Dogs on Acid: Dogs on Acid

Having experienced a somewhat unlikely and surprisingly successful renaissance in recent years, scores of younger bands have started to look to the late ‘90s and early ‘00s emo bands and their labels for inspiration. Listening to Dogs on Acid’s self-titled debut on the newly revitalized Jade Tree Records, itself a former bastion of the genre, is like taking a trip back to the turn of the century, to a time before emo became a pejorative term. So spot on is their approach, one could easily be forgiven thinking them to be the real thing.

On “Flushed”, “Make It Easy” and a host of others, they employ the genre’s hallmark chugging guitars and loud/soft dynamics to create something that sounds like the missing link between “The Blue Album” and Pinkerton. While there are moments of brilliance scattered throughout, as was the case with so many albums by seemingly innumerable bands exploring similar musical and thematic ideas, Dogs on Acid become more a faceless approximation of the genre than defining presence. Admirable and full of relatable emotions set to appropriately emotive instrumentation, Dogs on Acid serves as a satisfying opening salvo from a group who could well become a leading light in the most recent emo revival.