Exclusive video premiere of ‘Nihilist Chant’ by The Roof Dogs, taken from their latest album, ‘Here You Are,’ out today via Earth Libraries.

‘Nihilist Chant’ is the new song by Chicago’s Roof Dogs. It’s mid tempo, it’s groovy. It’s lightheartedly sinister and it has a playful touch of funk. Tight drums, syncopated bass, and rudimentary piano descend into an extended, psychedelic outro. The lyrics shuffle between streams of consciousness and wry meditations on free will. “I couldn’t fool even the most foolish man” goes the chorus, admitting a hopeless poker face. The song’s first section is clean cut and pop, with a second movement that slides messily into its finale.

The accompanying video was filmed by The Roof Dogs and edited by Manny Unger. It features the band’s guitar player and vocalist, Jesse Cheshire. Everything seems normal at the start of the video, but begins to match the song’s energy as it builds into a psychedelic sort of daydream. With crazy visuals and Jesse shredding on an unplugged electric guitar in the wilderness, we are roped into the hypnotic trip of ‘Nihilist Chant’.

The Roof Dogs are an art rock band from Chicago, Illinois. A traditional four-piece in composition, the band consists of Andrew Marczak on guitar and synthesizers, Sean Maher on bass guitar, Jack Brereton on the drums, and Jesse Cheshire on guitar. Andrew and Jesse split vocal duties. Musically the band draws from a variety of influences in the great canon of modern western music. Informed as much by The Byrds as by James Chance, the band’s approach to each of its compositions is often dissonant. While an intentional proclivity towards mucking things up is a cornerstone of the group’s sound, it is never to mask sloppy songwriting. Lyrics and melody are as much a priority as the introduction of chaos into any composition.

When the pandemic hit, which canceled a lengthy east coast run, The Roof Dogs wrote and recorded their debut LP ‘Here You Are’. “You’ve been testing out all your angles, your arms and legs are tangled up there in your room,” The Roof Dogs sing on Starpower, the penultimate track from ‘Here You Are’. The Roof Dogs’ first LP leans into repetition, drawn out musical passages, and lyrical themes of isolation and fatalism. On album opener ‘Real Dancing, Cheshire’ sings of an imagined party where “nothing’s wrong,” only to paint us “captives” of our own fantasies as the song progresses into dissonance and paranoia. The album continues with ‘Weather,’ a mid tempo reflection on becoming numb to the world’s injustice and the misguided assumption that chaos is equal to freedom. “I’ve become subservient to the weather” Marczak sings over a steady motorik beat. Other tracks deal with concepts of absurdism and futility (‘Nihilist Chant,’ ‘All Red’), disordered and confused pasts (‘Tune Up’), and isolation and escapism (‘Starpower,’ ‘Unicorn,’ ‘Mutter’). Side two opener ‘Holy Jerks’ is a demented tale of society’s return to pagan rituals of human sacrifice in a future time of economic crisis and ecological disaster, broadly examining religious obsession with a cheeky, carnivalesque madness.

Musically the album is less concise than previous releases. The songs are longer and are arranged around extended instrumental passages, with lyrics sometimes taking a backseat to the band’s playing. Keyboard instruments rise to new levels of importance, with almost every track including serious contribution from the synthesizer, organ, or piano. Despite these developments in style, characteristic Dogisms such as Maher’s syncopated and groove-heavy bass lines remain. The record was recorded over 2021 between Strange Magic and Jamdek recording studios in Chicago, as well as the band’s practice space and apartments with help of frequent collaborator Tristan Huygen.

Headline photo: Jaycee Rockhold

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