Friday 09 July 2010



This’ll go your your permanent record

For as vast as Canada is a country, I sometimes think the musical landscape is small and somewhat insular, with the same names cropping up time and again when discussing new music.  Take for example, the genesis of Coat of Arms, the upcoming third album from The Golden Dogs.  It started life at a tiny garage studio in Toronto operated by Carlin Nicholson and Mike O’Brien, but you may know them better as Zeus.  Neil Quin, an ex-Golden Dog/future Zeus member, and Afie Jurvanen (perhaps you know him better as Bahamas?) all stopped by to play along and lend a helping hand or solo wherever they could.

I don’t know The Golden Dogs from a brown jackass, truth be known, but Coat of Arms is yet another refreshing change from the music I’ve been listening to lately.  They blend the retro sensibilities of bands like Zeus and Yukon Blonde with the pop smarts of Sloan (see “Weapon” as a prime example).  Whether this is a change of sound or direction I cannot say, but I’m more than willing to head in the direction this record is going for a while longer.  So is Elijah Wood, who chose “Permanent Record” for his Elysium charity compilation, available exclusively on iTunes.  All the artists participating in the project have donated their music to benefit The Art of Elysium and its music projects.  The charity’s goal is to encourage actors, artists and musicians to voluntarily dedicate their time and talent to children who are battling serious medical conditions.  The Golden Dogs are in some good company:  Sonic Youth, The Kills, and Black Mountain are just some of the artists contributing songs.

Coat of Arms is being released on label-of-the-moment Nevado Records July 27, available on both CD and 12″ vinyl.  You can pre-order a copy now if you’re so inclined.  And you should be.

MP3: The Golden Dogs “Permanent Record”
Myspace: The Golden Dogs
Facebook: The Golden Dogs





by J. Di Gioia | 2 Comments »

This entry was posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 10:30 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “This’ll go your your permanent record”

Jonathan July 9th, 2010 at 1:19 pm

So excited to see these guys get a little love!! I’m a huge fan of their last album, Big Eye Little Eye (at least I think that was their last one). They put on a great energetic live show which includes them putting up handmade signs for each of the songs they play so that you know the title. Personal favorite track is “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.” I was talking to a promoter friend about Golden Dogs and wondering why they weren’t at least reasonably huge in Canada and they said that it has to do with a bit of a crappy work ethic on their part, a real shame.

That was a poorly constructed paragraph.

Jim July 9th, 2010 at 1:26 pm

“I was talking to a promoter friend about Golden Dogs and wondering why they weren’t at least reasonably huge in Canada and they said that it has to do with a bit of a crappy work ethic on their part, a real shame. ”

Indeed. Let’s hope this album begins to turn the tides for them. Golden Dogs shouldn’t have to be under dogs.