Dogheart

Haircut Records

There’s a well-worn thread tethering the inter-dependencies between frustration and fun rock ‘n’ roll music. It’s an algorithm of emotive human experience that allows the seemingly foiled to sing in defiance of life’s ills, transmogrifying pain into pleasure. So it goes on the EP Real Mood, the latest slice of nuanced pop rock from Portland, Oregon’s Dogheart.

Fortunately for the listener, being fed up never sounded so great.

Recorded in just two days in Fall 2015 with Portland engineer Jeff Bond (Anya Marina, Talkative, New Move), Dogheart—guitarist/vocalist Matt Jenkins, bassist Gray Hildreth and drummer Cameron Hering—endeavored Real Mood following the successful release of their 2015 debut full-length, What Burns the Best, a collection of 10 songs culled from some 40 demos brought into Bond’s studio in 2014 shortly after their inception.

Before the EP, the band stood at something of a crossroads. 2015 was promising, with Dogheart sharing stages with the likes of Mimicking Birds, Walter TV, Calvin Johnson, Cold War Kids and Benjamin Booker. However, with a modest tour to support their LP falling through at the last second, and at a loss to navigate their next step, the band went back to the drawing board.

“It was weird as a new band to have our first album out and be like, ‘okay, we’re not on tour, we don’t really have enough money to put an album out again,’” explains Hildreth. “So we were in this weird dead time. It was growing pains.”

In perhaps an affront to their already prolific nature, the band posited a more abstract, measured delivery to the aural barrage on Real Mood than was found in the driving, buzz-saw pace of their debut.

“The first album was 30 minutes of just nonstop,” says Jenkins. “As much as we love fast rock ‘n’ roll, there are songs we also love that are slower.”

“It’s almost a transitional opportunity to show off what else we can do,” adds Hildreth.

Real Mood opens with a forceful bass-drum count-off on “So Easy,” with Jenkins’ guitar sneaking in with sassy bends before delivering the line “I don’t know what I should do/ I’m tripping over you/It’s so easy/when it’s in front of me.” From the outset, Dogheart sets a triumphant pace, poised with summery progressions steeped in the same sonic stews as Purling Hiss, The Growlers or Pavement—bands whose hearts or worn on their sleeves even when they’ve cut them off.

“On the Rim” continues the more leisurely stride, with a slacker guitar lead steering a sparse tune confronting rejection and isolation. Those vibes run unabated through the next track “Drag” until an exultant chorus proclaims, “Finally back to feeling good/no matter how different it looks.”

“Real Mood is about being rejected a little bit,” says Jenkins. “You work yourself to the bone sometimes and nothing comes, yet you still do it. The songs aren’t all sad anthems. It’s more about being happy with what we’re doing.”

The EP is slated to become the first release on the band’s new imprint, Haircut Records, essentially a stamp for Dogheart to engender a communal spirit of independent, inclusive artists in Portland’s underground rock scene.

“We thought it would be cool to get our friends’ bands together and put our heads together and stamp it like a crew and a label at the same time,” says Hildreth.

Though in its infancy, the label is “more like a gang to support one another,” as Jenkins explains.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Earring,” the EP’s de facto single, is a melodic, Strokes-y rocker replete with anthemic vocals and an addictive chorus. The song is, in essence, a snapshot of the band as it exists today—a sometimes pessimistic bunch of fun guys hell bent on being in a rock band.

“It’s about a bunch of doofy dudes who mess up here and there,” explains Hildreth. “It’s a song about us being dorks, overall. It keeps things in perspective for us; we can be down about tours falling through or work sucking, but we want to be here and we want to have fun with it and act like maniacs.”

Dogheart is releasing Real Mood officially during an EP release show, Friday May 6, 2016 at Bunk Bar (1028 SE Water Ave., Portland, Oregon). For more information on the band, visit www.dogheartband.com.