A Giant Dog – Toy

‘We’ve got nothing to believe in,’ sing Austin, TX’s A Giant Dog, and they make this absence sound so alluring that you almost want to abandon your humdrum life and drive around in their tour van forever. You suspect it’s a grimy existence, however; their take on rock’n’roll drips with sweat and comes complete with the battle scars of a life lived hard and lived well – witness Sabrina Ellis’ soul-stripping pleas on final track Survive, or the spring-loaded energy of Bendover for proof.

They know that the key to this whole game is sincerity, and to be truthfully sincere you gotta poke fun from time to time. As such, they offer songs about lovers feeling excited to grow old together (‘I wanna see you with your saggy tits / I wanna see you with your jeans all split’ doesn’t look charming on paper, but trust us) and they pun, knowingly and excruciatingly, about having ‘angst in my pants’. It’s a defiant air of so-whattery that makes their tales both compelling and relatable – as another bunch of indie-punk misfits once remarked to pre-empt nay-sayers: ‘It’s our trip and we’re not listening’.

Ticking the boxes of their influences is a fun game too: Motor City garage, Bolan boogie, the punk schlock of their hometown’s finest… it’s all here. Toy is a more-than-worthy successor to last year’s excellent Pile opus, gnawing away at your affections with carefree abandon – an oversized canine you’ll be glad to see off the leash.

Listen to: Making Movies, Photograph, Bendover