Overview
Dog Party is a Sacramento-born indie rock and pop-punk duo: sisters Gwendolyn (Gwennie) Giles and Lucy Giles. They have been doing this since before most of their current fans were in high school. Formed in 2007 when Gwennie and Lucy were around eight and ten years old, they released their debut full-length in 2009 — at eleven and thirteen — and have been touring North America and Europe, putting out records, and getting harder to ignore ever since. Seven albums. One sibling telepathy. Zero major labels. [1][2][3]
Origins
Dog Party grew up in Sacramento, California. Gwennie and Lucy started playing together as kids — their father Sam Giles introduced both daughters to what he considered "good music" early: The White Stripes, The Black Keys, the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, Green Day, LCD Soundsystem. It took. By the time family friend Zach Goodin nudged them to form a band in 2007, the raw material was already there. [10][2]
Gwendolyn had picked up guitar and was playing school talent shows by fifth grade. Lucy's path to drums started even earlier — she wanted to play since first grade, looking to Meg White of The White Stripes as her model. "I thought it was normal to be a girl drummer," she told Submerge in 2011. Her father bought her a Reuther drum set that year; she had to wait until third grade for lessons. [10]
By 2009 they had enough material for a self-titled debut. The band formed in a world shaped by The Ramones, The Go-Go's, The Runaways, and The White Stripes — bands that built something big out of something lean — and Dog Party absorbed that lesson early. Two instruments. Two voices. A guitar-and-drums setup that could fill a room bigger than it looked. [2][4][5]
Sacramento punk and indie elders took notice quickly. Among their early champions was Kepi Ghoulie of Groovie Ghoulies, the Bay Area punk institution with deep ties to the Asian Man Records community and the broader DIY circuit the Giles sisters were building their career inside. [2][6]
Sound
Guitar-and-drums duos live or die by feel. Dog Party figured that problem out by running two amps — a deliberate rig choice that fills out the low end a two-piece normally cannot reach — and by leaning hard on blood harmonies, the almost-unnerving blend you get when siblings sing together. The result is pop-punk that feels fuller than it should, driven by fuzz-soaked guitar and Lucy's heavy kick pattern, with hooks that stick whether you are paying attention or not. [2][5]
Gwendolyn's live rig has rotated through a Fender Squire Strat, a couple of Silvertones, and a Hofner, paired with a Fender Pro Reverb amp and Marshall cabinet. By the Vol. 4 era they had given a name to a third essential piece of the rig: Jimmy, their Fuzz War pedal by Death By Audio. Lucy described the Vol. 4 sound in 2015: "It's just like real big sounding. The drums are loud, the guitar is super powerful, and we have the third [band] member, Jimmy, our Fuzz War pedal by Death By Audio." [11][10]
The sibling chemistry is something both sisters have tried to articulate. Lucy's version: "We get along really easily and we know what we're thinking. It's kind of like a psychic thing and we just play really well together." [11]
Lucy's Ramones obsession is not casual — while in Southern California for a Tom Tom Magazine photo shoot in 2011, she made the family detour to Hollywood Forever Cemetery to visit Dee Dee and Johnny Ramones' graves, and had made stencils of each Ramone's face. [10]
They have been compared to Bikini Kill (riot-grrrl physicality), Scott Pilgrim's Sex Bob-omb (post-ironic punk nerd credibility), and the entire canon of 70s girl-group rock. The honest version: they sound like Dog Party, which took a few albums to become a recognizable thing and has been unavoidable since Lost Control. [3][4]
Early Sacramento years
The Giles sisters were a Midtown fixture before they were old enough to get into most Midtown venues. Luigi's Fungarden was their all-ages home room. Concerts in the Park at Cesar Chavez Plaza had them on the bill for three consecutive years. Old Ironsides was an early stop — until they aged out of it the wrong direction. "We used to play Old Ironsides all the time. Now we can't," Lucy said in 2011, at 13. [10]
Their social world diverged early from their peers. Gwendolyn's attempts to bring school friends to Sacramento punk shows — a Secretions night at Luigi's, trips to Midtown — mostly failed. "I don't like being in the 'burbs," Lucy said, at the time living part of her life in Carmichael while playing bars and house shows with adults. [10]
Musical support came from the Midtown musician community rather than school. Alongside Dog Party they were also half of Little Medusas, a Sacramento band with two older collaborators. Summer tours with Kepi Ghoulie and Sacramento band Pets through Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California — half the shows in houses, half in bars. The best show: a house party in Flagstaff where people actually danced. "People were actually moving instead of just standing around the way people tend to do at Sacramento shows," Lucy noted. [10]
The age question
By the time Dog Party had 25 states and four U.S. tours behind them — which was 2015 — the age framing had become something both sisters were actively pushing back against. The "you're so good for your age" compliment, the "teen show" billing, the "so cute" reactions: all of it was wearing thin.
"Basically, the last record we put out was really angled that we were young," Lucy said before Vol. 4's release. "Our age was put into everything. This record, we're trying to not include our age as much. It doesn't matter about anything: age, gender, race, anything like that. Where you come from, none of that matters. It's all about the music." [11]
Gwen was more specific about the double bind: "Teen show is also annoying or, oh you're so cute. Or, that's so great that you guys are doing this at such a young age, or you're so good for your age." Lucy: "It's both things, it's the age gap and [gender]." [11]
The pushback was intentional and effective. By Lost Control the conversation had shifted to the music. By Dangerous it was gone entirely.
Discography
Studio albums
- Dog Party (2009) — Self-titled debut. Released in their early teens. [1][2]
- P.A.R.T.Y. (2011) — Second album on Zach Goodin's Half of Nothing Records. Released on CD and pink vinyl; release show at Luigi's Fungarden, Dec. 30, 2011, with Kepi Ghoulie and Nacho Business. [10][1]
- Lost Control (2013) — Third album, via Asian Man Records. Fan favorite and catalog milestone; opener "Cry" became a live staple. [1][7][2]
- Vol. 4 (2015) — Fourth album. Cassette via Burger Records, LP and CD via Asian Man. Release show at Harlow's, June 15, 2015, with Pookie and The Poodlez. Singles: "Peanut Butter Dream." [11][7][1]
- 'Til You're Mine (2016) — Fifth album, via Asian Man Records and Burger Records. [1][7]
- Hit & Run (2018) — Sixth album. Color vinyl editions. Heavy touring cycle. [3][7][1]
- Dangerous (2024) — Seventh album on their own Sneak Dog Records imprint. More mature songwriting, elevated production. Lead single: "Bullet in Disguise," a spaghetti-western / grindhouse video. [2][1]
Selected singles and shorter releases
- "Today I Started Loving You Again" (single, 2017) [1]
- Sings The Beatles (2019) — Beatles covers release [7][1]
- "Bullet in Disguise" (single, 2024) [2][1]
- "Last Nite" (single, 2024) [1]
Compilation appearances
Label affiliations and Sneak Dog Records
Dog Party's label history tracks the full arc of DIY indie infrastructure. Half of Nothing Records — Zach Goodin's Sacramento label — put out their second album P.A.R.T.Y. in 2011, when the sisters were still in middle and high school. From there they moved into the orbit of Asian Man Records (the San Jose punk institution active since the mid-90s) and Burger Records (the Fullerton cassette-and-vinyl label that became a central hub for West Coast garage and pop-punk in the 2010s). The Burger relationship also brought them into the orbit of labelmates Pookie and The Poodlez, Swimmers, and an affinity for Ty Segall. [10][11][2][7]
In 2024 they launched Sneak Dog Records, their own imprint, to release Dangerous. In interviews they framed the move as a response to watching major-label deals constrain other artists, and as a natural extension of the DIY ethic they had been practicing since they were kids. [2]
Film
Dog Party appear in Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2 (2016), the sequel to the 1998 cult film, available on Netflix. [9]
Touring and career milestones
Dog Party has been on the road steadily since their early teens. By 2015 they had logged 25 states over four U.S. tours, often running two or three sets per night. Their international circuit includes Italy, Berlin, and broader European touring — Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France — usually alongside Kepi Ghoulie or independently. [11][6][4][2]
They have covered the road in style: by the Vol. 4 era, the tour vehicle was a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. [11]
The single biggest slot: special guests on Green Day's Revolution Radio club tour, October 2016. Green Day deliberately played small rooms for the album cycle — clubs and theaters rather than arenas — and chose Dog Party as their opening act for a 10-show run hitting Boston, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., and Berkeley (October 20). The announcement ran in Submerge Magazine in September 2016, when both Giles sisters were still under 21.
Gwennie told Submerge at the time: "I was dying to see the American Idiot tour, I think I was in fifth grade, but my parents didn't let me go. Just a few weeks ago I was actually thinking about how I'd probably never get to see them play." Lucy: "Green Day is such a great band and it is so cool watching the progression throughout all of their records. It's just going to be so wild to be touring with them." [9]
Other notable touring partners: CJ Ramone, The Aquabats, Shannon and the Clams, Kepi Ghoulie (double sets — a full Dog Party set and then a set as Kepi's backing band, same night). Regional dates at the Davis Music Festival and NorCal club showcases keep them embedded in the Sacramento and Northern California circuit year-round. [11][6][4][3]
Sacramento roots
Dog Party has consistently identified Sacramento as home throughout their career, which matters in a music ecosystem where artists frequently migrate to the Bay or Los Angeles as soon as they develop any momentum. They stayed, kept booking regional dates, and built a fanbase in Northern California that has followed them across seven albums.
Their lineage situates them within a specific Sacramento tradition: the punk-to-indie continuum that traces through Tiger Trap — the early-90s Sacramento indie band that left a mark on the same DIY circuit — and forward through the current generation of women-led and sibling-configuration rock groups working out of the 916. [4][7]
The connection to Harlow's is documented: Vol. 4's release show was held there in June 2015, and the venue is among the Sacramento stages where Dog Party built their early reputation. They share that launchpad credit with Hobo Johnson and the Lovemakers and Tycho.
Press recognition: Dog Party were the cover story of Submerge Magazine Issue #188 (May 25–June 8, 2015), under the headline "The Kids Are Alright" — the same issue that covered Blackalicious, Black Star Safari, and the US Air Guitar Championships qualifier at the Starlite. It was the clearest sign that Sacramento's own music press had stopped treating them as a curiosity and started treating them as a story. [11]
Why it matters for Sacramento music
Dog Party's story is a Sacramento story specifically because they did not leave. The arc — kids with guitars in Sacramento, Half of Nothing Records, Asian Man and Burger, Green Day tour openers, own label on their own terms — was built here and is documentable here in ways it would not be if they had relocated. The founding-at-eight detail sounds like a hook, but it is actually a structural fact: they have been playing together longer than most working bands have existed, and the tightness of a two-piece that has been running the same telepathy since childhood is audible on record. Dangerous is their best album because they had fifteen years of practice before they made it. [2][1]
In 2011, Gwendolyn said: "We will play forever." So far, so good. [10]
Sources
- Dog Party (band) — Wikipedia
- Interview: Dog Party Talk 'Dangerous' — New Noise Magazine
- Dog Party — SoundCloud
- DOG PARTY — Davis Music Festival
- Dog Party — Spotify
- Dog Party — Pure Nowhere Archive
- Dog Party — Bandcamp
- Dog Party Official Website
- Sacramento Punk-Rock Sister Duo Dog Party Lands Opening Slot on Tour with Green Day! — Submerge Magazine, September 13, 2016
- Rock 'n' Roll All Night! — Submerge Magazine, 2011
- The Music Matters (Cover Story) — Submerge Magazine, Issue #188, May 25–June 8, 2015