Heartbreaking Bravery

As a general rule, if a song’s already been covered here, then it’s out of contention for a feature spot, allowing for very rare exceptions. Today’s one of those exceptions. Way back in August, Dogs On Acid released an extraordinary self-titled 7″ on the remarkably reliable RANCH label. It was a release that was spearheaded by “Make It Easy”, which was a big reason why that 7″ landed up towards the very peak of this site’s best 7″ records of 2014 list.

Now, the band’s offering up a slightly cleaner version of the song as a single in their rollout campaign for their upcoming self-titled full-length (their first for punk institution Jade Tree). All of the hooks that helped make the first one so sharp are still intact and there’s no real deviation but- even a  year after the song’s initial release- it’s still an exhilarating whirlwind of punchy basement pop that feels fresh despite having very clear roots to movements that happened decades ago. Catchy as hell, unabashedly melodic, and laced with enough punk sneer to win over a legion on converts, it’s as high-impact now as it was in 2014. If the rest of Dogs On Acid can sustain this level of songwriting, it’ll be a very real contender for Album of the Year.

Listen to “Make It Easy” below and pre-order the band’s debut full-length from Jade Tree here. Beneath the official stream, revisit the band playing the song live at DBTS.