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County Line

by Dogs At Large

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miajoan90
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miajoan90 From what I've heard from this upcoming album, "I Don't See You Anymore" is my first pick to play. I am so excited for the full album and to get my Vinyl copy! Favorite track: I Don't See You Anymore.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    12" black vinyl version of County Line. Includes printed innersleeve with full album lyrics. Pressed by Smashed Plastic in Chicago.

    Includes unlimited streaming of County Line via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD  or more

     

1.
Bleary Eyes 03:40
Living free and easy Let the wine drip down and stain the lazy chair You heard a ghost, but nothing’s there Thrust into tomorrow Forced out of bed by the buzzing and the chiming Feels bad, but we’re surviving Bleary eyes, what does it take to realize You got your whole life laid out in front of you? Silver dawn, won’t you sing another song? You got your whole life to play those lonely blues Drove out to the country To that frigid realm of cattails and clouds of sawdust To start a fire, but no-one saw us Living like an echo Of the places and the thoughts you left behind you No-one now to confess to
2.
Theseus 02:54
Looking to the shoreline and we’re almost halfway there There’s a monarch on your shoulder but there’s winter in the air I never felt so low as I was on that astral plane Theseus and Asterius just standing in the rain To be slain as quickly as they Came on down the line Cigarettes and wine Living like it’s 1199 Written in the scripture of a thousand empty cans Is a contract between your liver and your social life’s demands I never felt to innocent as at that plaza door Theseus and Dionysus passed out on the floor To be sure, I miss them and their Love of the afterlife No misery or strife Theseus, he loved the afterlife But now we’ve gotta walk away Into a brand new Now we’ve gotta walk Away, away, away
3.
Tennessee 03:57
Darling, you left me with no-one to hold by my side In this big empty rock n’ roll club where our love died Watching a cover band butcher “Sweet Jane” just because We sat on the steps by the stage, you said “this ain’t enough,” “I want to see mountains and streams and rivers and meadows,” “I’m so sick of the asphalt, concrete and guitar-slinging bros,” “I’m heading to Knoxville then down to southern Tennessee.” She said with a laugh and a sigh, “I can’t take my baby with me.” She said “I can’t take my baby with me,” “Down to Tennessee.” “I know you belong with your kind,” “So I’ve gotta leave you behind,” “And frankly, I’m sick of your games,” “Your reckless and rowdy old ways,” “It’s better that we were apart,” “Because baby, you’re breaking my heart.” She walked out so quickly it knocked me right off my feet The bartender said to me, “Son, you’ve had too much to drink.” I’ve been pissing my life away strumming this beat up guitar My baby just crossed the state line And I’m on the floor of this bar
4.
I fell asleep in the backseat of your car As you drove us to the naval station train Living on caffeine from a pack of yellow pills So I could wander sleepless through the rain The leather tannery and the sky so full of smog Glared down upon the demolition crews The march of progress turned The river slowly burned And some of us would see it on the news The party people tried to do what’s right Flowing so freely in their robes of white But they just can’t contain the blinding light They shipped the work down south To Indiana’s gaping mouth Where power poles and cottonwoods decay A lake was once so deep Now a puddle on the street Where children in the slag debris would play I watched the world turn From the northern county line Where innocence and beauty were for sale I marveled at your drugs Bought from suburban thugs Just miles from the crowded county jail
5.
Feels like this is the end Where you fall right out of your throne On the streets of your old Milwaukee Where you made your new permanent home Dying, it’s never so easy But to some it’s fun as hell Reading last rites on a Saturday night Boy, I wish you well And for the years I spent Thinking you knew what you were doing I have my regrets You always knew where to find me In the gutter of your plans In the trees of an ancient forest Turned into a lumber stand You claw at the gates of heaven But the gods won’t let you in You’ve been shattered by the expectation That we’d always win
6.
7.
I see your face out in the hollows I hear you rapping at the door All those sacred lines you gave us Do you believe them anymore? My king, where did you go? Can we find you? I just don’t know Have you retreated too far into your own Egotistical decay? Algorithmic day to day? I don’t see you anymore when I look into your face Always stayed up until the sunrise Talking your philosophy Orbited by crooks and angels Seeing patterns in the green My man, what did you find? Was it worth it to leave all of us behind? Will you come back now, or are you lost to the Pulsing interstellar light? MAGA forums late at night? I don’t see you anymore when I look into your eyes
8.
The profits are made Way off in the shade So far apart from human feeling Where we die by the blade Centuries old Time standing still In the crevasse of creature comfort I’ll admit it’s a thrill Can we laugh until we die? Can we sing without saying goodbye? Forgetting what was Facing a cliff Lit up by the land of the dying embers But the past is a myth Fully erased In time and in space Looking for anything of value As you drift through your place Feeling high Getting low Giving in to the fires below Don’t you see the bastard company Burning off their fat so wild and so free We can shed our skin but they will hunt us down Feeding frantically, their teeth scraping the ground
9.
When you come around in the late summer dawn I fall backwards into my room Because honey, you thought you were me And I thought I was you The cheapest embraces And far-away faces of friends who forgot about you Just swim through your mind As our bodies entwine in the gloom Honey, I know that you wanted to be so far From where I was with you Some silver linings can keep you afloat Until the clouds just disappear too But you’ve gotta believe One day you will see Your far-away mind and your body reclined Bring me back to such happier days Because lately I feel like I’m stumbling into a haze I wanted to show you that life isn’t always like this And you’ll find a new way One day you will leave And you’ll forget my song and my name
10.
Vogue Beauty 04:00
A vogue beauty right before my eyes You’ve got a name I could memorize I like your hair and you like mine too Girl, I wanna dress up with you Would you kiss me in a denim shirt? Tell me baby, is it gonna hurt When I fall so hard for you? You’re the future I can see into Baby, you’ve got style And I want to see you shine I could model your designs If you will model mine I like your freaky runway walk I like your filthy pillow-talk When the fellas say “Who is she?” You know I can’t deny my jealousy But you’re my baby and I’m your man Through the seasons we go hand in hand Into thrift stores and new boutiques Hopping on a plane at the end of the week Canvas bags filled with shirts At the outlet mall down on 71st It’s all so cheap, it’s such a deal Now come on babe, we got something real
11.
Fires 02:04
Fires away from civilization Are testing the limits of everyone’s patience They glow and they smoke Like it’s all just a joke Like some devil on the wind Losing my cool in the heat of the country With embers that spark up and float all around me I’m fine and I’m sane But there’s still so much pain In just trying, every day A life half-lived in the city Half in the arctic wastes I’ve got to try to live for tomorrow If I can see beyond today Leave it to me to be calm and collected Just pushing my paper where I am directed I sweat and I save In my dark little cave And then burn it all away The smoldering winter of civilization Just hastened by rats at the top of the nation They post and they shout And they’re plunging their clout Like a sword into the flame
12.

about

For a while, Dogs at Large bandleader Sam Pirruccello crossed his fair share of county lines as he traversed across the vast expanses of Chicagoland for work. From the window of a pickup truck, the manicured lawns of the northern suburbs might blur into the gleaming towers of the city, which in turn morph into the dark and looming shapes of industrial towers. Finally, they transform into a wasteland of decaying telephone poles and abandoned buildings thick with overgrowth, caught in the black hole of capital that has long since fled Indiana's gaping mouth. The transformation of the landscape feels organic and it's impossible to pick out exactly where its borders are - but there is clearly a divide.

Thematically and literally, County Line is haunted by these liminal and cloven psychic landscapes. The record was recorded in two sessions with two separate lineups. The first set of songs feature Steve Malito on pedal steel and Mallory Linehan on violin, and are comparatively more pastoral. Album highlight "Tennessee", a true blue country ballad about being abandoned in a dying urban rock scene by a lover in search of paradise, features some of the album's most direct and memorable songcraft. The second set of songs (recorded with keyboardist Andrew Marczak) balance the first out with a wooly and exuberant energy. Dogs at Large have certainly never recorded another song like Vogue Beauty, which Pirruccello refers to as "coked out glam rock". Even past the dueling walking guitar lines and riffs (which call to mind the undeniable cockiness - and catchiness- of the Rolling Stones "Start Me Up"), there's something deeply affecting about the way the characters in the song blur the boundaries between one another and find a spark of joy left in the excesses of inescapable consumerism. Other album highlights include the dark and noisy "I Don't See You Anymore," a lament for a one-time friend who has crossed a line from which there can be no return, and the wistfully humorous and harmony rich "Feels Like This Is The End".

Throughout the lineup changes and itinerant recording style, the core musical unit of the band sounds remarkably cohesive. Guitarist Jamie Yanda and longtime bassist Adam Gilmour trade off licks in the noisy, climactic instrumental coda of "I Don't See You Anymore," which is easily Dogs at Large's heaviest song to date. Elsewhere, the restrained arrangements allow moments like the tricky rhythmic flourishes drummer Chris Kolodziej adds to the verses of "Tennessee" to shine through. Not country, yet undeniably suffused with a certain rural power, County Line is clever, catchy and thematically timely.

credits

released March 2, 2023

All songs by Sam Pirruccello. All music by Dogs at Large, except track 6 by Andrew Marczak and track 12 by Adam Gilmour
Adam Gilmour: Bass, Piano, Keyboards, Vocals
Chris Kolodziej: Drums
Mallory Linehan: Violin
Steve Malito: Pedal Steel
Andrew Marczak: Piano, Organ, Keyboards
Sam Pirruccello: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Keyboards, Organ, Vibraphone
Jamie Yanda: Guitar

Tracks 1,2,5,8,9,11 recorded and mixed by Robby Haynes at Strange Magic Recording, Chicago IL in 2021
Tracks 3,4,6,7,10,12 recorded and mixed by Doug Malone at Jamdek, Chicago IL in 2022
Mastered by Carl Saff

Cover painting and layout by Maggie Schafer

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Dogs At Large Chicago, Illinois

Dogs at Large creates “languid, Americana-inflected indie rock,” as described by the Chicago Reader. The group’s discography features songs inspired by Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Judee Sill, and Big Star, but Dogs at Large may also get compared to modern country-influenced indie artists like Cut Worms, Dougie Poole, or Daniel Romano. ... more

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