Dot Dash release album '16 Again' via UK indie label Country Mile
Dot Dash is a guitar, bass & drums trio from Washington D.C. At various points their music has been described as garage, power pop, punk, post-punk, indie rock, and indiepop. The band’s latest release is 16 Again, a 12” vinyl ‘best of’ LP, released by Newport, Wales indie label Country Mile Records.
Taking its name from both the Buzzcocks song of the same name and the fact that the record comprises 16 Dot Dash songs being released again, 16 Again collects 15 gems from the Dot Dash back catalogue and adds a Television Personalities cover (‘Jackanory Stories’.) Think of it as a ‘greatest hits’ album by a band with no hits…
Previous to 16 Again, Dot Dash has released 7 albums via Ottawa, Canada-based indie label The Beautiful Music: spark>flame>ember>ash (released in 2011), Winter Garden Light (2012), Half-Remembered Dream (2013) in Earthquakes & Tidal Waves (2015), Searchlights (2016), Proto Retro (2018), and Madman in the Rain (2022).
About the band: Before Dot Dash, guitarist/singer Terry Banks and bassist Hunter Bennett played in indie-rock power pop quartet Julie Ocean. Previously, Banks was in indiepop combos The Saturday People, Tree Fort Angst, Glo-Worm, and St. Christopher. Drummer Danny Ingram began musical life in Dischord label harDCore band Youth Brigade, later doing time in UK shoegazers Swervedriver.
§ Trouser Press editor Ira Robbins: “Washington DC group Dot Dash, who have come to play as idealized and energized a form of power pop as one could imagine, didn’t grow up in the ’60s; their musical touchstones are in the new wave era: so, more the Jam than the Who, Haircut 100 rather than the Kinks. Their iconic labels are more likely to be Postcard, Rough Trade and Sarah than Immediate, Pye or Deram. While they may have started out in thrall to Wire, from whom they took their name, their progress has been towards crystalline tunefulness. “
§ The Washington Post: “Everything we've ever read about Dot Dash plays up the group's collective resume: Singer/guitarist Terry Banks was in St. Christopher and the Saturday People before teaming up with bassist Hunter Bennett in acclaimed indie-rock band Julie Ocean and drummer Danny Ingram co-founded harDCore band Youth Brigade. Very impressive. But we're more interested in the music, a retro cocktail that recalls the yearning indie-pop of Sarah Records; the '80s neo-Byrds jangle of R.E.M., Orange Juice and other seminal college radio artists, and tight, throbbing basslines and slashing guitars that evoke the Jam and the Clash."
Along the way, Dot Dash has played gigs with The Undertones, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The B-52s, Richard Lloyd (ex-Television), The Monochrome Set, The Minus 5 (ex-Young Fresh Fellows, R.E.M.), The Psychedelic Furs, The Chameleons, The Dickies, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Ash, Hugh Cornwell (ex-Stranglers), Stiff Little Fingers, The Fleshtones, The Vibrators, Glen Matlock (ex-Sex Pistols), Urge Overkill, Ian Hunter (ex-Mott The Hoople), The Drums, 999, The Bats, The Trashcan Sinatras, Sylvain Sylvain (ex-New York Dolls), The Clientele, The Nude Party, Protex, The Godfathers, The Empty Hearts (mems of Blondie/The Cars/The Romantics/Chesterfield Kings), Bailterspace, The Schizophonics, The Amazons, Moon Duo, Allo Darlin', Tommy Keene, Frankie Rose, Ultimate Painting, Chris Stamey (ex-dB’s), The Supersuckers, Country Westerns, Jacuzzi Boys, The Ladybug Transistor, D.O.A., The Wave Pictures, Jack Grisham (TSOL), Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, X__X (ex-Rocket From The Tombs), The Essex Green, Soulside, Wussy, Stevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian), Elf Power & lots of other rocking combos.
Dot Dash links:
music: dotdashdc.bandcamp.com
band info: facebook.com/dotdashdc
