Single Review: Slaughter Beach, Dog – Motorcycle.jpg EP

Slaughter Beach, Dog was created by Jake Ewald, one half of the songwriters in Modern Baseball, as a writing tool. He scripted the stories of make believe characters living in the titular town of Slaughter Beach to break through writers block and experiment outside of the personal storytelling style he’d developed with Modern Baseball. Since his debut under this moniker, Welcome, was released in the fall of 2016 Modern Baseball have announced a hiatus and Slaughter Beach, Dog has now become the main outlet for Jake Ewald‘s songwriting.

Your Cat gently eases you into the EP with guitar lines that have the feel of a George Harrison solo track, but there the comparisons end as the idiosyncratic approach of Slaughter Beach, Dog dominates to bring a fine introduction to their sophomore release. From here on in we’re into the more mellow side of Jake Ewald with the almost comatose Glowing, before the narrative style of 104 Degrees brings the pace up slightly with a track that reminds me of a laid back Jonathan Richman. The final track, Building The Ark, brings things back down again to compete a laid back quartet of tracks that have a more cohesive feel than Jake Ewald‘s initial release as Slaughter Beach, Dog.

Motorcycle.jpg makes a fine companion to Slaughter Beach, Dog‘s debut, Welcome, and will be a release that will welcomed by the fans of that first EP and those who need their Modern Baseball fix whilst that outfit is on hiatus. Motorcycle.jpg represents a positive move forward from their initial EP, in particular Your Cat and 104 Degrees have more appeal than the tracks on Welcome, and to me it seems that Jake Ewald is gaining confidence with his solo venture. The Motorcycle.jpg EP indicates that the citizens of Slaughter Beach, that only exist in Jake Ewald‘s subconscious, can look forward to some interesting times ahead.

Motorcycle.jpg can be pre-ordered via Lame-O Records here