Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Night & Day Cafe - 31.07.03

Any band which launches into a song which mixes the classic songwriting of The Proclaimers with yodelling from "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in front of a bunch of bitter drinking, denim wearing Stands fans has to be applauded for bravery if nothing else. The fact they also happen to have the greatest name in pop right now, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, and have the sort of upbeat pop tunes that have been missing in action since bands started wanking simultaneous over pictures of the Strokes and The White Stripes and decided to launch their own inferior brand of new / old rock & roll music on a public who lap it up like the docile masses they are only confirms how refreshing this band are.

Take "Celebrity Sanctum", a tongue in cheek song about Charlies Angels star Lucy Lui, Angela Jolie and Catherine Zeta Jones which manages to squeeze a french horn on top of a jaunty acoustic camp fire singalong. "Chinese Girl" continues Craig Macintosh's obsession with, you guessed it, chinese girls and rewrites Bowie's "China Girl" for the noughties. A diversion into piano driven funk pop (Nb: not punk funk real music fans) before the single "I Love You Cause I Have To" which sees the band write the tune of the summer ska pop style.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars and the Stands are two bands that couldn't have been more mismatched if you tried. In the end DDIHC's proved that you can't keep a good pop band down and towards the end of the night people were truly left wondering exactly why they watched a bunch of scousers run through Byrds pastiche's as if they were in a rehearsal room when these virtually unknowns from Scotland came and blew them away.

Alex McCann

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