Hopscotch Music Festival’s seventh year is only a week and a half away, and everyone’s busy scouring the schedule charting out potential itineraries. On the roster is one of Maryn Jones’ many various musical projects, All Dogs out of Columbus, OH. My first encounter with Jones’ work was my senior year of high school when a friend suggested I check out Saintseneca, the folk punk five-piece in which Jones sang and played dulcimer and strumstick. I took an interest in Jones and her role as the only woman in a group of men. I checked out her other musical project at the time, a lo-fi folk project under her own name, most of which was just her and an acoustic guitar, the type of music that has very high potential to inspire young non-men to make music in their bedrooms (i.e. me). Following her online presence gives one an abbreviated peek into the life of a genuine human being, which was my first true run-in with the realization that the people who make the music that I loved were people just like me.
After a year or so of admiring her work as a folk artist, her versatility managed to shock me again with All Dogs. This time, Jones had set the same stream of beautifully relatable lyrics and soft winding vocals to a crunchy full band consisting of Amanda Bartley on bass, Jesse Withers on drums, and second guitarist Nick Harris. Jones and Bartley began playing as All Dogs in 2012 and the band’s first release was a split tape with fellow Columbus band Slouch in September the following year. The band took off immediately, recognized for Jones’ unbridled honesty, but held off on releasing a full length, releasing a 7"a few months later. The band continued gaining national recognition, opening for Waxahatchee (the frequently WKNC-spun and similarly emotive project of Katie Crutchfield) on a tour of the east coast early the following year. The attention the band was getting had caught the eye of Salinas Records in Detroit, who also play host to a few other WKNC indie favorites including Radiator Hospital and Swearin’.
During the interim of All Dogs releases, Maryn began to channel energy into yet another solo project Yowler. Equally as expressive but with added reverb and synth tones, Yowler was another incredible addition to Jones’ repertoire, but she didn’t waste any time after the release of The Offer in February 2015. All Dogs finally released a much anticipated debut full-length in August later that year (celebrating its first birthday yesterday, August 28th) with Salinas Records. The album, titled Kicking Every Day, was previewed by NPR Music, awarded Album of the Week by Stereogum, and reviewed by countless big-wig indie blogs. Its ten tracks are just as captivatingly devastating as any of Jones’ work, with power chords and pop undertones that are as cheery as anything else you might hear on the radio. The juxtaposition creates an album that is impossible to stop spinning. If you’ve caught my DJ shift over the past year, I’ve probably played All Dogs tracks at least five or six times. Bottom line(s): Maryn Jones is incredible, and you can catch me at Lincoln Theater at 9:30pm on September 10th, night three of Hopscotch Music Festival, for All Dogs’ set.
-dJ/dx