Coffinberry: God Damn Dogs

Coffinberry plays a Pixies-esque power pop that could have, maybe, been semi-popular in the mid-’90s. The grungy guitars and verse/chorus crescendos sound straight out of that fabled era. The band’s lead singer sometimes channels Kurt Cobain on songs like “Earthworm in the Sun” where his acoustic strums and self-deprecating lyrics explode into a distorted hop-a-long chorus. But, mostly, God Damn Dogs trudges along like a sleepwalker. The album sort of just goes through the motions. That isn’t to say that Dogs doesn’t have its share of catchy hooks and emphatic wailing, it just seems the band may be about a decade too late. “The Ram” is a nifty pop rock number, and “Write This” is genuinely poppy and sentimental. All in all, God Damn Dogs makes me wish it 1996… maybe a little too much.