The Street Dogs

Read for the Big Time

The Street Dogs have always been destined for something bigger.

Their fist-in-the-air, blue-collar street punk anthems could fill arenas, but the band’s been hampered by smaller labels with little distribution. As a result, the Boston quintet has spent the past five years flying under the radar. 

Now signed to punk-rock powerhouse Hellcat Records, with a brilliant new record called Saving Grace coming out this summer, the band is ready to prove to the world exactly what they may have been missing out on. We spoke with bassist Johnny Rioux and guitarist Tobe Bean recently, talking about everything from the new record to politics.

What can you tell me about the new record?

Johnny: The new record is a compilation of the best 11 songs we've recorded to date. We and our producer and spiritual guru, Ted Hutt, found a way to encompass all of our musical influences and explore new musical boundaries all on one CD. I think musically and sonically we've outdone our previous efforts, and I'm so proud of the result. Fans and friends that I've played the record for have said that it delivers the same fire power as our previous albums, but is also new and exciting. Paul (Rucker, drums) and I tried to find other influences for rhythms from crazy British music forced on us by our producer. Although I wasn't super happy listening, the result was effective and we came up with some great ideas! I can't wait for July 8th.

Tobe: I can tell you we should have called it album of the year!  Ha, ha!  But really, it's an album that we are extremely proud of.  We definitely stretched ourselves this time around and showed some new sides to us that we haven't displayed before.  Songs of promise, anger, sorrow, remembrance, protest, and hope.  I just listened to it again today and I'm really into how Mike's lyrics are really colorful and tell some great stories.  I guess it’s what the critics would call a very raw and organic record.  Fuck that sounded really snarky huh?  Anyway...fans will be stoked!

 Do you have any guests on State of Grace?

Johnny: Yes, my friend Heather Waters. Heather and I used to do open mic together in Portsmouth, NH and play old style country and rockabilly. She has an amazing voice and now lives in LA, writing and recording alt-country/folk type stuff. She sang a duet with Mike on "Elizabeth," a song Mike wrote about his grandmother. The crazy thing about the song is that when we first tracked it, we weren't sure it would make the record. Now it's a lot of people's favorite song on the record. Tim (Armstrong) actually wanted it to be our first track that we send to radio and put online. That is the craziest part of making a record, what you think is the best song ends up being the worst and the worst song turns out to be the best. In addition to Heather, Joe Gittleman (bassist of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones) has done backing vocals on every release we've ever done! “State Of Grace” was no exception. Joe has an amazing voice, ear, and is a great friend of ours. Ever want to know how your record sounds? Invite Joe, let him listen and watch his face. He doesn't need to say a word. We also have some bagpipes as an outro on "Kevin J O'Toole," and pipes and drums in the title track, "A State of Grace." Ted invited his friend Lorne Cousin to play pipes, and Steve Sidelynk to play marching drums. Steve and Lorne actually play with Madonna of all people and Steve has played with Style Council, Seal. The two of those guys and Ted have a great dance type bagpipe drum band called Dram that Mike did some guest vocals on.

Tobe:  Um maybe...  We had tons of guests that visited through the making of the record like a lot of the Hellcat staff, Chris LaSalle, and Tim Armstrong.  That was a trip the night Tim showed up.  Mike was tracking vocals and Tim walked in and really lit up the room.  Such a great guy and influence and gave a lot of great input to some of tracks.  

I know you've been out on the road for a while now.  Have you been playing any of the new songs? 

Johnny: Saying we've been on the road for a while is an understatement. We are road warriors! We've played "Mean Fist" and "Kevin J O'Toole" live for the last tour and they went over great! Particularly “Kevin J O'Toole.” People can really identify with stories of lost family members. That’s my favorite new live song, at least until we start playing "2 Angry Kids"...

Tobe: Yeah!  We were just out with Anti Flag and we rotated three different tracks through the set.  “Kevin J. O'Toole,” “Mean Fist” and “General's Boombox.”  I was so blown away to see kids setting it off and even attempting to sing the choruses.  It's always a weird moment when you debut new songs because you expect minimal response as kids wrap their heads around your new songs, but this time it felt like we had been playing those songs for years.
Johnny, I remember hearing about the seizure you had on stage last year.  Are you doing ok now? 

Johnny: I did, and thank you for asking about my well being. That was a really scary night. It happened on the fourth song of our set in Omaha, NE on the Flogging Molly tour. I don't remember anything except coming to with a medic standing over me with a needle in the dressing room. Tobe was yelling for me to go to the emergency room but I told him I'd go after we played. When he told me we'd already played, that I had a seizure, and I saw our gear being loaded off stage, I knew I had to go to the hospital. Apparently, there were some firefighters that jumped the barricade to help resuscitate me and I'm eternally grateful to them. We had been (and still are) touring relentlessly and exhaustion was a factor. I see a vacation in my near future!

Tobe: That was a horrific moment for me.  I was standing next to him and realized his playing was really off.  I looked over at him and expected to see him laugh as we do when we fuck up but instead he looked really odd.  I grabbed a hold of him and he collapsed and we both went down.  My first instinct was that we were getting electrocuted and our tech thought the same thing and was trying to rip the guitars off of us.  We are still not sure what caused it but just to be safe we have a strict no strobe policy now.  I'm probably more sensitive to it and freak out on lighting guys because Rioux doesn't remember it.  It was awful.  But after all that, he was onstage the next night and finished a grueling five week winter tour without letting up.  

How did the signing with Hellcat come about?

Johnny: Hellcat has been our goal and dream since 2003. We are still pinching ourselves! Chris LaSalle of Hellcat has been a friend of mine for a while and a strong advocate and fan of ours. Tim and the Rancid guys have always been in our corner as well. It couldn't happen in the past for various reasons but the stars aligned and contracts ran out so here we are! It is the best and most natural home for us. The staff of that label is second to none. We are finally no longer doing this ourselves and are part of a really great musical community.

Tobe: When our contract with our former label was up we just received a phone call from a friend who was associated with the label and asked what was next for Street Dogs.  We informed him that more records and more tours and he simply said well you should be with Hellcat.  Next time in LA, we had lunch with Chris LaSalle and Brett Gurewitz and a few months later we were starting to work on “State of Grace.”  It's been really laid back and natural working with them and so far they have hit nothing but home runs for us.  I couldn't think of any better label to be with.    
 
You guys have not shied away from writing political songs in the past.  With this being an election year, do you plan on using your shows to encourage kids to get more involved politically?

Johnny: We've always been political from an autobiographical and lyrical sense, but we have never shoved our views down a person's throat and want it to stay that way. I think people know we are anti-war and pro-labor, so that automatically makes us lefties. We are certainly going to continue to encourage voting and being active for change. Probably more so this year. It is an exciting and optimistic time to be an American. That being said, we will keep to the idea that we are musicians and are no more qualified to preach than the guy making cappuccinos at Starbucks.

Tobe: You know this record is not quite as political as “Fading American Dream.”  I think we have always conveyed our political views but also never forced an opinion.  I can sit at the merch booth all night and tell kids the current administration is doing nothing but wrecking our country and smearing our reputation abroad, but I'm not a lobbyist or a figure on a news channel.  I prefer to talk about the issues and let kids find their way to what's going on.  Being an election year we definitely have some plans to get our fans politically involved, most importantly getting registered and voting!  There is a real excitement amongst young kids this time and they know they have the power to do something special and get their voices heard.  Being a political band you have to let your fans have some victories and hope or they just get tired of hearing a bunch of preaching and contradictions. 

What's next for the band after the record comes out?

Johnny: Touring some more.  We are going to try to become more "international" on this record. We've been to Europe several times and Japan once but I wanna hit Hawaii, Australia, Alaska, China, South America and so on. We have a label that can sell records finally. We are going to take full advantage of it. I also need more stories to tell my grandkids while in my rocking chair. 

Tobe: Well the record drops July 8 while we are on the Warped tour. Right after Warped Tour we will be heading out on a full headlining tour!  That's right kiddos...you get to see us for more than 45 minutes.  We will be taking out Time Again, Flatfoot 56, and some great regional/local acts...supporting the local scene!  We also are making our back to Europe in Nov/Dec and then our annual "Wreck the Halls!" show in Boston at Xmas time.