Campdogzz are a five-piece based out of Chicago who, led by the distinctive vocals of Tulsa native Jess Price, create a brooding indie rock that their bio describes as being “dialled into the bleak, spirited heart of the industrial Midwest.” Following 2016 album Riders in the Hills of Dying Heaven, the band have signed to Cursive’s 15 Passenger Records for a brand new record, In Rounds.
As we described in a preview last month, In Rounds took shape when Price and guitarist Mike Russell traveled around southern deserts in a school bus, and the harsh beauty and wide open spaces of the landscape, as well as the starkness of Price’s home state, shape the sound. Although never mentioned explicitly, the album invokes the atmosphere of a storm. As label 15 Passenger put it “There’s a feeling of electricity, of winds shifting, a magical mix of both comfort and unease.”
After the tentative intro of ‘Bobbing on the Plains Pt. 1’, the first of several instrumental interludes, lead single ‘Souvenir’ comes crashing to life in all its intense indie rock goodness. The song feels somehow scorched and dangerous, big crunchy guitar and pummeling drums supporting expressive vocals, delivering opaque lines that seem to withhold more than they reveal.
“Hold the wheel
Feel my head
Probably should have stayed in bed
Souvenir
Come right here
I’ll be yours a little bit
Did you want to get me gone
Did you want to get me
Well that train is going by”
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Things are more slow burning on ‘Run Wild’, a tense and humid song in which Price gets to display her emotional range, from near-whispers to passionate snarls, her voice like the crackles of lightning precipitated by dense thunderheads of guitar and subtle percussion. ‘Batshit’ follows a similar pattern, marching drums and whirring violin conjuring images of leaden grey skies tinged green in portent of an oncoming tornado, as dust begins to lift and stands of crops lay flat against the wind.
The tensely succinct ‘Rawbone Ring’ and taut title track are followed by the lush and spacious ‘Dry Heat’, a track which ebbs and flows like turbulent air pressures, aching with sincere yearning as Price sings “I need you now.” ‘On My Own’ emerges from the song’s remains, quickly evolving into a driving indie rocker, while ‘Royal Rye’ strains with unreleased energy, Price’s vocals taking centre stage as the song continually threatens to overspill into unmitigated catharsis.
Closer ‘Sorceress’ sees Russell take over vocal duties for a rambling folk rock epic that channels Molina in its intensity and semi-mystical writing. What at first might seem a slightly strange segue for a final track soon straightens out into an intuitive sense of logic and belonging, as though the album-long teeter on the edge of some epiphanic transformation has finally fallen headlong at the last moment. Telling the story of an encounter with a lupine deity, all paws and fangs and restorative venom, the track is a fevered vision of healing magic and symbolistic fervour, propelled not just by the Campdogzz sound but language itself.
I was spending my time in the world, when I saw a great wolf dance towards me. I saw her eyes flash across the night, I saw her black fur in the cold sky. I saw her claws dog the earth, as she moved with effortless grace, like a thousand tiny leaves on a blanket of winds, like the sea.
I saw her fangs as she spoke to me. You have no reasons to be afraid. I am the one that they have told you about, I am the great love you have been without. I will sink my teeth into your heart, you will feel my venom in your veins, as my universes spin inside your blood, you will end and begin again.
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In Rounds is out now and you can get it on LP, CD or digital download from 15 Passenger.
