January 24th, 2011
Good to Die Records has proven itself to have its finger firmly on the pulse of the Seattle heavy music scene with its signings of such vital acts as Sandrider, Absolute Monarchs, Monogamy Party, and most recently Brokaw. You can consider that reputation solidified, but for the first time the label has ventured outside the confines of the Emerald City, and has signed one of the NW’s most remarkable heavy bands, Bellingham, WA’s Dog Shredder.
This spring Good to Die Records will unleash “Brass Tactics”, the follow-up to Dog Shredder’s debut vinyl release the “Boss Rhino” EP. For anyone that has ever seen the band’s unique brand of heavy music in a live setting, the slight play on words of this next release’s title should ring familiar. A Dog Shredder show is an intense and cacophonous musical experience that is nothing short of controlled chaos – these dudes flat out bring it – and that live energy is more than present on “Brass Tactics”
“Ever since I saw Dog Shredder’s second show in Seattle back in 2009, I’ve been completely floored. Not only because of their immense talent, but because of their incredible live energy. “Brass Tactics” is brilliant, and if people aren’t already impressed by this trio, they will be soon enough. I am very excited that they have joined the Good to Die family, and believe they add a very exciting dimension to the current roster.” -- Good to Die Records owner Nik Christofferson.
Led by Josh Holland, Noah Burns, and Jeff Johnson, Dog Shredder is best known for impeccably played metal, overlaid with impossibly fast technical guitar playing and ridiculously nimble drumming, anchored by strong bass lines, broken up by tricky time signatures and informed by a collective love of bands like Botch, Battles, and Nomeansno. Needless to say, this is a band that purposefully defies easy categorization. Dog Shredder somehow manages, through sheer musicianship, to dance on the razor’s edge between innovation and inaccessibility—a neat trick they pull off with seeming effortlessness. That high-wire act, performed at their unbridled live shows, has led Seattle’s Stranger to dub them “downright unfuckwithable,” which is a description as accurate as it is succinct.
As for the matter of the songs on “Brass Tactics”, those were meticulously crafted in a dark, often cold and sometimes sweaty rehearsal space over the course of more than a year, so that when they were unleashed on a by-now anticipatory public, they would be fully formed and crackling with energy. From the beginning, Dog Shredder’s music was designed to be a jaw-dropping onslaught of sound and technique that would leave audiences in awe—and if the bands that followed them onstage were ever-so-slightly intimidated that would be O.K. too.
The band has played frequently, sharing stages with everyone from Melt Banana to Marnie Stern, Helmet to Black Cobra, earning dedicated fan bases in the highly critical and discerning music scenes of Seattle and Portland. As well, they’ve toured regularly, garnering new fans up and down the West Coast and beyond. “Brass Tactics” was recorded and mixed at Portland’s Toadhouse Studio by Adam Pike (Red Fang, Black Elk, Norska), and mastered by Levi Seitz at Black Belt Mastering.
Dog Shredder is:
Josh Holland: Guitars/Vox
Noah Burns: Drums
Jeff Johnson: Bass
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