DOGS debut album ‘Turn Against This Land’ was released in 2005 in the UK on Island Records to united critical acclaim and achieved 3 top 40 singles. Australia now gets to hear this cracking debut album in the flesh with an Australian reissue version of it coming out featuring exclusive bonus tracks! The album is a snapshot into wordsmith Johnny Cooke’s observations on what it’s like to live and love in England this side of the millennium. “I’ll bring you firewood but I will burn your house down!” (Selfish Ways). According to Clash Magazine, “Turn Against This Land is an easy mix of fiery punk and anthemic rock that has more hooks than The Ramones on a fishing trip”. ‘Turn Against This Land’ was recorded at Sawmill Studios and produced / engineered by John Cornfield (Muse, Oasis, Supergrass and Stone Roses). ‘Johnny Cooke turns suburban rage into throat-searing riches on another quintessentially British debut’ - NME Trusty Chords Music has just released the album here in Australia with two bonus tracks, here is a little about it.

Johnny Cooke gives us the lowdown in his track by track synopsis of 'Turn Against This Land'. London Bridge I wrote the bulk of this song in the back of a white van just after crossing London Bridge. I was working, delivering crap to ungrateful twats and I used to pull over every now and then and get in the back and play the guitar. It was probably Monday and I was pissed off with my situation, the song just wrote itself. There’s something about the bridge, I always look east up the river and think of the world beyond the city walls. When I took it to the lads Rikki started playing the opening refrain, like church bells announcing the start of something important, it fitted perfectly. Selfish Ways This started with Dunc on the bass playing this nursery rhyme riff, too much of it would do your head in but I think it’s ok how we’ve done it. It’s an honest forcast of an ensuing relationship by a selfish bastard. It’s a warning from an emotional retard to an unlucky girl. It’s just true Donkey ‘Shed your load your donkey’s come home’, self explanatory really. I remember Paul Weller getting Rikki to teach him the riff on tour, he was pretty proud about that. End Of An Era The opening riff Luciano pinched from The Sex Pistols, fair play I say. It’s a big sing along this one, people like to swear en mass. The Spanish repetition thing we pinched off The Clash by the way. Ha. She’s Got A Reason This is a bloke all messed up by a girl. It’s turmoil. Actually making the video to this was a very surreal experience, we turned up to a huge warehouse with lots of people trucks and equipment, I hadn’t seen anything like it since I was an extra on Harry Potter, and I shat myself. It was the first proper video we ever did and I really didn’t feel confident so I necked a bottle of vodka. When you see me falling over that’s not choreographed. It’s Not Right This is us just having it in the rehearsal studio born out of Rikkis riff. I’m very much a rationalist, an atheist and a humanist and somehow I’ve combined a shaky condemnation of modern un-thinking and tabloid superstition with a nostalgic hark to a more personally innocent time. That could all be bollox of course. Tuned To A Different Station This is probably my favourite song. It went through various incarnations before it got to where it is on the album, it used to be quite a lot slower with a really tribal beat in the chorus. It all came together though when we sped it up and Rikki added that guitar to the chorus, that’s unique that sound. The question answer thing with Luc worked really well. Also we only added the outro when we were at the studio, I could hear it working in my head but it took a while to get it right. For Rikki’s outro solo he basically jammed for about fifty takes while I was listening in on the lawn outside. When he hit on ‘the one’ I legged it in and stopped him, it sounds magic. The lyrics are a bit nonsense really but they hit home with their sentiment. Tarred And Feathered This song is all about the line ‘you can’t eclipse my corona’, it’s a misunderstood and defiant teenager. It’s also partly a shoddy one night stand. We actually recorded the sound of the train that goes by the sudio for the start and combined it with a bit of Hammond Organ. It’s a huge grinding rusty old beast that carries chalk from quarry to factory and it makes a great aching groan. Wait This is about loss, it’s the wailing realisation of it. But it’s got this bouncy beat. I think it’s good.Heading For An Early Grave This is something my brother said to me once and had to be used as a title. It recalls a very dark time. The music to this I love, it’s a great psychotic charge with heaving paranoid ruptures in the middle eight, fucking love it. Red This is the only song I can’t talk about, in fact I couldn’t even sing it for a couple of years. I’m not even sure how I managed to get the words on a page. Turn Against This Land The title was from a passage in Moby Dick, I can’t recall in what context but I used it in my own, about how in the face of madness, doubt and disaster we can always just kick and fight. Whether it’s the right thing to do or not, we do. I wrote it at Sawmills Studio on the acoustic next to the lagoon in the blazing sun watching a couple of swans. My mind was elsewhere of course. Why Do We Do It To Ourselves This is a personal favourite of mine and Dunc’s but it never made the album. We felt that it was from a different place and it didn’t fit with the whole. It’s a rhetorical question, one that we keep repeating. I remember sitting in the control room with producer John Cornfield for hours trying different tricks and effects on the guitar parts and if you listen carefully there’s a lot going on under the surface. I’m very glad it’s on there now. Charlie This was born from a great riff from Rikki on the effects pedals. It’s about a girl called Charlie that I met on tour in Germany. Her best mate was insane and tried to stab us.

OUR QUICK THOUGHTS It may be an oldie, but this one is a goodie. Originally released a good handful of years ago these English lads serve up a gritty punk influenced rock sound with a few spoonfuls of angst thrown in for good measure. If Gallows were a rock band, this is what I reckon they'd sound like, there is just that certain attitude present in the tracks and the general vibe. 'It's Not Right' is a track I keep finding myself going back to, if you want a no frills punk rock song, then this is exactly it. One of the album's highlights for sure. There is a good mix of the more poppy stuff on offer too which keeps the album interesting, the band has balanced it out well and you can definitely see why the album was so well received upon it's initial release, 'Tuned To A Different station' is a hook fuelled anthem that has no doubt inspired many sing-a-long's in the live setting. A few of the tracks are growers that may not stand out right away, but a few spins of the album in full and they really start to grow on you. Bonus tracks are great too, but the highlight for me comes in the form of 'Selfish Ways', catchy as ever, but still packing a punch, nice riff too. There are a tonne of bands who do a similar thing, but most fail to really capture a live, gritty sound in the studio such as this one, it doesn't sound like too much tweaking has been done to the sound, and that is why there is a really warm vibe to it all. Grab a pint, listen to this one nice and loud, then get cranky at something, it'll do you the world of good. Amazing that an album like this it has taken so long to find it's way to our shores. 'Turn Against This Land' is instores now via Trusty Chords Music Buy a copy now from Poison City Records [Here] for $18.00