WHO ARE THEY
Dog Fashion Disco began recording at the tail end of the 1990s, forging a visceral style rooted in both the thinking man's alternative metal of Tool, the questionable provocation of Marilyn Manson and the musical eclecticism of Mr. Bungle. The Balitmore, Maryland-based act saw numerous lineup changes in the first era its existence, which concluded in late 2006.
Throughout Dog Fashion Disco's career, vocalist Todd Smith provided the group's definitive lyrical themes—sardonic, amoral case studies of serial killers, mental illness, semi-radical politics, punctuated with frequent anti-religion screeds. Keyboardist Jeff Siegel and guitarist Greg Combs, and later, Jason Stepp oversaw the band's fitting schizophrenic musical backdrops which drew from elements of thrash metal, industrial, jazz, pseudo-classical, and period-correct surf-rock and quasi disturbing film soundtracks when the lyrics called for it.
Tours with Lacuna Coil and Mindless Self Indulgence raised Dog Fashion Disco's profile in the early 2000s, but the band's commercial pinnacle was 2001's "Mushroom Cult" single (from Anarchists of Good Taste, released that same year), which featured vocal contributions from System of a Down's Serj Tankian.
A series of moderately successful albums followed throughout the decade, but dwindling commercial returns anticipated the group's 2006 disbandment, after that year's Adultery album. Various band members have since performed and recorded with Polkadot Cadaver, Celebrity Sex Scandal, and The Alter Boys.
After a handful of 2013 reunion shows, Dog Fashion Disco recorded the fan-funded album Sweet Nothings, set for a July 2014 release.
BUY THIS ALBUM
Dog Fashion Disco's greatest strengths lie in individual tracks, rather than overlong and unfocused albums such as Committed to a Bright Future and Anarchists of Good Taste. Therefore, it would make sense that The City Is Alive Tonight...Live in Baltimore, issued in 2005 would make a handy introduction of the band's most well-known and coherent tracks, in a more energetic live setting, stripped of the somewhat detailed production of their studio efforts, but gaining a more immediate atmosphere and concise delivery.
ESSENTIAL TRACKS
"Mushroom Cult," from 2001's Anarchists of Good Taste is perhaps Dog Fashion Disco's finest song, bringing together the band's ADHD-genre-jumping with a solid rhythmic foundation, and backing vocals from Serj Tankian.
"Antiquity's Small Rewards" (from the same album) is a jagged twist on alt metal's extreme dynamic shifts, punctuated with Ringling Bros. organ, horror movie synths, and Smith's Mike Patton-inspired crooning and barking.
