I wanna be your dog: Great rock 'n' roll is supposed to make you cry and wail, boogie and blast, and generally lose yourself in something approaching religious conversion. When's the last time music gave you that?  Toronto's the Golden Dogs may be the next rock 'n' roll saviors to make that significant spiritual/cosmic/heathen mark. Already a fixture on Canada's MuchMusic after smashing through CMJ's top 20 in ‘06, the Golden Dogs combine magnificent melodies and sublime vocal hooks with exuberant, high quality rock 'n' roll riffage. Think the New Pornographers with Lemmy on bass and Animal on drums. The Flaming Lips fixated on the Runaways and Squeeze.  10CC, Graham Parker, Tiny Tim.

The 12 songs on the Golden Dogs' sophomore effort, Big Eye Little Eye, are nearly perfect distillations of rock 'n' roll effervescence. As with most smalltown heroes destined for big world status, Golden Dogs singer/songwriter Dave Azzolini will soon be lunching with Beck and David Geffen, signing autographs and cooking up flexible multi-tiered strategies. But for now, the little people have the band to themselves. And what a secret treat that is. We all love to feel like we are on the ground floor of greatness--here's your chance to lead the local parade.

Opener "Dynamo" is a ragefest of ripping guitar and skull-shattering drums, gleeful barroom piano underpinning a shouted Ramones style chorus. "Never Meant Any Harm" brings it down with Caribbean flavored keys and cool two step allure. We get sweet bitch-slapped in "Construction Worker," with vocal contributions by Dave's missus, Jessica Grassia. "Saints At The Gates" is Azzolini's idea of a Paul McCartney tribute, the hirsute Canuck singing the street punk chorus not as himself, but as a gang of Tom Waits impersonators. Hmmm. More transparent is the Golden Dogs' cover of Macca's "Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five," B-side of the classic "Band On The Run." Framed with golden electric piano, perfect Wings' style vocal harmonies and a glorious untidiness, the track puts us in mind of Slade, Brownsville Station and Thin Lizzy!  Azzolini yelps like a mad puppy in the robo beating "Runouttaluck," the band plays the mood funky cheeky in "Strong," then mashes up mariachi trumpets, Keith Moon drums and A Hard Day's Night harmonies in "Force Of Nature."

The Golden Dogs curry favor with classic style and contemporary cred. Please shake your poodle.

The Golden Dogs: "Dynamo"  (MP3, 3:29)

More canoodling with Canucks: This is Kiss A Canadian Day here at Better Living Through MP3. For every dollar you spend on Kraft Cheez Whiz or Robertson's Scotch Marmalade (north of the border favorites), I will drop a coin in the cup of my local homeless guy, who just so happens to be a former Canuck. Life is funny isn't it? But the Stars aren't funny.

This Montreal spawned quartet has released four albums of textured songcraft, 2004's Set Yourself On Fire establishing their template of cozy songs with an eerie edge. In Our Bedroom After The War swings deeper in that minefield of psychological pop profundity, its songs hovering above a sunset horizon drenched in questionable colors. "The Night Starts Here" features whispered vocals that recall sweet nothings, synths spreading like a malevolent virus and a prickly alternative disco-punk beat. Sweet and cool coupled with the ominous crumbling of old age? A funeral procession this ain't, but something ultimately life affirming and rosy colored, like Brian Wilson beating it black with Brian Jones, circa 1966. 

"The Night Starts Here"