is just too much.
Yeah, Dog Eat Dog were pretty big in Europe, saw them live 4 times during various UK tours.
They supported Biohazard the 1st time I saw them, with Downset opening up. And then came back a year later headlining their own tour with Downset as support. Paris Mayhew played guitar on the 2nd tour, I presume because Dave Nastasee had jumped ship. They encored with Street Justice, which went down well, but to this day I still have my doubts that the majority of the crowd knew who the Cro-Mags were.
Warrant and All Boro Kings are still fun to listen to. If hardcore was a beer, then these would be NYHC-Lite. Play Games is OK in places and they were obviously trying to attract new fans by expanding their sound. Never really cared for Amped. It's like listening to LOA's 'river runs red' next to 'soul searching sun'. It's obviously the same band, but they've taken things just a little too far and forgot what made them good.
Ha, not bad. I saw this band live a little while after they sort of lost the edge and never did care for 'em at all. I'm not huge on it but this is a solid EP. I can't really hang with much of anything else they did, though...
Man, I remember seeing these guys back in the day in Pittsburgh with Madball and Downset. Great show! Ahhh! The good old days!
I never liked them for the same reasons you stated it worth listening too... Poor man's Leeway. Why bother? Stop wasting $4 on this crap and go get Leeway's "Desparate Measures" instead.
dogeatdogs first 2 releases were killer... they got progressively worse
Here's the best thing I've ever heard regarding Dog Eat Dog. My friend and I are driving around and he says "I feel like listening to Dog Eat Dog", but he didn't have a CD any more. We booth looked at each other and instantly knew which record store would definitely have it in stock.
So we get there and say "Do you have any Dog Eat Dog?" and he says "No".. and we were disappointed, but then he says something like "Well, technically yes".
We all laughed.. because he knew we meant the first two albums and all he had was "Play Games" which is total shit (and anything after that).
Post a Comment