The Dollyrots

Inspired by bands like the Ramones, Pixies, and Green Day that combine the energy of punk with the bubblegum hooks of pop, the Dollyrots started as a scrappy trio aligned with Lookout, and their 2004 debut, Eat My Heart Out, firmly places them in the Muffs camp of loud noise with sweet melody. The band slimmed down to a duo of bassist/vocalist Kelly Ogden and guitarist Luis Cabezas, and shifted to a streamlined, more mainstream brand of punk-pop that landed them in commercials and TV shows. Their sunny, hooky songs are easy to digest, and albums like 2010’s A Little Messed Up, 2017’s Whiplash Splash, and 2019’s Daydream Explosion have won them a devoted fan base. Along with raising a family, the pair continue to tour frequently and keep the punk-pop flame alive.

The group started when Ogden and Cabezas were students at the New College of Florida in the late ’90s. Initially named No Chef, the lineup included bassist/lead vocalist Josh Harrold and drummer Mike Benbow; the band was something of a lark until Ogden and Cabezas decided to make it a full-time concern. Harrold left the group at this point and Ogden took over vocal chores. Benbow was the next to depart, and he was replaced by Frank Beasley. This was the trio that took the name the Dollyrots and left Florida in 2001 in search of a new home. After a long road trip, they settled in Los Angeles and began playing shows as soon as they got settled. After replacing Beasley with Josh Valenti, the band recorded their first EP, Feed Me Pet Me, and released it themselves in 2003.

The group met producer John Fields not long after and went into the studio with him to record their debut album, Eat Your Heart Out. Initially self-released, the record was picked up by Panic Button, a label housed under the Lookout umbrella. By the time it was released in July 2004, Valenti had left the group and was replaced by Amy Wood. The Dollyrots spent most of the next two years on the road, including a stint on the Warped Tour. In between dates, they started working on their second album but were derailed when Lookout went out of business. Luckily, the band had a fan in Joan Jett, who was so taken by the Dollyrots that she offered them a spot on her Blackheartlabel roster. Produced by Jacques Wait and Fields, the group’s second album, Because I’m Awesome, was issued on Blackheart in March 2007. They toured incessantly to promote it and popped up all over the place, recording a version of Jett’s song “Bad Reputation” for the soundtrack to the film Endless Bummer, playing themselves on the TV series Greek, and doing a commercial for the Kohl’s department store.

The Dollyrots’ next album was recorded in 2009, with Cabezas taking over some production duties for the first time. A Little Messed Up was released in 2010 and saw the band folding more pop elements into their sound and working with outside songwriters too. The group left Blackheart after that release, and their next record was an EP on their own Arrested Youth label. Sticking with self-releasing their work, the band turned to crowdfunding site Kickstarter for support, launching a wildly successful campaign that yielded the funds needed to record 2012’s The Dollyrots. Working again with Fields, the album featured Ogden and Cabezas firmly in charge for the first time in their career as they played all the instruments (save for a few parts done by Fields) and had final say over all facets of the process. They hit the road after the record’s release and only stopped when Ogden became pregnant. That didn’t stop them from making a record, though, and 2014’s Barefoot and Pregnant was recorded during Ogden’s pregnancy. The album fared well critically and reached number seven on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.

The all-acoustic Love Songs, Werewolves, and Zombies was released digitally in 2013 to the band’s PledgeMusic supporters, and received a public release the following year. The Dollyrots continued to successfully fund their projects through PledgeMusic, and in 2016 they released their first concert album, the ambitious, double-disc/DVD set Family Vacation: Live in Los Angeles. That same year also saw the release of the three-song EP Mama’s Gonna Knock You Out. By the end of the year, they were working on two new projects: another kid and their next album. The couple’s baby girl was born in November and the John Fields-produced Whiplash Splash was released in early 2017.

The Dollyrots continued touring — with drummer Rikki Styxx, who had been with them since 2014 — and raising a family before hitting the studio again. They released the single “Get Radical” on their new label home of Wicked Cool Records, and followed it in 2019 with their eighth studio album, Daydream Explosion. 2022 saw the release of the career-spanning Down the Rabbit Hole, a compilation of rarities, B-sides, and covers. ~ Katherine Fulton & Timothy Monger, Rovi

GYMSHORTS

GYMSHORTS is from Rhode Island and like the band’s home state frontwoman Sarah Greenwell is a petite powerhouse that marches to the beat of her own drum. Endearingly rebellious, fiercely independent, and hellbent on causing a commotion, Greenwell embodies the kind of rambunctious unpredictability that has personified some of pop culture’s most legendary troublemakers; a little bit Bart Simpson, a hint of Kevin McCallister, and a dash of Dennis The Menace form the inspirational foundation of

GYMSHORTS’ particular brand of punk n roll, smoked to perfection in the back of Jeff Spicoli’s van.

GYMSHORTS are a sarcastic grin and a pair of bloodshot eyes behind pitch-black Wayfarers in the back row of class, a best friend and a bad influence all rolled into one.

GYMSHORTS takes musical cues from a deep well of sources, with touchpoints that range from trailblazing new wave punks The Nerves to sassy turn of the millennium bad girls The Donnas tossed into a creative woodchipper with midcentury surf guitar and wooly, flannel wrapped grunge. The resulting sound is ragged and raw and immediately magnetic, rough and tumble with the kind of lived-in authenticity of a scuffed-up pair of skate shoes. A sturdy platform for the band’s unabashedly unique identity that is equal parts bratty and wise, tightly wound and poised to launch in nearly any direction at a moment’s notice.

Blistering speed and high-octane thrills characterize a GYMSHORTS’ live set, like a juiced-up NASCAR laying a righteous burnout in the winner’s circle, a springy mosh of unbridled exuberance that has earned the band coveted spots supporting Death Valley Girls, Tacocat, La Luz and many others on tours stretching across the globe from Texas to Thailand. As buoyant ambassadors of plucky stick-it-to the-man attitude, GYMSHORTS never fail to leave crowds sweaty and satisfied in the aftermath of a ferocious blitzkrieg bop, decimating eardrums in a whirlwind of maximum volume sonic debauchery with an enthusiastic heart of gold. GYMSHORTS’ catalog is available on Bandcamp and your favorite streaming platforms. Pick up their LPs and 7”s at your local record store and don’t miss an opportunity to party hard with GYMSHORTS when the band comes to your city.

CAITLIN EDWARDS

Pop rock/punk whatever from Chicago

PANTHER STYLE

Panther Style is a rock band from Chicago, IL USA.

Influences include The Posies, Big Star, New Order, Lush, Sleater Kinney, The Cult, Van Halen, Fugazi, and Failure.

Started by veterans Jeanne McClure, Al Rodis, Dan Lutger, & Melissa Koehl (Mary Tyler Morphine, Siderunners, Dyslexic Apaches, Reptoids) out of a mutual desire to make some beautifully catchy songs that also rocked. Loudly.