DeeOhGee - LP Advance - out 11.13 via Midtopia

DeeOhGee - Matthew Paige (guitar, vocals, harmonica), Zack Murphy (drums, vocals), and Dylan Whitlow (bass, vocals, guitar) - offers up a compelling selection of porch stompers that weave together the raw swagger of the British invasion, fuzzed-out woozy psych, and early ’00s alt-rock atmospherics into a sound at once eminently familiar and very much of the moment. Or, as Paige so succinctly puts it, “it's catchy as shit.”

DeeOhGee is a cohesive artistic statement. While each song stands on its own, taken as a whole, the record exudes a particular kind of deeply charming, cathartic humanness. “Because AI is the state of the world,” says Murphy, “real art and music is coming back. We were just tripping mushrooms at a hippie festival out in the middle of Wisconsin. And then we drove to Kansas, got in the studio, and did it.”

ABOUT DEEOHGEE:

DeeOhGee first rose to national prominence as Blackfoot Gypsies, earning their reputation the hard way: constantly touring a live show that split the difference between a roadhouse and a revival tent. Along the way, they shared stages with Tyler Childers, Buddy Guy, and Dwight Yoakam.

When the pandemic halted their momentum, they regrouped under a new name and a renewed sense of purpose. DeeOhGee (a nod to a Waylon Jennings lyric) became a place to explore their myriad influences without apology. Their self-produced 2022 debut New Way of Life was a triumphant reintroduction, channeling the band’s deep roots in American folk poetry and wide-eyed wordplay. The same searching spirit guided their subsequent singles project, a series of collaborations with producers across the country, from Oakley Munson in Upstate New York to Greg Lattimer in Nashville.

The songs that would come to make up DeeOhGee were written on the road and workshopped by the band in a cabin in the woods out in Monticello, Kentucky. A new relationship with independent music hub Midtopia led to a new experience in the studio. To track the record, the band headed to the non-profit artist support company’s Somewhere Works studio in Wichita, KS. The unexpected star of the session is the gentleman affectionately known as “steel drums guy”. The studio had a list of available instruments, and Murphy asked the team, half in jest, about some steel drums. And then...”This dude shows up with a full drum kit of steel drums!” relates Paige.

The trio cut the bones of the tracks live, then overdubbed as needed. Despite the broad swath of sonic tools at their disposal, the band focused on being very deliberate in their production choices. “You have all this time, but does that mean you need 17 guitar tracks layered on? I'm proud of these songs, I'm proud of each other's songs, and how we served them. This is a song-focused record.”