Z is for Zombie Dogs

Zombie Dogs

Self-Released, 2010

We made it. We finally made it! The letter Z was one of the toughest, because there’s not a whole lot of bands that start with the letter (duh). And also because I’m tired of this and I just want to be done. I’ve had it with the alphabet. Damn thing is overrated. Anyways… I’m finishing up with the Brooklyn band Zombie Dogs, who appear to have not existed for at least the past five years. It’s hard to find much info about them. I discovered them on the site Female Fronted Hardcore, which is a great place to discover some awesome new bands, and should give you an insight into Zombie Dogs. By all accounts, they were short lived and only released one record in their time, 2010’s short and sweet, Zombie Dogs.

Zombie Dogs is sixteen minutes of intense, aggressive, and intellectual hardcore punk. It is fun music, with an air of youthful intensity, but it’s radically feminist as well. My favorite of their lyrical themes is its unapologetic nerdiness. Songs like “Nerd in the Pit,” “Brain Crush,” and “Awkward Youth” take pride in this. “3.14 nerd in the pit!” They are songs about growing up, and taking in pride in who you are. Usually, punk bands will take pride in hating school, not in their nerdiness, or they only take in interest in the history and political science fields. Not mathematics. (Does this remind anyone else of “I don’t wanna go to math”?) “Nerd in the Pit” is a flat-out awesome song. Elsewhere, there’s an in your face snottiness in songs like “Big Mouth” or “Flip the Bird.” Zombie Dogs remind me of the kind of band that would play at DIY spaces, where no one really knew them going in, but everyone loved them afterwards. There’s an energy that’s present in all of these hardcore blasts, all two minutes or less, that lends itself to an amazing live presence. If only they still existed.

The whole point of this is not just to highlight bands or records that I like, but to show how many great bands can be discovered out there simply by digging around. So trade music with your friends, listen to their recommendations and tell them about some of your favorites. Go support your local scene, go to DIY shows, go to club shows, and watch the openers. Don’t show up late or spend a whole band’s set having a smoke break. Watch the show, from openers to headliners; you never know what cool new band you’ll discover. A lot of these bands were discovered randomly browsing around and reading articles on the internet. One band leads to another, one site of reviews leads to another, and there’s always a whole host of cool new bands to look up. Get out there and find something cool, and then tell us about it. I hope you find at least one band you like that you hadn’t heard before. I hope you enjoyed the alphabet. I hope someone other than Phil read the majority of these. It was a real pain in the ass to do this for an entire month. Never again. But mission accomplished. I’m gonna take a nap now.