Dot Dash’s new album Proto Retro, the band’s sixth long player, out now on TBM. 

Coming off of 2016’s amped-up, fuzzed-out Searchlights, the 12 track Proto Retro sees Dot Dash taking a poppier, janglier direction but one that retains the punky, garagey energy that has marked the band’s previous releases.

 

Dot Dash is a Washington D.C.-based trio — Terry Banks (guitar & vocals), Hunter Bennett (bass), and Danny Ingram (drums.)

 

 

Sweet Sweet Music talked to Terry Banks.

 

 

 

 

The meaning of ‘success’ has changed over the years. When will the new record be a success?

 

I suppose it’s a success just by existing.  I think that’s the big goal, to just have the stuff exist.  We’ve had a few of our songs licensed for use in TV shows and movies in the past and when that happens it produces money that helps to pay for recordings. So, it would be nice for that to happen again with this new album, but you can never count on stuff like that.  It happens when it happens.

 

photo credit Roxplosion

 

Do you feel part of a community, the power pop community?

 

At the risk of sounding anti-social, no, not really.  There’s no question our stuff is pretty power poppy, but we don’t see ourselves as a “power pop band.”  That said, if other people do, that’s fine with us.  At various points, our music has been described as power pop, garage, punk, post-punk, indiepop, and indie rock, so maybe we’re a mix of those things.

 

 

Which is the song you wish you had written every time you hear it?

 

That’s a hard one.  Maybe “The Airport Song” by The Byrds, or “Outdoor Miner” by Wire.

 

 

If you could tour the world with 2 other bands, who would you ask to join?

 

The closest Dot Dash has got to touring was a little string of East Coast dates with Tommy Keene, who was a real music hero of mine/ours, but Tommy passed away last fall, so that’s him off the list.  Let’s see, who else?  How about Guided By Voices and The Monochrome Set?

 

 

 

If the budget was unlimited, how would you record the next record?

 

Hmmm… it would be cool to record at Ardent Studios in Memphis (where the Big Star stuff was done, among many other things.)  Or, further afield, Abbey Road.

 

Proto Retro is available as a digipak CD (which includes a free download of the album) here:  http://thebeautifulmusic.com/

And as a download here:  https://dotdashdc.bandcamp.com/

band info:  https://www.facebook.com/dotdashdc