A Giant Dog

***Forging their friendships in the crucible of their Houston, TX, high school, SABRINA ELLIS (vocals), ANDREW CASHEN (vocals, guitar), and ORVILLE NEELEY (drums) first got their start covering AC/DC, The Ramones, Joan Jett, and the finer points of the Back to the Future soundtrack at school dances under the band name YOUTH IN ASIA. Reuniting in Austin in 2008, they enlisted their pals ANDY BAUER (guitar) and GRAHAM LOW (bass) and christened the act A GIANT DOG (AGD). AGD is raucous ear candy culled from the hook-driven melodies of Slade, the glammy swagger of Marc Bolan, the morbid fantasy of Killer-era Alice Cooper, and the unpredictable wit of Sparks. These songs are by, for, and about the losers, freaks, and outcasts. The lonely. The terminally horny. Boozehounds and party animals. No band better speaks to the hearts of slackers, burnouts, rockers, sluts, and creeps everywhere than A Giant Dog. In 2012, AGD impressed fellow Austinite and Spoon frontman BRITT DANIEL enough that he took them under his wing. Pile, AGD’s third LP and first for Merge Records, shows a band whose years of road-dogging have honed them into unstoppable rock machines. Their second time working with producer MIKE MCCARTHY (Spoon, White Denim, Trail of Dead) reveals Sabrina’s impressive pipes, Andrew’s sweet licks, and a pummeling rhythm section—everything is tighter, more focused, crisper. The album deals with divorce, getting older, dying, frustration, and futility, ultimately transcending those earthly headaches through the power of rock’n’roll.