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The Golden Dogs

THE GOLDEN DOGS with JANE’S PARTY at the Rivoli (332 Queen West), Saturday (February 21), 9 pm. $10. 


It’s been five years since Toronto’s Golden Dogs released their third album, Coat Of Arms – long enough for the husband-and-wife-led pop/rockers to totally reconfigure their band. Stef McCarrol has stepped in on guitar, keys and backup vocals, and Alejandro Cairncross is the new bass player. 

Jessica Grassia, meanwhile, has moved from keyboards to the drum kit, mastered the console at Ill Eagle (the garage studio the band shares with Zeus) and put over 100 hours into editing their music video for Decided.

“She’s gone through the roof over the last four years, like Mama Rock,” laughs singer/guitarist Dave Azzolini, the only member still in his original role. “She knows how to do everything now.”

The band’s independently released new album is called – almost their fourth but not quite. 

“We had an album with a dozen or so songs on it and it was a bit sprawling, so we cut it back to six plus the instrumental,” says Azzolini. “To us this is a full album, but it’s kind of like part one in the story of this time in our life. Hopefully people will want more.” (He refers to 3½ as the GD’s “makeshift Kickstarter campaign”: if they sell 1,000, they can make part two.)

Though most of the album was recorded at Ill Eagle, the four-piece went into east-end studio Revolution to capture the single Decided live off the floor. 

“It was like a spa day for us after working so hard doing everything ourselves,” says Azzolini. “It really opened our minds up to what we could do. Stef played her first really big rock solo. Jess had to learn how to do this funk beat. Alejandro is playing way more bass notes than anybody in the world.”

The bonus track is a wonderfully nostalgic lo-fi rendition of the Lemonheads’ 1992 song My Drug Buddy, which follows the five-minute instrumental jam MK Ultra. 

“It’s not a pop structure at all,” says Azzolini of the heavy original tune, citing the Chemical Brothers and Ministry as influences. He recommends blasting it while driving.     

Interview Clip

music@nowtoronto.com

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