Stream: The Dollyrots, ‘Oblivious’ and ‘In Your Face’
Kevin Bronson on
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Has it really been 15 years since the Dollyrots were rattling the furniture at the dearly departed Zen Sushi? Guess so. Back then, Kelly Ogden and Luis Cabezas were virtually fresh off their cross-country move from Florida, where they met as kids. The Dollyrots were quickly becoming one of the darlings of Kiss or Kill, a loose and notably unpretentious collective of garage-rock, pop-punk and power-pop bands* that staged rotating club nights around L.A. (There was even a documentary made.)
Seven albums, six EPs, two children (Ogden and Cabezas are parents of a 5- and 2-year-old) and more than 10 drummers later, the Dollyrots are not only still standing, but they’re still making pop-punk as if they invented it. “Daydream Explosion,” which comes out July 12, is their eighth full-length, and after a string of crowdfunded albums the Dollyrots self-released, this one will arrive via Steven Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records. The L.A. rockers have been a longtime fave on his Little Steven’s Underground Garage radio program, and, Van Zandt says, “Their songwriting has reached a consistent level of greatness.”
As for “Daydream Explosion,” it’s almost breathtaking that Ogden and Cabezas can find this much untilled soil in a genre seemingly doomed to redundancy. Their songs are three-minute rascals that grab you by the earlobes and pull you along. The guitars are razor-sharp; the percussion hits you like a slap in the face; and Odgen is ever the bratty, mischievous bandleader, a still-cherubic belter who can make Melanie’s “Brand New Key” sound punk (yes, they’ve covered it). Suffice to say the family business is doing OK.
“Everything,” which Wicked Cool released as a single last year, lead the charge on the new album, one of those irrepressible shout-along songs. Along with “In Your Face,” “Flippy In My Red Dress” and the latest single “Oblivious,” it’s evidence that tsunami choruses never go out of style.
“Daydream Explosion,” the follow-up to 2017’s “Whiplash Splash,” was made with longtime collaborator and producer John Fields (All Time Low, Jonas Brothers, among many others). “John Fields is our George Martin,” says Kelly. “He’s pretty much our bandmate that doesn’t tour.”
Speaking of tours, the Dollyrots start one next week en route to playing the Warped Tour’s 25th Anniversary in Mountainview. Included on their itinerary is the album-release show at the Hi Hat the day after the album’s release.
||| Stream: “Oblivious” and “In Your Face”
||| Watch: The videos for “Everything” and “I Know How to Party”
||| Live: The Dollyrots play the Hi Hat on July 13. along with the Darts and Not Ur Girlfrenz. Tickets.
[…] Sharp as ever, the Dollyrots released their eighth album, “Daydream Explosion,” last summer via Little Steven Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records. With their annual U.S. tour plotted out, they returned this spring with the new single “Make Me Hot” (b/w an artist-endorsed cover of Lisa Loeb’s “Stay”). The single arrived in mid-March right on schedule, but COVID-19 scotched the tour. “Fortunately,” the band says, “the Dollyrots have a crystal ball and ‘Make Me Hot’ lyrically makes a lot of sense in the midst of what we are all living through.” (Also see their recent cover of the Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks.”) […]