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Wet Dog
Bull & Gate, Kentish Town, London
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Article
written by James G
Sep 1, 2004.
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It’s all in the name, really. Wet Dog. Say it to yourself. Wet Dog. Two words. One syllable each. Wet Dog. An animal. A friendly, boisterous creature, running through a public park in a rainbow of droplets, not caring for the sleek-coated obedience of the advertising agency. Being natural and unaffected. Being very everyday and British. Not always obeying the rules. And so it is with Wet Dog the band. Three girls. Drums, bass and guitar. An intro, a verse, a chorus, same again – then out. Hypnotic drums. Guitar parts and vocal lines that suggest very early Rough Trade releases like Scritti Politti’s ‘Skank Bloc Bologna’..Bass – sounding like bass should – playing the kind of basslines that make me want to go home and listen to the Slits or the Delta 5. Only I don’t have to. This is here – and now. They’re too young to have heard all that back then – all the names that flash into my head – Lilliput, Young Marble Giants, Girls at our Best!, Essential Logic… Even the cruelly ignored Life Without Buildings spring to mind – especially during the jaw dropping ‘harmony break’ in standout track ‘Steal a car’.
The brevity of their songs mean that we are treated to 11 tracks - and although middle on the bill at the Bull and Gate on the last Tuesday in August should mean escape to the bar by song 3, this band have got it right. They’re doing something interesting. The D.I.Y ethic – that which I thought had long gone from music - means that when I ask for a demo afterwards, I am given a tape – you remember them - a cassette. With a photocopied insert. Listening to it when I get home, it strikes me again that the innocence of the Wet Dog is indeed its charm. Although they’ve only played a handful of gigs, it won’t be long before they are seized upon as the next new big thing. And there lies their biggest challenge, so let’s hope that Wet Dog continue to cover sniffy bystanders with that shower of naivety.
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