The Dodge Brothers

This article is about the band. For the founders of the Dodge automobile company, see Horace Elgin Dodge and John Francis Dodge.
The Dodge Brothers

The Dodge Brothers at Marylebone station, July 2009
Background information
Origin Southampton, England
Genres Skiffle, Americana, rockabilly, bluegrass, folk, country, blues
Website Dodgebrothers.co.uk
Members Mark Kermode (double bass), Mike Hammond, Alex Hammond, Aly Hirji

The Dodge Brothers are a British skiffle band from Southampton playing Americana, rockabilly, bluegrass, folk, country and blues music. The band includes film critic and BBC television presenter Mark Kermode,[1][2] along with Mike and Alex Hammond and Aly Hirji. The band played on the BBC Two programme The Culture Show, which is co-presented by Kermode, on 19 May 2007 and took part in the same show’s ‘Busking Challenge’ on 29 March 2008. The band have appeared on Kermode’s video blog ‘Kermode Uncut’, playing ‘skiffle’ covers of blockbuster movie soundtracks including Star Wars, Star Trek, The A-Team and Smurfs 3D. The music heard on the 'Kermode Uncut' blog is extracts from The Dodge Brothers’ music. They also provided skiffled movie theme tunes for one round of a quiz show on Simon Mayo and Kermode’s BBCRadio 5 Live Christmas show in 2010.

Since 2010 The Dodge Brothers have played the live accompaniment to classic silent movies at film festivals around the country, accompanied by silent movie pianist Neil Brand.

According to guitarist Mike Hammond, The Dodge Brothers started in 1996 when Hammond and Kermode were introduced by their wives. "By the end of the night, we were drinking whisky and playing piano," Hammond recalls, at which time Kermode suggested they form a band. They then played local gigs with a third member on harmonica, and then as a two piece before soundman Aly Hirji joined on rhythm guitar after meeting Hammond and Kermode at a pub where the duo were playing in 2005.[3] In 2006 they recorded their first album, a self-titled record of covers from “the songbook of weird old America”. Drummer Alex Hammond appears on two tracks before joining the band just before their first Culture Show appearance in 2007.

In 2008 The Dodge Brothers released their second album Louisa and the Devil, the first with the present line-up and featuring mostly original material “written to sound old”. The track ‘Died and Gone to Hell’ also features Billy Lunn of The Subways on vocals and guitar.

Kermode has described the band as "guitars, banjo, slap bass, harmonica - and no drums, which is essentially a hillbilly/skiffle set-up. The music we play definitely leans toward rockabilly, but the choice of material is somewhat older, our set includes Washboard Sam's Who Pumped the Wind in My Doughnut, which remains one of the greatest and rudest songs ever written. I think the best way of describing what we do is to say that we play songs about transport and homicide... with occasional episodes of drunkenness".[4]

Discography

References

  1. ↑ "Mark Kermode". BBC Newsnight Review. 2003-08-06. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  2. ↑ Kermode, Mark (2008-06-01). "My 20-year love affair with the joy of skiffle". The Observer (London). p. 6. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
  3. ↑ "Interview: The Dodge Brothers". The Current Presents: Blues Highway, Minnesota Public Radio (St Paul, Minnesota). 2011-12-18. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
  4. ↑ "Interview: Dr Mark Kermode". Heaven or Las Legas. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  5. ↑ Irwin, Colin (26 October 2009). "The Dodge Brothers: Louisa & the Devil review". BBC Music. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
  6. ↑ Hazlewood, Iain (12 September 2013). "The Dodge Brothers: The Sun Set review". Spiral Earth. Retrieved 18 Sep 2013.

External links

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