The Dogs (Iowa) [1973-1977]


The Dogs were as far as I know the first punk band from Iowa and as strange as it may seem they were from the small quiet Iowa town of Decorah. Their sound would fall under the garage punk sound. Whether or not they were the first punk band, they did put out the first record of the 70s wave of punk. Including a single in 1977 and an LP that are rare and collectable.

"Jody Koenig of the Dogs still lives in Decorah where he works at a music store. He's still active in the music scene although most of his teeth are gone and he frightens the women and children. Jody was highly influenced by a Hep Cat named Chopper, AKA, Kirk Juffer who met Jody in 1970 over a mutual love of L.P.records. Jody's dad owned the local radio station "KDEC" which received a big box of promos records every week and Chopper and Jody would get together and spin the cool looking ones. One such day they spun a platter by some fellows from Detroit USA known as The Stooges. "She gotta TV eye on me, she gotta TV eye!" Whoa daddy! and it was easier to play than Hendrix. The Dogs took their name from "I wanna be your Dog" from the first Stooges album. The Dogs, at that point, consisted of Greg Knipe-Drums, Ole Torvik-Bass, Jody-Guitar and Chopper-guitar on some easy songs. The Dogs gigged steadily mostly for teen wing-dings. But international fame was a whispering in the wind so the Dogs moved to Colorado to find it. A crap load of other bands had heard the same whisper so the Dogs had to settle for a booking agent that specialized in strippers. They had a regular gig in downtown Colorado Springs at a place that advertised "The Warmest Beer, worst music and ugliest girls in town". The gig payed twenty bucks a night and mean drunks made the Dogs play ten minute versions of "Wipe Out" er else! Home to the Dogs at that point was a house in the hood that rented for 60 bucks a month. People in the neighborhood were so poor that they broke into the house and stole cans of food! Jody had a religious episode at that point in his life after eating a tainted burger at "Jack in the Box" and crawling through the isle of a Super Duper store. He renounced his guitar and vowed to live on a diet of mini-marshmallows but he soon went off that wagon to get back on his usual wagon. After a few month of watching rats in the walls watching them, the Dogs moved back to Decorah. Greg Knipe the drummer ...."

Ole Torvik - bass
Erik Berg - drums
Jody Koenig - guitar, vocals


"Greg Knipe quit the band shortly after and drummed with Conway Twitty as a one of the Twitty Birds and a new drummer joined The Dogs named Eric Berg who dang near spontaneously combusted many years later but we will get to that. The Dogs had steady gigs on the bar scene in Northeast Iowa playing punk, rock and roll, and some vanity tunes for the rotund, rotosound slapping bass player, Ole Torvik who thought he could maybe fetch some girls over with a YES inspired bass solo or two. The Dogs, as far as one can gather, never had a single female groupie by the way. Ole laid around during that period while Jody worked at his dad's radio station. Jody Koenig also took an electronics course through the mail and made a lot of fuzz boxes. At that point Chopper and Jody decided to go to Madison Wisconsin where Chopper would start a record store and Jody a recording studio. The went over to Madison and had to listen to Sweet Home Alabama which was on the radio to the point of puking. A storefront, which was formerly Madison's famous "Church Key", was rented and the boys began to set up shop. Then tragedy struck. Jody had ordered a fancy four track recorder through the mail and the bums went bankrupt. Jody was crushed not to mention broke as joke. Chopper however stayed motivated because he wanted to own every cool record on God's Golf Ball (ya he was a Beefheart fan too). The record business flourished but Jody couldn't get the giddy-up going so he basically lived on a mattress behind a counter in the back of the store and fixed stuff. People would go to the back of the store with their kaputnik stereo stuff and then yell up to the front, "There's no one back here" and then Chopper would say "Ya, just be patient" and slowly Jody would rise from his mattress with Rip Van Winkle hair and eyes and say, yeah? Ole lived over with Chopper and Jody in an apartment they later were evicted from. "(source)


2 komentarze:

    Serpent.pl