Tired of Christmas music yet? You likely will be by Sunday which happens to be when the (((Rhythm Dogs))) will present the second show of its acclaimed “Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher” series from 4-7 pm at Catfish Lou’s, located at 6540 SW Fallbrook (near intersection of SW Allen and Scholls Ferry).

The music will be 100% free of Christmas songs, and if that is not enough, we are proud to announce the return of the fabulous Mary-Sue Tobin who will be joining her bandmates Chris (The Answer) Azorr, Chuk Barber, Mark Burdon, Greg (Trombone Slim) Scholl, and Mark von Bergen. At the door will be Santa's favorite elf, Sleepy Steve Arel.

See you there! 
www.catfishlous.com.  

The (((Rhythm Dogs))) are honored to open Catfish Lou’s “Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher” series Sunday, November 17 from 4-7 pm. Catfish Lou’s, voted Portland’s best blues venue, is now located at 6540 SW Fallbrook (near intersection of SW Allen and Scholls Ferry).

Come to hear Chris Azorr, Chuk Barber, Mark Burdon, Greg Scholl, and Mark von Bergen - and stay to play billiards at Legends next door! Mark your calendars and check out Catfish Lou’s website.

More details forthcoming, including whether Sleepy Steve Arel will be at the door to separate you from your money.

www.catfishlous.com.

In what we think is our 12th farmer market appearance, the (((Rhythm Dogs))) - Chris Azorr, Chuk Barber, Mark Burdon, Greg Scholl, Mary-Sue Tobin, and Mark von Bergen - will be serving up its special brand of organic beats and other fine food for the soul at the Beaverton Farmers Market this Saturday from 8:00 AM (wait, what?) to 1:00 PM. 

Yes, once again, it is the same morning as the Portland Rose Festival Spirit Mountain Casino Grand Floral Parade. This year the Grand Marshall is a 2-year old dog. (Last year it was a piece of carpet.) If you choose the Parade, please unsubscribe to this list (as if there is a way to do so).  

Also, we want you to know that we are about to launch a real Website! We promise to keep it more up to date than our Facebook page, which won’t be hard. While our music is far ahead of the trends, our social media presence is not. Prolly that won’t change, but we are giving it a go.  

See you Saturday - and soon on the World Wide Web!

As previously announced, Steve Arel is closing O’Connor’s next month. It has been a tremendous run for Steve, and O'Connor's has been a great place for all of us to hang out, listen to great music, eat good food, and drink. This is the end of an important chapter in Portland’s rich musical and restaurant/bar history. 

Please join the Dogs - Chris Azorr, Mark Burdon, Greg Scholl (Gregorio Pequodawoddy), Mary-Sue Tobin, and Mark von Bergen - for the bittersweet goodbye starting at 7:00 on Saturday, April 21, 7850 SW Capitol Highway, Multnomah Village. It will be a chance to thank Steve for all the great memories he has given us over the last 5 decades! And to buy our new CD, The Dogfather. Because it is National Record Store Day, we are selling the album at the special cheap-a$$ price of just $10!

Hope to see you tomorrow at this special event.

Join us for our CD release party at O'Connor's, 7850 SW Capitol Highway in Multnomah Village. Saturday, March 10. Starts at 7:00! 

Check out this review if for some reason you think you don't need at least one copy of the (((Rhythm Dog)))'s latest album. 
https://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2018/02/review-the-rhythm-dogs-the-dogfather/

art by Mark Markovich

The (((Rhythm Dogs))) set the bar high with 2011's Cosmic Dog. One reviewer wrote that the group's third album "put new meaning into the word ‘adequate’." Another proclaimed the bone-quaking riffery, roiling drum grooves, and punishing trombone solos to be "at times listenable." 

Since Cosmic Dog dropped six years ago, expectations for a follow-up have been sky high - as have many of our fans thanks to new legislation. So the (((Dogs))) are heading back into the studio to record another album that nobody wants. But one that has to be made. Now. You will understand why it is so when you hear us run through the entire album on Saturday, April 15, at O'Connor's Vault, 7850 SW Capitol Highway in Multnomah Village. The venue has a new start time - 7:00 pm - which will allow many of you to head out afterwards to go clubbing with Carrie and Fred, or just post some fake news before you go to bed.

About two weeks into the Trump Administration, each day brings news more surreal than the last. Laws are being rewritten, challenged, and in many cases simply ignored – which brings us to the area of real concern. As you may recall, last fall, in a rare moment of lucidity and sense of purpose, Congress allocated $1.5 billion for the development of funkier bass lines, super-tight horn sections, and dance-crazy keyboard patterns. Even Congress had noticed that today’s bass lines had steadily grown less booty-shaking, that horn sections had become undisciplined, and that keyboardists were playing something that could only be described as melodic. Once our new President notices this law, it will be gone without even a single tweet to let us know.

So, the (((Rhythm Dogs))) are planning a protest this Saturday night, 8:00 at O’Connor’s, 7850 SW Capitol Highway in Multnomah Village, to ensure that Americans for years to come will have ample beats to get them outta their seats. Join Mark Burdon, Mary-Sue Tobin, Chuk Barber, Greg Scholl, Chris Azorr, and Mark von Bergen, and let’s Make America Funky Again! $5 cover to fund these efforts. Red hats sold separately.

The (((Rhythm Dogs))) may have been the only band that Trump didn’t ask to play the Inauguration, but he would have been out of luck if he had. The (((Dogs))) are already booked this Thursday for the musical event of 2017: the long-anticipated “MST Residency” at the Fremont Theater. The venue is brand new, it’s amazing, and it’s located at 2393 NE Fremont. The show starts at 8:00.

Details are attached. You may note that the announcement indicates the (((Rhythm Dogs))) are from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Al Green is from Grand Rapids. Del Shannon and Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers are from there. And there’s the ska punk group Mustard Plug. But the Michigan city – try as they might - cannot claim the (((Rhythm Dogs))).

Face it: We all need to get out of the house, and this is an excellent opportunity to do so. And we checked: The Fremont is above the FEMA 100-year flood plain.

Dog Pound:

With exactly 100 days to go before Armageddon, it’s time to take a break from watching delegates making life-altering decisions on our behalf wearing stupid hats and listening to incoherent sloganeering and speeches by C-list celebrities. It’s also time to elevate your musical experience. At the RNC, former SNL bandleader – and Hall & Oates guitarist! – GE Smith filled the dead air between mind-numbing speeches with classic rock songs by The Who, Rod Stewart, the Knack, and Canada’s own Rush. And what about that cover of a David Bowie song about cocaine? And that was all on Day One of the RNC!

So it’s time for some relief, and we invite you to join (((Rhythm Dogs))) Mark Burdon (drums), Gregorio Pequodawoddy (trombone), Mary-Sue Tobin (saxes and attitude), Chris Azorr (keys), and Mark von Bergen (bass) at O’Connor’s this Saturday, August 6, at 8:00 P.M. to do just that. As an added attraction, O’Connor’s has lifted its ban on catching Pokémons there (7850 SW Capitol Hwy. in Multnomah Village) and there will be a special balloon drop at the end of the evening of the kind that would dazzle even Bill Clinton.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/bill-the-balloon-guy?utm_term=.kyrOJ3zg8

This Saturday you have an important choice to make: You can go downtown and watch a bunch of soggy bands march around aimlessly in the rain at the Rose Festival Parade – see above – or you can watch the (((Rhythm Dogs))) perform their dazzling act under the sun – and cover if needed - of the Beaverton Farmers Market. The (((Dogs))) will be there all morning, running through their repretoire several times. Or, of course, you can choose to do what you normally do on Saturday mornings. For those who want to do something with their lives, here are the directions: http://www.beavertonfarmersmarket.com/#!form__map/c24vq,

As advertised, the (((Rhythm Dogs))) will return to O’Connor’s this Saturday, April 30, 8:00 P.M. in a show that will be so funky the joint will need air freshener. There will be two special things going down at once:

First, we will be playing songs from our new album before we head into the studio to record another set of sizzling hot originals. Support us by showing up and sending a needy band to the studio with some cabbage to pay the engineer.

Second, we have a yet another special lineup: Chris Azorr on keys, Mark Burdon on drums, Greg “Trombone Slim” Scholl on the only instrument that changes shape while played, Mark von Bergen on bass, Chuk Barber (from WAR) on percussion, and Mary-Sue Tobin (prominently profiled in Lynn Darroch’s new book on NW jazz, Rhythm in the Rain) on saxophone.

Beware, though, the show may cause involuntary head bobbing and a drop in ambient temperature due to extreme coolness.

The (((Rhythm Dogs))) are scheduled to play their last public gig this Saturday evening before entering the studio to record their fourth album. Tired of paying their dues by playing gigs around town, this next project will team the legendary band up with high-profile LA DJs and flavor-of-the-month rap stars to create an overproduced, radio-friendly sound guaranteed to alienate their dedicated fan base. This may be your last chance to feel the raw energy that has characterized the band’s largely unrehearsed sound since its early days.

There’s no assurance that the (((Rhythm Dogs))) will be playing small clubs again, so arrive early for this limited seating event, at O’Connor’s, Saturday, October 3, beginning at 8. The band will be in full force, including Chris Azorr, Adrian Baxter, WAR’s Chuk Barber, Greg Scholl, Mark Burdon, and Mark von Bergen. 7850 SW Capitol Highway in Multnomah Village.

By now you likely know the story: Last weekend O'Connor's booked both an outdoor wedding and an indoor funkfest headlined by the (((Rhythm Dogs))). When it rained Saturday, the outdoors wedding party was moved inside and the (((Dogs))) show was abruptly canceled. As part of its out of court settlement, O'Connor's has cleared its schedule for the (((Dogs))) to play there this Saturday, August 1. Tickets from the canceled show will be honored at the door!

And we have a special treat to make up for last weekend’s clusterfunk: There will be a “Soak a Sap” dunk tank out back where club owner Steve Arel will be seated. The gig will start at 8:00. 7850 SW Capitol Hwy in Multnomah Village. See you there – rain or shine

After a lengthy period during which artistic differences were resolved, a hip was replaced, and the band actually rehearsed more than once, the (((Rhythm Dogs))) are returning to the stage for their first public appearance of 2015. Set your alarm for early Saturday morning (June 27) and join us at the Beaverton Farmers Market. Again we will be cramming 90 minutes of fresh organic soul food into 5 hours, from 8 am to 1 pm. Our all-star lineup for this special event will feature War's percussionist Chuk Barber, the in-demand sax of Mary-Sue Tobin, drums by Mark Burdon, keys by Chris Azorr, and Mark von Bergen on bass. The temperature is supposed to hit three digits, so the only cool thing in town will be at the Market.

What do the Eagles, Eric Clapton, and the (((Rhythm Dogs))) not have in common???

Scanning the news recently, we noticed two news items that evidence a disturbing trend in music today. Last fall, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security announced that there was a “serious and imminent threat” of a new Eagles reunion tour in which every concert would feature note-for-note replications of the studio versions of the songs that made the group famous 30 years ago – songs that caused The Dude to threaten to jump from a moving cab in ”The Big Lebowski.” Maybe worse is the report that earlier this year Eric Clapton treated a sold-out crowd in Wichita, Kansas to a jaw-dropping, even slower, somehow more lethargic, acoustic version of his 1971 hit “Layla.” 

What does this have to do with the return of the (((Rhythm Dogs))) to O’Connor’s this Saturday? While the Eagles, Eric Clapton, and the (((Dogs))) have all been around a long time and enjoyed great success, only we continue to grow and introduce new original music, despite our fans’ desire to hear over and over again the hits from our first three albums. On Saturday night, we will debut several new originals along with our highly inventive readings of Herbie, Miles, and Ornette. 

Your choice: You can ignore the warnings of the DHS and hear the soporific Laurel Canyon coke rock of the Eagles at the Moda Center in August, or you can do the right thing and show up this Saturday to hear the new, under-rehearsed, raw sounds of the (((Rhythm Dogs))) at 8:00 at O’Connor’s at 7850 SW Capitol Highway. But please, don’t do both.

The City has completed work on the Multnomah Village “Big Dig” and re-opened SW Capitol Highway. There are new sidewalks, curbs, storm water facilities, a sweet bus stop shelter and – wait for it - new bicycle racks! Did the project run over budget and take too long? Heck, yes! Did it result in losses to all businesses in the area with no reparations. Of course! And were the (((Rhythm Dogs))) selected to reopen the street outside O’Connor’s this Saturday night? A logical choice!
For this special celebration, the band will again transform themselves into their alter ego the (((War Dogs))) for the evening as they feature Chuck “Lowrider” Barber from the seminal funk band, War, on percussion. Don't miss the fun(k)!