The silly season -- when the midsummer heat engenders a sort of benign lunacy -- is well and truly upon us. And you can't get much sillier, in the nicest sense of the word, than The Yellow Dogs and The Bunnies, two resolutely retro bands who have recently issued albums whose primitive musicality is more than offset by their charm and sense of fun.
The Yellow Dogs are four guys who met five or so years ago at an annual event marking the anniversary of John Lennon's murder. They are obviously Beatles fans, a fact made all the more apparent by their recently released mini-album, "My Girl Is Red Hot," whose cover is a parody of the Fab Four's "A Hard Day's Night" LP jacket.
The Yellow Dogs' debut release (in April 2000) was the 7-inch single "Sheik of Araby" (a tune from the '20s that was part of The Beatles' live sets in the first stage of their career), backed with "Three Cool Cats" and "Boys." Since then, The Yellow Dogs have released five more 7-inch extended-play vinyl records and one album, all of which have comprised music played by the early Beatles.