We know what becomes of a music legend most: Fame, sometimes fortune, the inevitable decline, often a stint in rehab, and a comeback.
But what becomes of the non-legend, the almost famous?
For area band Dog Food, the last 21 years have been a story of starts and stops, and jumpstarts.
Formed in 1990 by Jersey City frontman Keith Vukan, Dog Food has kicked around the New York City/Hudson County club scene looking for that most illusive gift in the music industry.
“It’s hard to get gigs if you don’t have a lot of friends who will come to see you. They [club owners] want you to sell tickets,” Vukan said recently.
On the heels of two demo tapes that were released in 1991 and 1992, Dog Food appeared to be building a base of loyal fans.
Dog Food is trying to regain its early ’90s momentum.
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“I figured a three-piece was easiest because only two guys have to know the chords,” said Vukan. “And in some instances, even one guy doesn’t know the chords. If you have a bit of a jazz background, you can get away with a lot if you know how to improvise a little and you only have three guys.”
Recalling the band’s early years, Vukan rattled off the names of clubs where the group got its start. “We played a gig at Live Tonight in Hoboken, which is now the Whiskey Bar, I believe. We had follow-up gigs at Escapades in downtown Jersey City.”
The group twice played the legendary CBGB in New York City.
But as is often the case with mercurial musicians, drummers and guitarists came and went, leaving Vukan to fill the gaps at a time when the band was starting to get regular bookings and a following among fans. By 1993 he was working with whichever musicians he could find. Vukan – a bassist – recorded one Dog Food album completely on his own.
The group has had several lineups since getting its start. Vukan has remained the band’s one constant through the years.
“I went to my friend’s basement. She had a drum kit. I set a microphone up at the back of the room, ’cause I knew drums were loud enough that you didn’t have to mic every drum,” Vukan said. “The Beatles never mic-ed all their drums and their records sounded fine to me.”
And look at how things turned out for them.
“I would play the drums with the song in my head and then overdub all the [other] instruments on top of that.”
It took Vukan four years to re-staff the band. Today the group is trying to regain its early ’90s momentum, which Vukan admits is a struggle since time is not a friend to an aging would-be rock star.
Second act
Dog Food’s current incarnation, which has been together since 1997, includes Vukan on bass and vocals, Ian O’Connell on guitar, and Greg Hoffmann on drums.
“We still continue to play and do everything to make it in the business, but by this point, I’m already past 30,” he said. “And it’s unlikely to be a rock star after that [age]. They don’t sign many older bands.”
Other life changes (marriage, children) – Vukan admits – can shift a musician’s focus from recording, touring, and performing to the day job, steady paycheck, and car pools.
Still, the Dogs have their collective wet nose to the grindstone and continue to play whatever gigs they can get, including one at Webster Hall in New York and a Battle of the Bands show in Las Vegas. They played CBGC until it closed in 2006. The current line-up also released a CD in 1998.
These days, Vukan said the band is playing more shows than it has in the last three years, although most of its shows are out of state, not in Jersey City. The notoriety and new audiences have clearly rejuvenated the band as well as Vukan.
“It feels really good to be out there, playing like this again, even if not all the audiences are huge,” he said.
But with age comes new perspective.
“We don’t rehearse these days,” he said, “because we sound the same whether we rehearse or not.”
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.