The huggable power pop of Dogbreth's Second Home is the work of punks who write youthful, larger-than-life songs that still wrinkle at the edges. It's the third outing from a band — its members split between Phoenix and Seattle — that plays with doo-wop rhythms, jangly Britpop guitars and ramshackle Thin Lizzy twin-leads.
Coming in at just under two minutes, the snippy "Hoarder House" acts as a self-contained short story in just five lines.
I'm sorry babe
I know you're doing your part
But I can't let anyone into this hoarder house of a heart
I look at people through a peephole
This was over before it could start
Songwriter and guitarist Tristan Jemsek knows his way around both a clever metaphor ("hoarder house of a heart") and wordplay. He turns the stalkery and sad near-homonym — "I look at people through a peephole" — into a punchline as he stretches out the sugary peeeeeeephole like a Peep left out in the sun, only to rip a guitar solo with all the swaggering grit of Slim Dunlap.
Second Home comes out August 5 on Asian Man.
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