Chicago's Wally Dogger put out arguably their best album to date, Choose Your Own Adventure, about a year ago, and then they were no more. They disappeared. Lead singer Pauly Doerr has a new project.
We are hoping they are on a temporary hiatus, but active web links are getting few and far between. As a matter of fact, they've changed all of their Twitter posts to read in what looks like Russian. Or maybe the band was kidnapped by Cold War spies. I can't really tell. So there's that. Wally Dogger - always an enigma. But they still put out some damn good music.
Wally Dogger played pop music in the chronological vein of The Kinks, T. Rex, Supergrass, Cake, They Might Be Giants and The Strokes. Their ability to juxtapose lyrics and subtly draw on mature themes and double entendres was a key component of their style but their more blatant works were generally more successful, songs like Tramp Stamp and Drunk In the Day. Maybe they overestimated their audience, or maybe their audience underestimated Wally Dogger, but we miss them nonetheless.
Wry, rhythmic, off-beat...... that's the standard descriptive of Wally Dogger music. Add self-deprecating and a deadpan delivery to the mix as well. My personal go-to description is something like a Cake/Kinks mash up. Others have labeled the band as nerd rock but that's slightly off. Intelligent? Yes. Nerdy? Certainly not. Definitely fun. Choose Your Own Adventure is a cleverly hip and wonderfully fun album. Yeah, let's go with that. It's accomplished and smart with amazing instrumentation and production and five killer songs that relies heavily on the less is way, way more marketing platform.
With a laid back vocal delivery over strong power pop melodies Pauly Doerr (lead vox, bass), Swerve (guitar) and Donehoo (drums), aka Wally Dogger, deliver five great tacks on their latest release. Some of these songs will be instant crowd favorites, no doubt, and will only enhance their live performances. And that offers a degree of irony when you realize that Wally Dogger is as much of an album band as it is a live performance band, with each track seamlessly and easily bleeding into the next.
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Wally Dogger's Jivewired Bio: Formed in Chicago in '05 by former members of Nice Peter, Wally Dogger cooks a fresh batch of hook-driven powerpop. The live shows are unique and engaging, filling rooms with youthful energy. Their high-octane set features synth driven dancers, piano ballads, and straight-up rockers. They entertain the audience with puppets, crowd participation, and one-of-a-kind songs about one night stands, cover bands, and surrendering to the corporate world.
"Ironic goof rock a la Cake, They Might Be Giants and other geeks, Wally Dogger lays it on so thick the effect is overwhelmingly unctuous. " - Time Out Chicago
See what I'm saying?
Featured Album Release:Choose Your Own Adventure (March 2013)
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Purchase: No longer available for purchase
Stream:Jivewired | Soundcloud
One Sentence Album Review: "A throwback to a time when bands focused on pop songs over pop singles and that makes this album incredibly addictive."
-- Jivewired.com
What Others Are Saying:"Modestly clever hooksmithery."
-- Timeout Chicago
"An engaging group from Chicago who fans of artists from Fountains of Wayne to Neil Young to Randy Newman to The Rolling Stones are sure to appreciate! Their combination of humorous lyrics, mid-song shifts from glorious harmonies to folky singer-songwriter style to powerpop to rock and back again, and energy is hard to resist!"
-- David Bash, International Pop Overthrow
"The group plays straight forward pop rock in the vein of, say, Tom Petty, but with a much more youthful edge as they sing songs about their girlfriends text messaging them at inopportune moments and the timelessness of 'tramp stamps.'”
-- Omaha City Weekly
"The kind of pop rock band very popular in Canada right about now. I guess you’d call them “Nerd Rock” because they write songs about “nerdy” things, like being an IT guy, but really, what band doesn’t refer to binary code in their songs these days–it’s very en vogue (the phrase, not the she-group) and metrosexualesque."
-- The Post Rockist
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We are hoping they are on a temporary hiatus, but active web links are getting few and far between. As a matter of fact, they've changed all of their Twitter posts to read in what looks like Russian. Or maybe the band was kidnapped by Cold War spies. I can't really tell. So there's that. Wally Dogger - always an enigma. But they still put out some damn good music.
Wally Dogger played pop music in the chronological vein of The Kinks, T. Rex, Supergrass, Cake, They Might Be Giants and The Strokes. Their ability to juxtapose lyrics and subtly draw on mature themes and double entendres was a key component of their style but their more blatant works were generally more successful, songs like Tramp Stamp and Drunk In the Day. Maybe they overestimated their audience, or maybe their audience underestimated Wally Dogger, but we miss them nonetheless.
Wry, rhythmic, off-beat...... that's the standard descriptive of Wally Dogger music. Add self-deprecating and a deadpan delivery to the mix as well. My personal go-to description is something like a Cake/Kinks mash up. Others have labeled the band as nerd rock but that's slightly off. Intelligent? Yes. Nerdy? Certainly not. Definitely fun. Choose Your Own Adventure is a cleverly hip and wonderfully fun album. Yeah, let's go with that. It's accomplished and smart with amazing instrumentation and production and five killer songs that relies heavily on the less is way, way more marketing platform.
With a laid back vocal delivery over strong power pop melodies Pauly Doerr (lead vox, bass), Swerve (guitar) and Donehoo (drums), aka Wally Dogger, deliver five great tacks on their latest release. Some of these songs will be instant crowd favorites, no doubt, and will only enhance their live performances. And that offers a degree of irony when you realize that Wally Dogger is as much of an album band as it is a live performance band, with each track seamlessly and easily bleeding into the next.
Wally Dogger's Jivewired Bio: Formed in Chicago in '05 by former members of Nice Peter, Wally Dogger cooks a fresh batch of hook-driven powerpop. The live shows are unique and engaging, filling rooms with youthful energy. Their high-octane set features synth driven dancers, piano ballads, and straight-up rockers. They entertain the audience with puppets, crowd participation, and one-of-a-kind songs about one night stands, cover bands, and surrendering to the corporate world.
"Ironic goof rock a la Cake, They Might Be Giants and other geeks, Wally Dogger lays it on so thick the effect is overwhelmingly unctuous. " - Time Out Chicago
А со мной, пожалуй, как вчера, никогда до этого так не знакомились☺️
— wallydogger (@wallydogger) July 8, 2014See what I'm saying?
Featured Album Release:Choose Your Own Adventure (March 2013)
Purchase: No longer available for purchase
Stream:Jivewired | Soundcloud
One Sentence Album Review: "A throwback to a time when bands focused on pop songs over pop singles and that makes this album incredibly addictive."
-- Jivewired.com
What Others Are Saying:"Modestly clever hooksmithery."
-- Timeout Chicago
"An engaging group from Chicago who fans of artists from Fountains of Wayne to Neil Young to Randy Newman to The Rolling Stones are sure to appreciate! Their combination of humorous lyrics, mid-song shifts from glorious harmonies to folky singer-songwriter style to powerpop to rock and back again, and energy is hard to resist!"
-- David Bash, International Pop Overthrow
"The group plays straight forward pop rock in the vein of, say, Tom Petty, but with a much more youthful edge as they sing songs about their girlfriends text messaging them at inopportune moments and the timelessness of 'tramp stamps.'”
-- Omaha City Weekly
"The kind of pop rock band very popular in Canada right about now. I guess you’d call them “Nerd Rock” because they write songs about “nerdy” things, like being an IT guy, but really, what band doesn’t refer to binary code in their songs these days–it’s very en vogue (the phrase, not the she-group) and metrosexualesque."
-- The Post Rockist