Kerbdog won't get much sleep for the next two years. The Irish alternative rock trio release an EP and an album within the next three months, backed with intensive touring, including a sustained assault on the US market. Two years after their last top 40 single Dummy Crusher, the band can't wait to get down to business.
First up is the EP, JJ's Song, featuring four new tracks. More immediate than their eponymous first album, Kerbdog's new music is highly accessible, contemporary rock. "We've all got varied tastes, but collectively we like Foo Fighters, Husker Du, Helmet and Smashing Pumpkins," says bassist Colin Fennelly. "Some people think we're a metal band, others say we've got loads of pop songs."
The band's manager Merck Mercuriadis, whose Sanctuary grouop also handles Iron Maiden, makes this simple assessment, "Kerbdog play good quality pop songs with a lot of energy. Rock music in the mid-Nineties is a bit of Ash, a bit of Skunk Anansie, a bit of Rage Against The Machine. There's a wide variety of rock music out there, from the UK and America, and there's nothing else quite like Kerbdog."
Fontana's head of A&R dave Bates says, "This band has improved dramatically since the last record. Having slimmed down to a three-piece (guitarist Billy Dalton quit last year), they've become more melodic, very current. It's alternative British rock but a little tougher than Honeycrack and The Wildhearts."
The songs for the album and EP were recorded in Los Angeles with GGGarth Richardson, whose production credits include Rage Against The Machine's multi-platinum debut. The tracks were mixed by Joe Barresi, who assisted Richardson on Jesus Lizard's first record for Capitol and is currently producing a new album for cult all-girl grunge act L7.
Mercuriadis feels Richardson played a crucial role in developing Kerbdog's new music. "They are still young guys," he says. "It's not like they know all the answers."
Recording in L.A. has increased the budget and, in turn, raised the pressure on Kerbdog to make a successful album. But Fennelly plays down such talk. "We signed a three-album deal. The record company has given us loads of space, loads of time and not too much pressure. It was awfully nice of them."
The real pressure on Kerbdog is to stay on their feet for the next year as one tour rolls into another, They will travel the UK three times before the year is out, with 35 club gigs in August and September, support for a bigger band in major UK theatres in October, and a second set of headlining dates, this time in larger venues, in December.
The album, provisionally titled On The Turn, is released in the UK in September and the US in March. The US release will be followed by months of touring. "The first album was released in America, but we never toured there," says Butler. "We'll just try to bum on to somebody's tour, which we're expert at doing." "We want them to tour constantly," adds Bates. "When I saw them at the Splash Club recently, they were so much stronger and Cormac (Battle, Kerbdog frontman) was making a lot more contact with the crowd. They're a bit more special now. The live aspect is very important to this project."
Equally important is the use of the EP to re-introduce Kerbdog to rock fans and the media. "It's been such a while since the last record, it's almost like they're starting again," says Bates. "The EP is a way of easing people into the new sound."
"This is just a taster," adds Mercuriadis. "It's a very cool EP and it's available in very limited quantities. We have no chart expectations- it's just a way of stating that Kerbdog are back."
by Paul Elliot