Toronto bedroom pop band No Frills have shared their new single, “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Dog Anymore,” premiering now on Indie88. The track comes in celebration of the announcement of their debut album, Downward Dog, out April 1st, 2022.

Made up of members of Hooded Fang, Twist, Rapport, and Grounders, No Frills make warm, lo-fi tunes that are reminiscent of ’50s crooners and early ’60s pop. Today’s release, “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Dog Anymore,” is the perfect preview of their upcoming “pandemic record.” The track is a 90s college rock anthem. It boasts jangly guitars, catchy riffs, and vintage sounds.

“Reading anecdotes about Iggy Pop in Please Kill Me (super fun oral history of early punk) makes me picture a wild Iggy, crawling on all fours, shirtless, sweaty, intense, possibly bleeding, etc., and it occured to me that I’m the total opposite of that person,” the band’s Daniel Busheikin explains. “In ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ Iggy is recklessly throwing himself into sexual and physical domination. In my opposite universe it would be ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Your Dog Anymore,’ where I’m pathetically trying to weasel out the doggy door. So I thought that was kinda funny, which it probably isn’t, but beyond the reference this is a playful but sincere lamentation about being obedient and submissive.”

Listen to “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Dog Anymore” below.
 

 
When Toronto shut down in the spring of 2020, songwriter Daniel Busheikin began working on demos for Downward Dog. Writing with guitars, vintage synths, and a slew of guitar pedals, Busheikin made the footprint for fifteen tracks.

The lo-fi pop record looks at “themes of depression, despair, and death through a sardonic sense of humour,” according to a press release. You can hear that sound on “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Dog Anymore.” While the album is quite cohesive, it explores a bunch of different sounds, from the ’50s crooner sound of “Ice Cream Cone” to the lullabye closer, “Pancake.”

Check out the tracklist for Downward Dog below.
 

Downward Dog Tracklist:

01 – “Welcome…!”
02 – “Save the Bees”
03 – “Ice Cream Cone”
04 – “Darkhorse”
05 – “Drip”
06 – “Copy Cat”
07 – “I Don’t Wanna Be Your Dog Anymore”
08 – “Thrasher”
09 – “Common Folk”
10 – “New Medication”
11 – “Down For The Count”
12 – “Terrycloth and Dirt”
13 – “Everything Will Become Better”
14 – “Pancake”

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