Review by Columbine Quillen
Local Music – January 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Kennel of Love
Dogman
Sealed Records
I HAVE TO HAND IT to this band for two reasons. First, because they are in the forefront of the Salida recording scene. And second, because they have not succumbed to growth or tourism in hopes of making some cash.
Overall, Dogman is your basic small-town bar band. But fortunately they can keep a beat through an entire song, and they sound like they actually know how to play their instruments (instead of that oh too common sound of the guy who just learned “Louie Louie” on his guitar yesterday and now thinks he’s Eddie Van Halen).
Dogman’s music has a good beat. They also have a good feeling of how long their solos should be and how long their intros should be. They, unlike so many bands of this kind, accepted the fact that only Metallica and Led Zeppelin can get away with 11-minute intros.
The CD has a pleasant mix of slow songs to fast songs and offers a variety of different tunes. I was worried that maybe they would have the same song with a different intro and different lyrics 14 times, but I was pleasantly proven wrong. They start up with some tunes with a strong beat that sound like early Guns N’ Roses, then they offer us some ballads in between with a quasi Reggae tune on track seven and a disco thrill on track nine.
Overall, they’re not too bad, and if I owned a bar in town, I’d hire them. The locals will appreciate their songs for a couple of reasons. First, because Dogman sings about issues that hit home, such as step-children they don’t know what to do with and Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. And second, because they are local kids whose names we all remember from old high-school newspapers. The tourists will think they’re neat too, since they are pure local yocal and there’s barely any native flare left in downtown Salida now that all of the practical shops that used to sell hardware and necessities have been converted into trinket warehouses and Boulderesque art galleries. Between Dogman, Gambles, and the fact that it is once again all right to loiter, maybe our fair town still has a chance to retain its identity.
If interested in hiring them or buying their CD, call 719-539-5112.
— Columbine Quillen