The Dollyrots
The Dollyrots are an American punk rock band formed in 2000, composed of Kelly Ogden and Luis Cabezas. They have released nine studio albums under Panic Button, Joan Jett's Blackheart Records, Little Steven's Wicked Cool Records, their own label, Arrested Youth Records and currently Wicked Cool Records.
Biography
Formation
Bassist/lead vocalist Kelly Ogden and guitarist Luis Cabezas have known each other since meeting in the eighth grade in Land o' Lakes, Florida. They both attended New College of Florida where they formed a band called No Chef with friends Josh Harrold and Mike Benbow. Ogden and Cabezas played the guitar while Harrold was the bassist/lead vocalist and Benbow was the drummer. Cabezas described the subject matter of their songs as being "about ninjas, zombies and Charles Manson."After being disillusioned with the results of the 2000 United States presidential election, Ogden and Cabezas decided to make the band full-time.
As Ogden recalls:
We were watching the 2000 presidential election results, and at four o'clock in the morning, when we found out that George W. Bush had won, Luis and I were like, "The world's probably gonna end anyway, and I don't want to go to med school," so we thought, "Let's just do the band," says Ogden. "So that's when it happened. We had no future anyways, so let's just be in a rock band!"
Josh Harrold did not want to become a full-time musician so he left the band. Ogden took over his duties on bass and lead vocals. Mike Benbow left and was replaced by Frank Beasley. The band then changed their name to The Dollyrots. The band left Florida and visited various cities across the U.S., finally settling in Los Angeles in January 2002. Ogden described Los Angeles as having "everything we needed—record labels, venues, other bands. It seemed like the right place." Beasley left the band and was replaced by Josh Valenti.
''Eat My Heart Out'' and Panic Button/Lookout! Records
In 2003 the band self-recorded and released the EP Feed Me, Pet Me. Responding to a blind audition call The Dollyrots were selected to appear in a Hewlett-Packard advertisement featuring the song "Feed Me, Pet Me" which led to signing a publishing deal with Windswept Pacific Music. After meeting producer John Fields at the commercial recording session the band recorded their debut studio album Eat My Heart Out soon thereafter at Capitol Studio B with Fields at the helm. Initially self-released, the album was put into rotation on L.A.'s Indie 103.1 along with spins on Rodney Bingenheimer's show on KROQ. This attracted the attention of labels, and ultimately The Dollyrots signed a deal with Panic Button in July 2004 to widely release Eat My Heart Out. Josh Valenti left in early 2004, replaced by Amy Wood of Get Set Go. Eat My Heart Out was released by Panic Button/Lookout! Records on September 28, 2004.The Dollyrots spent the majority of 2004-2006 touring the U.S., headlining dates and playing alongside Groovie Ghoulies, Shonen Knife, The Breeders, The Queers, Soul Asylum, Paramore, Bang Sugar Bang, The Soviettes, The Shocker, and Teenage Bottlerocket while also playing the Lookout! Records 2005 CMJ showcase.
The band co-starred and played two songs in the "Stuck on You" episode of CSI: NY in February 2006, with Ogden playing a role involving a murder committed with a bass guitar.
Blackheart Records and ''Because I'm Awesome''
The band started work on their second album at Seedy Underbelly Studios in Los Angeles with producer Jacques Wait in February 2006 but were forced to find a new label due to problems with Lookout! Records. Kelly Ogden stated: "We started recording and then had everything ready. Then Lookout! went out of business for all intents and purposes. They had troubles with Green Day and financial problems, and so they pretty much told all of us that we had to go find a new label." This collection of songs, at the time titled More Biting Please, was never released although several tracks were eventually included on the ensuing album.The band reentered the studio in Spring 2006 and finished what would become Because I'm Awesome at The Doghouse Studio with John Fields as producer. While on Vans Warped Tour later that summer Ogden gave a copy of the band's self-released EP Love and Revolt to Joan Jett, the co-founder of Blackheart Records who had taken a liking to the band while on the tour. Ogden also gave copies of the disc to NOFX's Fat Mike and Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! but did not receive a response. Drummer Amy Wood left the band shortly thereafter. Wood suggested that Ogden and Cabezas ask mutual friend Chris Black to replace her. With the album already tracked and mixed, Blackheart contacted the band a few weeks later and signed The Dollyrots in December 2006.
Their second album, Because I'm Awesome, was released on March 13, 2007, through Blackheart Records and coincided with an appearance at South By Southwest where the band played "I Love Rock & Roll" on stage with Jett. A review in the webzine PopMatters noted that "the Dollyrots' sound is the same as it ever was, with clever, catchy lyrics running around a track of straightforward, chugging pop-punk" while the title track was described with the words "A hit song is what separates one band from thousands of others. The Dollyrots gained acclaim with their song 'Because I'm Awesome'. It's an appropriate tune for the sardonic pop punk band from Los Angeles to gain entry onto music's national stage.". "Because I'm Awesome" went on to be featured in a Kohl's commercial during the fall of 2007 where the band made an appearance, with the premise of inspiring teenagers to pick up instruments and start a band. The Dollyrots appeared as themselves on the ABC Family TV show Greek, playing "Because I'm Awesome" on screen in the "Multiple Choice" episode. The band also guested on Fuse TV's The Sauce and embarked on a long series of live shows throughout the United States including Los Angeles Pride, Hudson River Rocks, the Del Mar Fair, and Warped Tour. The band opened for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Adolescents, The Methadones, Peelander-Z, and labelmates The Vacancies during this time.
2008 saw the band continue to tour the United States extensively, opening for TheStart, Shonen Knife and Paramore while once again playing Warped Tour along with Summerfest and the BMI showcase at South by Southwest. The band also recorded a cover of Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" with John Fields for the Endless Bummer movie soundtrack.
''A Little Messed Up''
In January 2009 the band began pre-production with producer Chris Testa for their third album, A Little Messed Up. The majority of the album was recorded between March–June 2009 in Los Angeles at Stagg Street Studios and featured Chris Black and Amy Wood on drums. It marked the first time Cabezas assumed production and recording duties, contributing elements to many of the tracks. Kim Shattuck from The Muffs sang backup vocals on the song "Some Girls".A Little Messed Up was the band's third album, and the second to be released on Blackheart Records. In addition to Testa and Cabezas the album featured mixing and production by Sylvia Massy and Fred Archambault along with co-writes by Evan Frankfort, Dave Bassett, and Tina Parol.
The Dollyrots toured with The Action Design in the Western U.S. in May 2009 and on their own throughout the rest of the country for the rest of the year. These dates included support slots for The Donnas, Kay Hanley, and The Muffs along with appearances at South by Southwest, Girls Rock Camp, and Long Beach Pride.
Having met comedian and TV host Drew Carey in late 2009 when Chris Black appeared on the show as a performing drummer, The Dollyrots were invited to debut their Matt Wallace produced 7 inch single "California Beach Boy" with a feature performance during the Showcase Showdown on the CBS game show The Price Is Right airing on January 15, 2010.
The band supported Bowling For Soup's Eastern and Texas U.S. dates in mid 2010 and were selected to open for Buzzcocks on their 22 date North American tour in May/June 2010.
After some delays A Little Messed Up was released by Blackheart on August 17, 2010. The album gained favorable reviews, with AbsolutePunk calling it a "Blow Pop of flavors with a crunchy, delectable casing of pop-punk and a heart of bubble gum poppy lyrics." This was followed by supporting a reunited Screeching Weasel in Los Angeles on September 19, 2010, at Club Nokia and opening for Bowling for Soup on their Just Can't Get Rid of Us UK tour in October 2010.
The band was presented with an award for "Best New Breakout Band" by the American Society of Young Musicians in Los Angeles on October 27, 2010.
After a headlining early 2011 U.S. tour the band went on to support Bowling For Soup on their Spring 2011 U.S. tour and played six dates supporting The Go-Go's on their Ladies Gone Wild Tour in May/June. In August, they again supported Bowling For Soup on a West US tour and played a handful of dates on the Vans Warped Tour.
A video for the single Rollercoaster made its debut during a show at The Troubadour in Los Angeles and was released on April 25, 2011.
The Dollyrots left Blackheart Records in July 2011 with the intention of establishing their own label to release future work.
The ''Arrested Youth'' EP
On August 9, 2011, the band released an EP, Arrested Youth, on their own label, Arrested Youth Records. The EP was produced by American hip-hop producer Neal Pogue and marked a departure for the band stylistically and, according to Ogden, had "a rawer sound".''The Dollyrots''
The Dollyrots decided that their next album would also be released on their own record label. On September 12, 2011, the band launched a crowdsourcing campaign on Kickstarter to raise money for the production and release of the album in which they received their goal within one day and went on a month later to make almost five times the goal of money raised, supported entirely by fans. The album was produced and recorded by longtime collaborator John Fields with significant engineering contributions by Cabezas and featured co-writes with Kay Hanley and Martin Harrington.On November 30, 2011, it was announced drummer Chris Black was parting ways with the band after 5 years, making him the longest Dollyrots member to hold that title. In a YouTube video on December 11, 2011, Kelly introduced Alicia Warrington as the band's new drummer.
In May 2012 the band's song "Because I'm Awesome" appeared in the TV trailer for Disney's Brave.
In June 2012 The Dollyrots contributed a new song, "Super Mega Ultraviolet" to the compilation Crappy Records Presents: Have A Crappy Summer. The album also featured songs by Bowling For Soup, Nerf Herder, Allstar Weekend and MC Lars.
In August 2012, Ogden revealed that Warrington had left to drum full-time for singer Chris Rene. The Dollyrots released their self-titled album, The Dollyrots, on September 18, 2012, as a duo along with a music video for the first single "Hyperactive". The band launched the release with shows at The Troubadour and Bootleg Theatre in Los Angeles and an IAMA on Reddit.
For their forthcoming tour of the U.S with Prima Donna and U.K tour supporting Bowling For Soup the band enlisted drummer James Carman from the band The Images. Prior to the tour the band entered the studio with producer Linus of Hollywood to record three songs for One Big Happy!, a split album with Bowling For Soup and Patent Pending, with the bands performing covers of each other's songs, released on September 25, 2012. The three bands subsequently toured the UK together.
In November 2014 The Dollyrots were asked to create a theme song for The CW show Gallery Mallory. The resulting intro song was described as "catchy as hell and fits the show perfectly". The show debuted on CW seed in October 2013 and renamed .
Following extensive touring and appearances at both the 2013 NAMM Show and South by Southwest Music Conference and band revealed Ogden's pregnancy through a YouTube video.