"Love Is A Dog From Hell" - Dogs D'Amour Thread

The Dogs in all their bedraggled glory



Hell this could be a lost bands write up, but fook their better than that. Shiney's signature can take blame for this thread.

Just one of thee greatest rock n' roll bands ever, and when i say that i don't mean like amongst 1000's of others i really mean up the pointy end. Their songs are Rolling Stones good, that's how good they are.

Tyla's songs just bleed like all of Peter Perrett's heart on sleeve open confessionals or Ronnie Lane's world weary sentiments.

Their songs are tales of wine stained bar stool whimsy about lusting, loving and losing with liberal shots of verve and humour.

All this sent through a ragged battle weary voiced singer who croons, drawls and barks like Tom Waits after a night out on the whisky and fags (Which is Tom Waits anyway, but you get the point).

The music is all countrified torch n' twang, red blooded blooze and tinkling ivories. This really was the real "Inner City Countrified Blues".

It's like the soundtrack to Charles Bukowski's writings, beautiful life losers barflying from one watering hole to another in search of love or at the very least female company.

Their songs party when you party and are down when your down, not many bands affect me the way the Dogs do maybe The Replacements come close or The Faces, Beasts Of Bourbon, Dramarama and The Jacobites but not many others.

Favourite record is a hard choice but probably the debut The State We're In (1984) that features the man legend himself Dave Kusworth. It's the actual demos of that album that is my favourite mix over the original keyboard laced version and the shoddy mixed rerelease from 2003.

Also recommended are Dogs connections, bands like the Jacobites, The Crybabys, Jo Dog and Paul Black's Sonic Boom, The Bounty Hunters etc.


Anyway some clips:


Trail Of Tears



Satellite Kid



I Don't Want You To Go

Love The Dogs. My favorite is In The Dynamite Jet Saloon. This band and London Quireboys are the artists that got me into this whole style of music.

Never cared much for these guys back in the day. They seemed a little too over-the-top and cliched for my tastes. Listening to them now, they don't seem too bad.

Heard them for the first time the other day when I found a used copy of Straight. I wasn't impressed on a skim through, but I think I might have been expecting something very different. I gotta give it a thorough listen first. I was expecting sleazy rock, but it sounded more like country punk to me.

tohostudios wrote:

Love The Dogs. My favorite is In The Dynamite Jet Saloon. This band and London Quireboys are the artists that got me into this whole style of music.

What boozy english rock n' roll?

Ya ever heard of the Crybabys or the Bounty Hunters Toho?

rattpoison wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Love The Dogs. My favorite is In The Dynamite Jet Saloon. This band and London Quireboys are the artists that got me into this whole style of music.

What boozy english rock n' roll?

Ya ever heard of the Crybabys or the Bounty Hunters Toho?

Never heard of either of those bands. Sounds like I need to check them out.

Yeah, I love boozy rock n roll with the honky tonk sounding piano and lyrics about the hard life.

BOUNTY HUNTERS are great....sorts of sweet and sour...like a spider hiding in the bottom of a bowl of gumdrops.

Disarming and posionous...very poppy...I'd venture to say they sound a little like if DOGS D'AMOUR and JELLYFISH were the same band...but not really...

Eyesore...keep listening its a grow on ya thing...and when you are ready to admit you love them....say the word as I have an extra copy of 'Dynamite Jet Saloon" I've been saving for just such an occasion...

I discovered the Dogs completely by accident. When I lived in Murfreesboro, TN, there was a great used CD store in Nashville called Great Escape. They had tens of thousands of CDs and a ton of listening stations where you could listen to a CD before you bought it.

I picked out Dynamite Jet Saloon to sample simply because I liked the artwork. When I popped that sucker in, I thought to myself "This sounds like London Quireboys" and bought it. I've since tried to round up every Dogs disc that I can.

OK, I'm listening to songs from What Kind Of Rock n Roll by The Crybabys. This sounds great! Sounds like Dogs d Amour crossed with Jason and the Scorchers.

Too bad I can't find it at a reasonable price yet...

Snagged that Crybabys disc at DeepDiscount.com for 13.79 and free shipping!!

Shiney wrote:

BOUNTY HUNTERS are great....sorts of sweet and sour...like a spider hiding in the bottom of a bowl of gumdrops.

Disarming and posionous...very poppy...I'd venture to say they sound a little like if DOGS D'AMOUR and JELLYFISH were the same band...but not really...

Eyesore...keep listening its a grow on ya thing...and when you are ready to admit you love them....say the word as I have an extra copy of 'Dynamite Jet Saloon" I've been saving for just such an occasion...

Good lard! You've been eating ratt poison!

I gave the CD another listen today. I'd venture to say I dig it. Reminded me of I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House, which as you know, I really dig. (Still haven't found another copy of that stinkin' CD, you know!) Anyway, there's one song, like track 6, more of a ballad, which is fantastic. Listened to it over and over again.

We'll see what sort of shelf life it has with me.

Eyesore wrote:

Good lard! You've been eating ratt poison!

I gave the CD another listen today. I'd venture to say I dig it. Reminded me of I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House, which as you know, I really dig. (Still haven't found another copy of that stinkin' CD, you know!) Anyway, there's one song, like track 6, more of a ballad, which is fantastic. Listened to it over and over again.

We'll see what sort of shelf life it has with me.

Ahh Empty World (Track 6), what a fantastic song. These guys are the kings of melancholy. Melancholic and Alcoholic.

On the first few listens they may seem unremarkable but on a closer more devoted listen the songs just take on their own personality. Trust me these songs grow on ya, the crawl under your skin and never leave. Tyla is a fantastic writer, poet and artist.

Snag In The Dynamite Jet Saloon (1988) off of Shiney, it's generally accepted as their best and most popular.

Their stuff is hard to come by and ain't exactly cheap, so you were lucky to find Straight. Listen to a song called Victims Of Success off of the Straight album, its about when the band moved from the UK to LA and the people they encountered.

Shiney wrote:

BOUNTY HUNTERS are great....sorts of sweet and sour...like a spider hiding in the bottom of a bowl of gumdrops.

Disarming and posionous...very poppy...I'd venture to say they sound a little like if DOGS D'AMOUR and JELLYFISH were the same band...but not really...

Eyesore...keep listening its a grow on ya thing...and when you are ready to admit you love them....say the word as I have an extra copy of 'Dynamite Jet Saloon" I've been saving for just such an occasion...

That's a brilliant description of the Bounty Hunters/Dave Kusworth.

Here's a description from a music writer about Dave Kusworth and his music that fits with his previous outfit the Bounty Hunters (Hey Eyesore you think me n' Shiney are bad).

"Kusworth's songs, vignettes of rape, murder and desolation, brilliantly transmit a Dickensian pallor to the subways and corner shops of Birmingham."

Oh and Shiney have you heard the Only Ones? Because the Dogs D'Amour and the Bounty Hunters/Dave Kusworth stuff comes from that whole glam rock n' roll sweet/bitter song dynamic that Peter Perrett and the Only Ones had.

You a fan of the Crybabys?

rattpoison wrote:

Ahh Empty World (Track 6), what a fantastic song. These guys are the kings of melancholy. Melancholic and Alcoholic.

That's a good tune, but not the one I was thinking of. The song I really dig is "You Can't Burn The Devil." Man, that's a good frickin' song right there!

Call me crazy, but I hear a lot of early R.E.M. here, too.

Quote :

Their stuff is hard to come by and ain't exactly cheap, so you were lucky to find Straight.

I paid $9.99 for it, too. I was disappointed when skim those first few tracks nothing grabbed me. Then Shiney said he already had it, I was like, "Crap!" Haha.

Have you heard I Can Like Any Sonofabitch In The House, ratt? You should check them out, if not.

http://www.myspace.com/icanlickanysonofabitchint

tohostudios wrote:

Snagged that Crybabys disc at DeepDiscount.com for 13.79 and free shipping!!

Awesome, nice price too.

That's got everything, their first classic album from 1991 Where Have All The Good Girls Gone and various other bits and pieces.

I call em Dogs D'Amour meets Ian Hunter/Mott The Hoople with a shot of the Faces, but your not wrong with the Jason And The Scorchers comparison.

Actually Crybabys band leader Darrel Bath went on and played with the Dogs on their album More Uncharted Heights Of Disgrace (1993) and then onto Ian Hunter's band. He is now with the Dave Kusworth Group, who was an original Dogs D'Amour member and who was the frontman of the brilliant Bounty Hunters.

You gotta get the Bounty Hunters - Threads: A Tear Stained Scar (1989)

http://www.amazon.com/Threads-Tear-Stained-Bounty-Hunters/dp/B000000IQU/ref=pd_bbs_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1213079193&sr=8-4

Eyesore wrote:

That's a good tune, but not the one I was thinking of. The song I really dig is "You Can't Burn The Devil." Man, that's a good frickin' song right there!

Call me crazy, but I hear a lot of early R.E.M. here, too.

Quote :

Their stuff is hard to come by and ain't exactly cheap, so you were lucky to find Straight.

I paid $9.99 for it, too. I was disappointed when skim those first few tracks nothing grabbed me. Then Shiney said he already had it, I was like, "Crap!" Haha.

My track listing must be different with the Straight album.

I Can Like Any Sonofabitch In The House are brilliant, like a sloppy drunken Drive By Truckers. Which i guess isn't too far removed from the Dogs D'Amour.

The Dogs are definately seen by many as a precursor to the Black Crowes, Quireboys Faces/Stones roots rock n' roll of the early 90's. Actually the Black Crowes supported them before they blew up big in the UK in '89 i think.

No. I just guessed at track 6 without looking earlier. Track 6 is "Empty World" on my copy.

Eyesore wrote:

No. I just guessed at track 6 without looking earlier. Track 6 is "Empty World" on my copy.

All is well, I Can Like Any Sonofabitch In The House is really really good. Thanks for hippin' me.


...Now getting back to the topic. If i could ever go back in time and see one gig that happened. It would be a New York club gig in 1989 which had the Dogs D'Amour supported by Mother Love Bone and the Electric Angels.

What a line up, 1-2-3 the best bands of that era.

I have CRYBABYS coming soon....

I CAN LICK....is one of the best bands ever...a drunken burly man gang rape of STEVE EARLE, DRIVE BY TRUCKERS and DOGS D'AMOUR....

I could've caught that tour...the triptych of DOGS, MLB and E. ANGELS...but it was the same weekend I had to leave for school or something if memory serves...

Shiney wrote:

I could've caught that tour...the triptych of DOGS, MLB and E. ANGELS...but it was the same weekend I had to leave for school or something if memory serves...

Looks like we both need a Time Machine.

There are several past shows i'd like to catch when the time machine is found so do let me know....

Shiney wrote:

There are several past shows i'd like to catch when the time machine is found so do let me know....

My flux capactor isn't fluxing at the moment, but as soon as me & Doc get it working, I'll shoot you a PM.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Shiney wrote:

There are several past shows i'd like to catch when the time machine is found so do let me know....

My flux capactor isn't fluxing at the moment, but as soon as me & Doc get it working, I'll shoot you a PM.

We can drag you along and turn you into a Dogs convert. Might as well catch a bunch of young upstarts from Atlanta called the Black Crowes open for the Dog D'Amour in 1989 as well.

But seriously get on the Dogs, Metalguy. You'll love em. Like a dirty drunken Hanoi Rocks playing the Faces. Rock N' Roll as they call it.

I found a couple of cool clips......


The first one is them staggering on Top Of The Pops, it's hard to believe a band like this at least existed on the fringes of pop consciousness.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smSs_qKAqEM

And this one is of Tyla and Dave Kusworth (Dogs/Jacobites/Bounty Hunters) performing the Jacobites classic Fortune Of Fame......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Av6DR5X2k

I thought this was a great band. I saw DJS on the shelf years ago and bought on cassette. I still think it is a great album and listen to them regularly.