Can, The Fall, Talking Heads, Pixies, Flaming Lips, Les Savy Fav, Sonic Youth, Iggy & the Stooges, Pavement, Sea and Cake, Built to Spill, Tripping Daisy, Tortoise, Bowie, Cream, Television, GoGoGo Airheart, The Flaming Groovies and truckstop cassette racks.
A notoriously eclectic bunch, The Dont's spend several hours a week improvising in their studio adjacent to a glass factory in San Francisco, retaining hundreds of hours of experimental recordings since forming in 2003. After their sophomore self-release INNER EL CAMINO hit the streets in early 2007, The Dont's were named CMJ/Sonicbids Artist of the Week, SF Deli Magazine's Artist of the Month, and were selected to showcase at CMJ 2007 in New York as well as Noise Pop 2008 as one of Sonicbids' featured artists.
Recorded predominantly at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone, 2007's INNER EL CAMINO features Tom Waits' onetime horn virtuoso, Ralph Carney, as the band expands their indie rock palate to incorporate jagged new-wave romps, crusty psychedelica and their trademark no-fi balladry.
In April 2005, the band self-released MISC RADIO LEAKAGE, a binaurally recorded foray into the depths of love and commerce. Leakage found the four pursuing darkly melodic passages inspired by the likes of Can, The Fall, Talking Heads and The Flaming Lips. Along with INNER EL CAMINO, both records have garnered acclaim from an array of local and national print and online press. The Dont's are presently working on their third record and will be road testing selective material along the West Coast in Spring/Summer 2008 before setting it to tape.
Inner El Camino - CD (2007)
Misc Radio Leakage - CD (2005)
Model - EP (2003)
“Fusing 90s alt-rock with Talking Heads
quirkiness, The Dont's create a truly
eclectic sound.” – CMJ
"Inner El Camino is a clamorous exploration of noise and improvisation with undeniable funkified dance elements veiled by raw "freak pop." - West Coast PERFORMER
"Ranging from rock to pop to splashes of jazz and ambient, the group thrives on challenging the listener....sounds like a cross between At the Drive-In and James Brown...and the quirky “Worldview” sounds like a cross between the Flaming Lips and the Hold Steady on sedatives." - PopMatters
“The Dont’s have refined the art of teetering at the splintered edge of
disaster, embracing just the right amount of abandon...” – Flavorpill
“Edgy and wildly creative... a fantastic indie rock record." - East Bay Express
“Inner El Camino is an indie rock fun
house... simultaneously off-kilter and
embracing.” – Nascent
“The Dont's have created an unusual
indie-rock blend... lots of noise with
plenty of spacious quiet moments...”
– In Music We Trust
“The Dont's pour down smart, angular and
snappy songs that have deep roots somewhere
between early UK post punk and the
more accessible works of Sonic Youth.”
– Left Hip Magazine
“San Francisco indie rockers The Dont's
are the apple of the local music press's eye.”
– San Francisco Chronicle
“Peppered with spacey blips and bleeps,
The Dont's have produced a very organic,
authentic sound.” – The Owl Mag
“The Dont's make great sense out of a
couple of decades of indie-rock... hectoring
Fall vocals, extended Can jams, and tense
but eloquent Modest Mouse guitars...”
- Delusions of Adequacy
“The Dont's sound like Can meets the Replacements.
It makes me almost wet myself.”
– Tiny Mix Tapes
“The Dont's take the knotty melodies
and fractured rhythms of icons like
Wire, the Fall and Gang of Four and
bring them into the new millennium.”
– High Bias
