Dogstar - Somewhere Between The Power Lines and Palm Trees Tour
Everything you know about Dogstar is probably wrong.
Here in 2023, Dogstar – guitarist/vocalist Bret Domrose, drummer Robert Mailhouse and bassist Keanu Reeves – epitomize the quintessential Southern California storytelling rock band they’ve always been in their hearts, making deeply resonant music that literally comes from Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees. Yet had you Googled this long-on-hiatus, now happily reunited trio anytime during the past decade, you almost certainly would have found Dogstar being described as a Nineties “grunge band.” Should you have dared to push your dogged Dogstar research any further, you likely would have come across vague yet slightly barbed references to the group being some sort of “vanity project.”
Thankfully, “Everything Turns Around,” to quote the title of the first track on Dogstar’s new, compelling album Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees. And with their positive new turn, this formerly promising power trio of friends finally delivers on that promise and finds their power. One fair listen to Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees reveals Dogstar’s beautiful sonic truth. Nearly a quarter century after what seemed to be their final album, Happy Ending (released in 2000), Dogstar has reformed and taken a great creative leap forward, establishing an entirely new path.
In truth, Dogstar was never a vanity project, but a sincere passion play – a band of buddies who came together organically in a garage in Southern California and simply dreamed of playing music together and making a little noise. Now, all these years later and seemingly out of nowhere, Domrose, Mailhouse and Reeves took some time at the tail end of a historic lockdown to become the band they always dreamed they could be.
“Our earlier records were almost in the wrong decade,” says Rob Mailhouse. “Looking back, it’s almost like we started a Seventies band that somehow got lost in the Nineties. When everybody else was shouting, we were trying to tell stories because in Bret, we’ve always had a singer-songwriter in the Jackson Browne tradition. But people kept saying `grunge’ because of the times we were in – or maybe because of the clothes we were wearing.”
But a couple of decades later, mistaken identity has given away to brand new clarity and stronger tunes. “This music just sounds like us,” says Bret Domrose with a smile.
More specifically, Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Tree sounds like a varied yet somehow cohesive and, at times, radiant set of songs by a band whose time has finally arrived.
“One of the things I love about this album is the variety of feel,” says Keanu Reeves. “Every song is not the same – you can hear our diverse influences and a lot of different tones here. And I feel like finally on this album, we’ve managed to take all those influences and our passion for playing together and once and for all turned it all into Dogstar.”
As it turns out, there’s quite a lot happening on Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees, from the sensitive musical character study of “Dillon St.,” and the redemptive power of love in “Everything Turns Around,’ to the Pink Floyd-tinged “Glimmer” and the raw aggression of ‘Breach.” Echoes of classic L.A. rock abound, with sonic textures and flourishes reflecting the group’s shared love of Brit Rock from The Cure and The Smiths, to Joy Division and New Order. Something on Somewhere – between songs like “Sunrise” and “Sleep” – will hit you hard. As Domrose sings on “Dillon St.,” a shimmering folk rock gem inspired by his father’s musical dreams, “And you don’t have to feel so alone/There’s a song for everyone that can bring them home.”