It’s only been three years since Dogbreth released Second Home with local Asian Man Records, but in those three years a lot has changed. The DIY power-pop band relocated from Phoenix to Seattle and re-formed—then had a member of the new lineup relocate. They’ve toured and taken breaks from touring, endured breakups and breakdowns. But the biggest change of all came in the form of a small metal box. “I’ve been playing with and listening to distortion pedals for a long time now,” says singer and guitarist Tristan Jemsek. “I think my ears just needed a break.”

This October, Dogbreth release Ever Loving, their second album with Asian Man, and their first without Jemsek’s faithful RAT II distortion pedal. Pro Co, the company that makes the RAT, says the pedal “excels at arena rock rhythm tones and soaring leads.” For Ever Loving, Jemsek wanted something different.

“I wanted this one to have a real soft shimmeriness to everything,” he says. “I still wanted it to rock, I just also wanted it to sound really good—something you’d want to listen to over and over again because it sounds really pretty. But also kick-ass.”

For longtime Breth-heads, this might sound like the Dogbreth they’ve always known and loved. Since self-releasing their debut in 2011, Dogbreth has always been emotionally honest while still rocking pretty hard. For all its earnest sensitivity, 2016’s Second Home still heavily emphasized the rock in “indie rock,” frequently exploding into guitar solos and dual-guitar leads. On songs like “Cups and Wrappers” (an incredible song about whether or not rock music will last), Dogbreth did both at once, bearing some serious emotion while kinda sounding like Iron Maiden.

“For a long time whenever someone mentioned our band, they would just talk about the guitarmonies,” Jemsek says, using the widely agreed-upon rocker-parlance for “harmonized guitars.” “I love Thin Lizzy,” he adds, “and I love guitarmonies, but I just didn’t want that to be a thing.”

Ever Loving by Dogbreth

Throughout Ever Loving, Jemsek and new guitarist Bil Palmer are much more likely to play jangly arpeggios and gentle bends than pyrotechnic leads. Lead single “When U Call My Name,” is a perfect example. Written and sung by Palmer, “When U Call My Name” is an incredibly catchy jangle-pop song—part British Invasion, part R.E.M. Sounding woozy and lovelorn, the guitars wobble gently beneath lyrics about returning home.

“Bil sent me a batch of demos that he thought might work well for the band, and as soon as I heard that song, I was like, ‘I love this song so much, we have to do this song,’” Jemsek recalls.

While there’s still some distortion to the record (and even some guitarmonies), it’s this kind of gentle rocking that most defines Ever Loving. Opener “Old Keys” starts off quiet before kicking into a head-bobbing groove. Then, just as the song is really starting to rock, they bring the “soft” back with a wind chime. On “Walk You Again” (a song about missing an ex’s dog), tremulous verses give way to a big outro, as a fuzzed-out guitar lead breaks through the synths, oohs and chorus pedals. Altogether, it’s pretty—gentle and shimmery, like Jemsek described—while still rocking pretty hard.

And though a lot has changed for the band recently, Jemsek still has a lot of love for the DIY world of his youth.

“Growing up in the Phoenix music scene, I was lucky to be around this community of artists that made music that was like a pop/rock collage,” Jemsek says. “A lot of hard-to-define artists, not too concerned with what style or genre each song is, just letting the song decide. That’s the kind of thing that interests me the most. On this record, I wanted to do that, but with a consistent quality of tones and sounds.”

Dogbreth
Aug 21, 7:30pm, $5
San Jose Peace & Justice Center, San Jose

For 17 years Mike Park has run Asian Man Records, one of the most successful (if not the most successful) DIY ska-punk record labels in the country, from a garage in Los Gatos.

Over the years, he’s discovered Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio, Andrew Jackson Jihad and numerous other bands. He’s also a prolific musician on his own, first with Skankin’ Pickle, who were early third-wave ska favorites, before moving on to ska bands the Bruce Lee Band, the Chinkees and a handful of solo records (he even released a children’s album, Smile, two years ago). Here are Park’s favorite albums for 2013 in no particular order.

Laura Stevenson – Wheel
Laura hails from Brooklyn and is one of the most underrated singer/songwriters of our time. She should be massively huge and successful. Her vocal and guitar chops are insane. I get chills every time I see her perform live. All her records rule, and this one is no different.

It’s been three years since East Bay’s all-girl sun-pop group, the Hot Toddies, put out their last record, Get Your Heart On, released on local label Asian Man records in 2010. Now they’re back as a trio with a five-song EP, Bottoms Up, released by Tricycle Records.

Even with the slight lineup change (keyboardist Jessica left the band), Bottoms Up still delivers a similar sound—easy-breezy, surf pop songs, boundlessly catchy vocal harmonies and dry witty lyrics about fun times and sexual innuendos. However, in the absence of keyboards, the Toddies have taken a somewhat heavier, more guitar-centric sound.

It is the heaviest tracks on Bottoms Up, in fact, that are the strongest. Opener “Jaguar Love” is a female-empowering sing-along rocker about fast cars and sex, with lots of tongue in cheek humor. Even with the distortion, there’s no lack of bubbly energy to the song. Another strong track, closer “Hey Hey,” while slower, still has a heavier sound—almost a power-ballad with a slow head-banging beat.

There has been a steady increase of retro girl group rock bands since the Toddies started in 2005, but they continue to distinguish themselves from the new crop of younger girl bands by softening up their twee elements on Bottoms Up and keeping that humor deadpan. We’ll have to wait to see what sound their next full length brings.

The Hot Toddies play the Blank Club on Saturday March 30, opening for Shinobu. Tickets are $10. The show starts at 9pm.

It’s no mystery that Asian Man recording artists, the Atom Age are obsessed with 1960s pop-culture. Not only is their music a clear nod to 60s rockabilly and garage rock, but every one of their videos so far have been an overt homage to those swinging, groovy times, including their new video for the song “I Hypnotize.”

In “I Hypnotize” the Atom Age transports us back to an old black and white 1960s spy movie, only in this video they are apparently the evil geniuses, each of them with a patch over one of their eyes.

It’s a fun concept. The Atom Age, complete in their evil mastermind outfits, are performing at a hip, swanky nightclub where go-go dancing is in full swing. But in this seemingly innocent looking club, one lady’s night of mindless fun is cut short when she is hypnotized by the band and sent off to go commit murder!

The video is a big step forward for the Atom Age in terms of production. While their prior video, “Kill Surf City”, had a fun surf-zombie theme, it looked like it could have easily been shot and edited by the band with a Macbook and camcorder. “I Hypnotize” has the look and feel of a professional production team.

The Bomb The Industry concert on August 25 at Homestead Lanes could be the last South Bay appearance for the New York punk rockers after the band announced it could stop touring after this summer tour.

“There’s no weird riffs or anything,” singer Jeff Rosenstock wrote on the band’s website. “To put it simply, the 9-10 months of our lives when we are not playing music are not fantastic. It seem like it’s just time to see if there’s anything out there that can provide us with full-time joy instead of part-time joy.”

The future for Bomb the Music Industry isn’t completely clear, but the band is not breaking up. Rosenstock pointed out that they might tour again if the conditions were right. He just wanted to make sure his fans understood that it was a definite possibility that they may never play outside of the New York area again. The band will most likely continue to record, but the attention and drive Rosenstock previously gave Bomb the Music Industry will decrease.

“Keep in mind that Bomb the Music Industry was never really supposed to be a touring band that put out records, had a steady line-up, made money off of anything, continued anywhere outside our house,” Rosenstock wrote.

Bomb the Music Industry plays Homestead Lanes on August 25th with the Phenomenauts, Kepi and the Prima Donnas. The show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $10.

Asian Man Recording artists Andrew Jackson Jihad have always been known for fierce lyrics. They’re all about those uncomfortable blunt truths and the hyper-honest self-depreciating admissions, delivered with a lot of humor in an upbeat folk-punk style.

Up until recently they hadn’t shot a proper music video. So for their first, they chose the angry, punk rock song “The gift of the Magi 2: The return of the Magi” off of their 4th full length, Knife Man. It is likely to be just as polarizing as their lyrics.

The Arizona duo found a way to visually represent their biting, self-hating humor with such a simple yet perfect idea. In the video, they run behind a moving camera for the duration of the song along with a half dozen other random people, who toss eggs, garbage and other projectiles at them. It’s silly and stupid and of course shows that they are more than willing to take a hit for their fan’s amusement. But like their lyrics, it’s also insightful. Andrew Jackson Jihad are punk rock jesters, traveling the world serving a much needed function for thousands of people, bringing a big cathartic release to all that come to their shows.