"This is record numero uno for me as a solo player," Danny Dodge says. "Two bands with lotsa releases behind me."
As frontman for the punky, soulful, garage rockers The No Tomorrow Boys and The Criminal Guitars, his debut solo effort is has a pop swagger—one that's sometimes bluesy, sometimes country, sometimes folksy, and sometimes whatever it wants to be.
The opener on Baby, Let Me Be Your Mess is a fast-paced, countrified duet with Jenny Don’t, and the jangly power pop continues across the record's 10 tracks. With dark humor and hooky riffs, Dodge also enlisted Roselit Bone’s Matt Mayhem on bass and Victor Franco on drums, plus Randal Blaschke on guitar and The Criminal Guitars’ Jacob Decker on organ. With this solid unit in place, the band laid down tracks over two days at Matt Drenik's (of Battleme) Get Loud studio space.
"'Yakima Canutt' was an innovative cowboy stuntman in early Westerns and a world champion rodeo roper," Dodge tells. "He rode Trigger for Roy [Rogers] and taught John Wayne how to walk 'n talk like a true-blue cowboy. Growin' up watchin' lotsa Westerns with my old man and uncle, they'd spin stories 'bout Yak that turned him into a folk hero in my young eyes. He was the prototype of 'small-town boy breaks out and makes good in the big city' that held a lasting effect on me. 'I just can't stay put, just like Yakima Canutt,'" Dodge sings.
Don't miss the stacked Get Loud release party at the Doug Fir on Thursday, August 24"This might have been one of the songs I didn't show the band till the day we were in the studio to record it," he continues. "A risky move that can have expensive consequences, but if you got the right cats playin' with ya, then you can trust that, under the wire, you'll be makin' magic. We went for a country funk, Tony Joe White-meets-War-type groove 'n sound on it. I remember Randal and I missin' our cues to come in on that two-strike beat 'cause we'd be dancin' too much."
Out via Get Loud Records on August 18, Dodge already has plans to record "the next record in December" before touring Europe in spring.
