Review - Lost Dog Street Band: Survived
Over time, Lost Dog Street Band has developed a reputation for being uncompromising, sometimes antagonistic, but garnered a reputation for being an ethics first band. Truth and substance first, and the music matters as long as the story is true. A talented group of musicians that, as they’ve progressed, sharpened both in their resolve, approach, and quality of art. Not a band to ever rest on good enough or accept mediocrity. This ethos has endeared them to a generation of music lovers begging for raw and real over polished and manufactured. There’s an honesty in the art that the band can only create through exposure to scars. While sometimes this approach can be sharp, cutting, and hard on artists, it’s been rewarding as a listener and appreciated as someone who strives to maintain ethics in my own art.
Photo by Starla Groves
Through addiction, lost relationships, lost friends, and what Benjamin Tod describes as, “mourning the loss of LDSB,” I, honestly, was afraid we’d heard the last of LDSB which Ben himself mentioned he feared may be the case. With that, I looked forward to what the artists that had ran roads, hopped trains, cried, screamed, and shared over the years would be on to in the next pieces of their musical journey. When I heard there was another upcoming LDSB record, I was relieved and curious if it would sound or feel the same. It will either dismay or elate you that the answer is, it doesn’t. It sounds more tied together, it sounds less like a chaotic train that you have fear will teeter off the tracks while you wait to see the disaster that it leaves behind. It’s a group of musicians who’ve, through reverence and care, honed their craft. It’s less like shoving a spear through the curtain, and instead has been refined and sharpened to a needle to sew it back together.
The same themes run through the record: introspective and sometimes uncomfortable self-truths; saying what you’re afraid to say or hear; focusing on a life better lived - purpose over comfort; the consistent belief that art or music should be honest or non-existent still flows through this record, but attached to that is also an ease that hasn’t been present previously. Melodically, the album is as strong as anything the band has done, and there’s a calming sense of achievement, retrospection and although I’d love to see this band continue to make music for years to come, it feels very much like closure.
A record centered around the idea that through the fire, floods and pain if you make it, if you survive, it’s worth it. The pursuit of idealism, divinity is the reward. There’s no finish line or trophy, there’s the contentment and steel resolve that means your constitution has carried you through. Ben says that the title track “Survived” is the greatest song he’s written, and I find it hard to argue that. Both a question of how and exaltation that the storm may still be raging, but here we are, still standing.
The album has been out for a couple of weeks at this point, and I certainly hope you’ve had the opportunity to enjoy it. I know that I have. If you haven’t stopped to give this a listen, please do. There’s a comfort attached to the excitement. A calmness, a shift in perspective, attitude, musical direction. There’s a softer edge but the weight of the emotions haven’t lightened. Do yourself a favor and take the time to enjoy Survived which is at all the places where music is peddled these days.
Find out more about Lost Dog Street Band at the links below: