If you like short, concise, pop songs, stop reading now. If you don't appreciate a long, chugging two-chord vamp, put down this paper. If the blues doesn't give you catharsis, move on to the next article.
But if you love a good bar band, look no further, 'cause that's what the Soulless Dogs Blues Band is-take it or leave it.
Don't let the group's name take you aback-a Soulless Dogs set includes jazz standards, blues workhorses, some slick '70s soul and frontman Ben Shelton's best Jimi Hendrix imitation. (The band's name comes from a comment a minister made about Shelton's pet when he was in high school.)
"We play anything that grooves," said sophomore and bassist Spike Brehm.
When challenged by a reporter that such a claim is hackneyed, Strat-slinging guitarist George Dyer, a sophomore, clarifies wryly: "A lot of bands say they play anything that grooves. We actually do."
Sophomore Shelton is the band's lead guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist. He looks every inch the electrical and computer engineer he is until he plugs into his homemade amplifier and plays-jaw-dropping bebop lines interpolated into standard funk tunes. Shelton cites Wes Montgomery, Charlie Parker and Steely Dan as influences.
An advocate as well as musician, he has also spent much of the semester lobbying administrators to buy a Hammond organ for communal use, enlisting everyone from student musicians to the Duke Chapel's organists.
Interviewing the group is no easy task: Brehm's phone rings constantly, Shelton frequently vents his disdain for jazz writers (present company included, by all signs) and drummer Tim Garbinsky does his best to distract everyone-optimally by reference to James Joyce or William Faulkner. Dyer, meanwhile, declares staunchly that nothing he says is on the record. But their light-hearted rapport becomes an asset on stage, as the whole band locks in with Brehm's bass to locomote forward.
Why do people come to see the band? Garbinsky, a sophomore, wastes no words in answering the question, simply pointing at Shelton.
"Ben does a funny dance [while playing]," Dyer said, chuckling. "When he's playing a good solo you can tell 'cause he rocks back and forth and gets this blank look on his face."
Although the tunes they cover aren't likely to be on most students' iPods, the band members say they have gotten warm receptions everywhere.
"People respond really well," Garbinsky said. "At [a recent gig], they danced our whole three-hour set."
Well, warm receptions have occured most places. Not everywhere.
"We're not that good at parlaying our success on stage into success with the ladies," Shelton cracked.
Dyer, Shelton and Brehm are the band's three constants-Garbinsky alternates with fellow sophomore John Roelofs on traps, with a rotating cast of sophomores Sam Cieply and Brian Arnold and freshman Alex Banzhaf on saxophones.
The band has so far played only campus gigs, at the Armadillo Grill, Trinity Cafe and E-Kegs, but they hope to record soon and get gigs off campus.
"I think we could be, like, Carnegie Hall," Dyer said-almost, but not quite, keeping a straight face.
The Soulless Dogs Blues Band plays from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 16 at the Armadillo Grill in the Bryan Center.
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