Joel Sires slides into my DMs, “You gotta check this band out. Run Dog from CF. Unreal. So fully realized.” High praise from someone I consider to be one of Eastern Iowa’s great songwriters.
I wasted no time checking out the quartet, who released their debut four-song EP The Big Room in February. They’ve garnered their fair share of chatter following some impressive showcases at The Octopus in Cedar Falls.
Playing this EP the first time, I’m reminded of the experience I had in October 2009 standing in a barn in Green Island, Iowa, where a then-unknown Dawes, on the first Daytrotter Barnstormer Tour, played a mind-blowing set to a tiny crowd — every one of whom looked at each other with incredulous eyes.
While Run Dog is considered a new band, it’s made up of old friends who grew up cutting their musical teeth in Waverly, Iowa. It features Addison Payne on guitars, keys and lead vocals; Sam Ackman on guitars, keys and harmonies; Matthew Bancroft Smithe on bass and mandolin and Derek Raatz on drums and percussion. After time apart, they found themselves living close enough to play together again.
“The Big Room EP developed somewhat out of the necessity to have something to work on and to make a selection of recordings we could show to people,” Payne said in an email, “but I’d like to think it does more than that. I’m always fond of music that allows you to hear the artists in the process of discovery … We avoided our unreleased back-catalog of songs for this project in favor of what was freshest, and I feel it catches us at a time of musical growth.”
The temptation to peg this album was hard to resist. Payne’s voice is a thin and soulful tenor recalling Gary Louris of the Jayhawks or John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, and the instrumentation doesn’t fall far from either of those two bands — leaning towards a more acoustic sound with some organ and electric guitars to color the affair. The throughline of the songwriting leans towards a first-person account centering on the messiness of the human condition.
The EP kicks off with “Mistake,” which sets the tone and mood for the album with delicious, timeless mandolin-picking by Bancroft, who also wrote the song. The chanting chorus “It’s not a mistake I feel this way” hangs in the air and in your head long after the song is over.
The second track, “Hour And A Half” is my favorite and the one I most identify with. It perfectly captures the feelings around a relationship that could be more, and getting the courage to run to that possibility.
The motor’s running on the street out front
Do you believe me when I tell you what I want?
We can waste another weekend playing guessing games
Or I can shine the headlights through the autumn rain
The EP wraps with “I See It Done” and “The Big Room” which are both wistful, impressionistic and nostalgic portraits of adolescence.
It is said that music can trigger the limbic system in the brain, which processes emotions and memory. The goosebumps that people often describe is thought to be a result of the dopamine released while hearing a particularly moving piece of music. For me, The Big Room lights up my limbic system. I’m glad to be here to see the beginnings of another great band with wide WTF eyes.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s June 2024 issue.
