“Party music,” I guess, is whatever music you like most. Right now, I feel like partying by lying on a soft floor in a dark room and listening to a really fine recording of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols.
On New Year’s Eve two of New Paltz’s senior indie bands – Los Doggies and Breakfast in Fur – will appear in the uncharacteristic role of party bands at Snug Harbor in New Paltz in what promises to be a nightlong celebration of cool sounds, sharp wits and real heart. Los Doggies continually risk being marginalized as a hard-rocking novelty band, but they don’t seem to mind the label. In fact, if by “novelty” you mean original, incurably different and blissfully immune to the dictates and directives of “cool,” bring it on. We need more of that kind of novelty. From Day One, Los Doggies have evinced bottomless musical imagination, chops to burn and devious good spirit. The band is deep into a Kickstart-ed album project, so it stands to reason that it will be bringing a wealth of well-rehearsed new material.
I’ve written often enough in these pages about Breakfast in Fur and my affection for the band’s lovely, unfettered and unpretentiously sincere indie rock. Anchored by songwriter Dan Wolfe, multi-instrumentalist and visual-artist-of-note Kaitlin Van Pelt and guitarist Michael Hollis, BiF continues to prove itself a restless, creative, sonically adventurous group. Its reputation has spread far beyond our homely college town by now, but home is still home. BiF will celebrate the occasion by introducing new members and new material.
The show begins with Los Doggies at 10:30 p.m. Snug Harbor is located at 38 Main Street in New Paltz.