DOROTHY (band)

DOROTHY
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Hard rock
Years active	2014–present
Labels	Roc Nation
Website	itsdorothysucka.com
Members	Dorothy Martin Dylan Howard DJ Black Gregg Cash

DOROTHY is an American rock band founded in Los Angeles, California, United States. The band is composed of vocalist Dorothy Martin, drummer Dylan Howard, guitarist DJ Black and bassist Gregg Cash. They released their first project, a self-titled EP, in 2014. Rolling Stone deemed them "a [band] you need to know," and named them #14 on their 50 Best New Artists of 2014 list.^[1][2]

Career

2013

In early 2013, Dorothy met producer/guitarist Mark Jackson and his production partner Ian Scott with song ideas and plans to start a band. "When we heard Dorothy's voice, we were like, 'Holy shit — if we put this behind some serious old-school metal riffs, we'll have something big,'" said guitarist Mark Jackson in a November 2014 interview with Rolling Stone. "It sounded so cool when we did it, just having that fat bottom of old-school hip-hop records with metal guitars [playing] really simple riffs. [We're taking] this back to AC/DC or Sabbath —just one guitar, one bass, and drums and bad-ass vocals." Dorothy joked, "Basically, we want to make songs that we think Beavis and Butthead would like." ^[2] Jackson and Scott called on their friend Gregg Cash to play bass.

2014

What started as a piano ballad Dorothy had played for Jackson and Scott during one of their first meetings transformed into the band's hard-hitting debut "After Midnight". On June 10, 2014, the video for "After Midnight" premiered on VICE music network Noisey, dubbed as "the perfect modern rock concoction".^[3] The live performance video was shot at Swinghouse Studios in Hollywood by George Robertson and Aris Jerome. The video featured vocalist Dorothy donning her trademark fur coat, vintage T-shirt and red lips.

The song spread quickly, climbing Hype Machine’s music blog charts and gaining traction locally in Los Angeles as well as overseas. DOROTHY fielded early comparisons to The Kills, The White Stripes, Patti Smith and Grace Slick. London-based fashion publication Hunger TV commented "it feels good to know raw power, sex and whiskey is back en vogue".^[4] On July 24, 2014, Huffington Post named "After Midnight" the #1 song on their 12 Songs You Need to Know This Week, calling them "dangerous," "kick-ass" and "exactly what rock needs".^[5]

In August 2014, the band was invited by Skullcandy to perform at select cities in Europe, including Paris, Berlin and San Sebastián. On September 12, 2014, Vogue UK debuted a video using "After Midnight" starring English model and actress Suki Waterhouse.^[6] After breaking their song on LA radio, KCRW DJ and music director Chris Douridas invited DOROTHY to perform during his weekly School Night series at Bardot in Hollywood on October 6, 2014. "A packed house moved increasingly closer to the stage while Dorothy, whiskey in one hand and microphone in the other, mesmerized the crowd with her powerhouse vocals," noted LA Weekly's Pamela Chelin.^[7] "She's such a badass...like a revved up Adele teetering on the brink of chaos," said Douridas to Chelin.^[7]

On August 19, 2014, the band premiered its second single "Wild Fire" on IndieShuffle to great reviews.^[8] On October 27, 2014, Billboard premiered DOROTHY's third single "Wicked Ones," comparing their bluesy, rock sound to Black Sabbath and The White Stripes. "You get a load of their easygoing cool and you’re reminded that there have always been kids like them keeping rock edgy, albeit under the radar, far from mainstream attention," noted Chris Payne of Billboard.^[9] "Wicked Ones" became the band's most successful single thus far. It was the #1 trending indie rock song on Soundcloud, peaked at #4 on the HypeMachine chart, and was selected by Skullcandy to lead a national ad campaign with James Harden.

On October 28, 2014, DOROTHY released their debut self-titled EP, which was recorded in a spare bedroom at Scott's residence in Los Angeles. Following the release, they headlined a local residency at Bootleg Theater every Monday night in November. That month, they recorded a cover of Jay Z and Kanye West’s "No Church in the Wild" and have since added it to their live performances, which have received rave reviews. Following the residency, DOROTHY was named on Rolling Stone's Artists You Need To Know list on November 24, 2014. "You really get the full energy from everybody, because they put their heart and soul into the performance," said Dorothy to Maura Johnston for Rolling Stone. "It's more loose; it's not going to be exactly like the record. There's a lot of energy and vibe." ^[2] In an interview with LA Weekly, Dorothy spoke on the band and overcoming stage fright. "I’ve always just wanted to sing and it was a long journey to get over the stage fright and find who I was," she says. "If you don't get knocked down, you can't stand up and say, ‘I'm ready for this now.’ I am fucking ready now. This is what I was meant to do. It’s about fucking time. Let's go. This is the first band that has been serious and feels right. I'm not telling the world, ‘Fuck me, fuck me.' Fuck you. I don't care if you think I'm hot or not, or want me to take my shirt off. I'm not going to. I’m going to grab the microphone and sing. That's what I came to do." ^[7]

On December 30, 2014, Rolling Stone pegged DOROTHY #14 on their 50 Best New Artists of 2014 list.^[10]

2015

On February 23, 2015, Complex premiered the "Wicked Ones" video.^[11] On March 5, 2015, DOROTHY headlined a show at The Satellite in Los Angeles before a string of SXSW performances. They followed SXSW with an April residency every Monday night at The Satellite, bringing out supporters including Miguel, Tom Morello and Orange Is The New Black actress/Australian model Ruby Rose. On June 16, 2015, DOROTHY announced signing a recording deal with Roc Nation. The band also announced that they will go on tour with Miguel starting July 24.^[12] The band's song "Wicked Ones" has been used in television advertisements for Levi's and Gatorade.^[13][14] It also served as the theme song for WWE's 2015 PPV TLC.

2016

In February 2016, Survivor used "Get Up" in their promos for Survivor: Kaôh Rōng. On June 24, 2016, DOROTHY released their debut album, ROCKISDEAD.

Discography

Studio album

EPs

Singles

References