American Dog
Red, White, Black, and Blue (Outlaw Entertainment)
by Craig Regala
American Dog are an American band, they’ll come into your town and party on down, ’cause they’re an American band. Funny thing is, two of the units lead dog M. Hannon tips a bottle to are furriners; those being Motörhead and AC/DC. If you don’t like’m, I don’t quite see how you could like the Dog, or really, how the Dog could like you. The other prime reference is the Columbus, OH ’70s band, The Godz, who cut one helluva strong Southern rock-inflected slab of biker hum grit in ’78. Hell, the Dog even acts as Eric “Godz” demo band when he gets the urge every decade or so to lay out some tracks. Besides that, these guys are so steeped in “it” that they don’t refer to and aren’t even particularly influenced by much of anything but the working guy Midwestern (dear city people and furinners, you may view the non-rustbelt Midwest as “The South” for these purposes) tradition of beat-ass boogie and hangover blues completely self-aware and crafted with pride.
This record is the third in a series of sly thunder boogie slabs that hone the good parts of the gruffer bands that kicked around the hair metal ’80s without lay-ing into the Aqua Net, at least not any more than Axl “extensions” Rose did. Red, White, Black, and Blue is the good parts of Salty Dog (Hannons’ previous major label foray), Cinderella, Raging Slab, Sea Hags, and Dangerous Toys, all twisted into a booze rope strong enough to hang a weak man or let our kickass heros swing from drunken escapade to escapade and back home in time for work. Noted jazz critic Nat Hentoff stated “You can tell the men from the boys during the ballads,” and there’s a great creeping death blues on here called “Glad It’s Over.” It defines their aesthetic, if you will: Don’t give up, don’t give in, keep moving along. Even if the bastards actually do grind you down, pick up the pieces, go to the vet, have’m stitch you back together, have a beer, and get back at it.
(101-1001 W. Broadway Dept. 400 Vancouver, Canada V6H 4E4)
