If Kerbdog had a penny for every side splitting "Doggy Style" headline they have inspired in the world's music press, they would probably have ammased sufficient wealth by now to buy themselves a stately pint of lager in the country. They have existed for four years, but it's really only been over the last two that Kerbdog have been convincing a vast number of pundits and still more actual punters, that they may constitue some variety of future rock n' roll scenario, and quite rightly. Kerbdog rock. They don't apologise for this, and nor should they. But there's so much more to it than that.
Kerbdog, as such, are three early twenty-something men from Kilkenny, an Irish town hithero unrenowned for its monstrous contribution to music. Kerbdog's singer, guitarist, and lyricist is Cormac Battle, a man whose very name is always going to condemn him to a life in front of a rock band, or starring in the sort of films you'd hesitate to take someone out on a first date; posterity will surely thank him for choosing the former option. The bass player is Colin Fennelly, a promising schoolboy polo player whose other significant claim to fame was dismissal from a part-time security-guard at Lords cricket ground for refusing Graham Gooch entry because he had no identification with him. The drummer is Darragh Butler, whose show business career began at the age of seven with a speaky rendition of "Paper Roses" at a benefit concert for the Kilkenny Mission for the Reclamation of Reduced Females; he has since developed a slightly more ferocious approach to his music.
Before the Christmas of 1992, Kerbdog were called Rollercoaster, and the repetoire consisted of cover versions selected from the works of all the great late 80's noiseniks: Spaceman 3, Loop, Dinasour Jr., Sonic Youth among others. During that epochal festival season they decided two things; one to pinch the name of a BMX crew called the Kerbdogs, who they all had much admired and two, to start writing their own songs. Kerbdog at this stage a four-piece, started playing these in public and were promptly given a record deal with Mercury allowing them to pack in their college studies in Dublin. Swiftly realizing that no great band's history is complete without a brief decent into squalor, the band relocated to London, where poverty was such that they were reduced to stealing from grocers to eat, and entertaining themselves by staying in all night and staring at each other, the television having long since expired, and acquiring a cat, which they called Pusker Du. This sort of intensity isn't for everyone, and Kerbdog abruptly found themselves a trio when second guitarist Billy Dalton left. His departure caused no rancour and Kerbdog wish him well.
The new slimline Kerbdog has since gained enviable notice as a live act, with one distinguished commentator moved to observe, in no less a journal then the Independent, that "Kerbdog display occasional but encouraging taste and subtlety and other such disregarded virtues", before getting perhaps too hung up on Cormac's superficial physical resemblance to one K. Cobain, Esq. Still that's journalists for you.
There have been records too, of course, to go along with these enviable notices: three fine singles including the Top 40 Dummy Crusher and one eponymous debut album all produced by Jack Endino. Joining these shortly will be a second album, the result of a three month arduous slog in Los Angeles under the aegis of producer GGGarth who has worked previously with Rage Against the Machine, The Jesus Lizard, and the Melvins. The songs on it are, according to Cormac, "Um, kind of love songs and mostly about rejection." What matters most is that the songs are also arrestingly great, managing to combine all the visceral wallop of their favorite American bands with the insidious tunefulness of their British ones- a difficult trick which is why so few people are capable of it. It is, if you'll forgive the irresistible pun, a record that will canine out of ten at the very least. Seriously now. It'll tear the woof off.
"JJ's Song EP" is released on July 22nd on Ltd. Edition cd (1000only) and numbered 7".