Dog Day

Night Group (Tomlab)

By Alyson Mead
Published: June 11th, 2007 | 10:25pm

Since I’m a sucker for male and female voices intertwining and the urgent, youth-tinged pull of heartfelt punk rock, I am a sucker for Dog Day. Singer Seth Smith and girlfriend Nancy Urich sound like they’ve raided their parent’s closets for all the ‘80s records we all pretend we’re too cool to like, or geek out to on karaoke night. There are tinges of the Cure in the minor chord song structure of Night Group’s tunes, and the Smiths in the bright, pure spirit of its lyrics. I can even hear New York’s the Feelies in the fast-strummed guitar lines and hopping, melodic bass lines.

To call a band minimalist is usually to evoke the bored, the tragically hip, and the pretentious beyond all hope. But Dog Day’s songs, "Lydia" and "Bright Light" especially, only borrow the vocabulary of Sonic Youth and the noise movement. With this as a jumping-off point, they give us jagged textures, stop-start tempos, and raggedy, fuzzy guitars, perfect for losing yourself on a rainy day or, since they’re from Halifax, Canada, walking around completely snowblind.

If you like your music a little dirty, a little off-center and imperfect, give Dog Day a spin. In this day, to find music this brimming with heart is such an anomaly, so weird and rare, you just want to preserve it in amber, or give it a huge hug. Leave the black behind, people. I’ll be listening to this all summer long.