A Giant Dog is a white hot indie rock and roll band right now. That, if you hadn’t noticed, is pretty rare these days, when subgenre is king, and when just so much has already been done in the genre that "authentic" and "unique" are terms that instantly raise hackles. But, with new video "Sleep When Dead," which follows right on the heels of their deeply good video for "Sex & Drugs," A Giant Dog have obviously plugged right into that elusive current of pure rock and roll electricity that has always powered the real, true good stuff.
Filmed in the iconic Old Austin venue Carousel Lounge, "Sleep When Dead," like "Sex & Drugs" before it, is a sonic blast of the band’s gleefully, irreverently mature take on rock and roll, depicting a troupe of veteran rock weirdos getting down like only those kind of people can, with a bit of an Ugly Duckling, the Punk Version plot thrown in.
What A Giant Dog is doing with this recent music, being rock vets themselves, is pretty awesome, and difficult. They’re writing manic, thundering rock songs that are thoroughly self-conscious and make the culture and performance of the very thing they’re doing in the song the subject of the song. Doing that without getting cliché, pretentious or losing the feeling of being an actually good song outside of its subject is incredibly hard.
To maintain that kind of balance, you have to be living on that edge between the wisdom and refinement of maturity and the youthful freneticism that is the spirit that rock was born of, and considering their recent output both aesthetically and in regards to subject, that sweet spot of rock is right where A Giant Dog is living, and thriving, right now. They can do that, because, as a band that’s been active for 8+ years, they’ve seen it all, and now they’re pumping that back out to you in a head-bangingly enjoyable package.
Check out the new video before, and see "Sex & Drugs" here. They’re both well worth it, and will undoubtedly be stuck in your head for a good long while.