There is a stillness at the center. A storm, an atom, a galaxy or a lived life, it makes no difference. Reaching it requires a journey through the roil. At the edge is myth and folklore: wild tales of the untamed, inimitable truth, like the idealized Beauty in "And She SIngs".
The Dog Soldiers, a vehicle for singer/songwriter Brian Wapole, have taken the theme of growth through journey and bent it like a .10 "E" string through a quest for Love in all the wrong places - but half-assedly. His shamans are women and there is a stillness at the center of each song. The Vox arrangments hint at the Bodeans, perhaps XTC. The guitars could've been stolen from Paul Weller's basement, or maybe Peter Buck's. The hooks seem to be dangling in the same bittersweet waters that Marshall Crenshaw, Peter Case, Tilbrook & Difford and Hildago & Perez used to fish. Brian's formative rock 'n' roll years were spent jamming with Chicago punk bands Strike Under, Breaking Circus, Ice, and The Hipster Crows.