Indie-pop supergroup Megasound tap into grunge angst, early-2000s rock and a streak of surreal defiance on “Dog Leash,” a standout from their newly released self-titled debut album.
Indie-pop trio Megasound have released their self-titled debut album via Don Giovanni Records, bringing together Kerry Alexander and Chris Hoge of Bad Bad Hats with Elana Carroll of Party Nails. Among its sharper moments is “Dog Leash,” a dark, cathartic single accompanied by a music video starring Carroll’s dog Snoopy on a dizzying trip through Los Angeles.
“Dog Leash” finds the group embracing a moodier and more abrasive side of their sound. Built around electric guitars, drums and a deliberately lean arrangement, the track turns desperation and defiance into something volatile, with Carroll’s vocals shifting through the mix while Hoge’s guitar work pushes toward outright combustion.
That stripped-down approach is central to Megasound. Rather than leaning on the synth-heavy textures associated with the members’ other projects, the trio built the record around the immediacy of a traditional rock setup. The result draws heavily from the music of their youth, allowing grunge angst and breezier pop instincts to coexist across the album.
The band itself grew from a long-running friendship between its three members. While touring together in 2018, Carroll joined Bad Bad Hats onstage for a cover of “Pretend to Be Nice” from Josie and the Pussycats. That performance planted the seed for a new collaborative project, which eventually took shape through writing and recording sessions split between Minnesota, Los Angeles and remote exchanges.
With “Dog Leash,” Megasound capture the heavier end of that collaboration: tense, scrappy indie rock with enough melodic instinct underneath the distortion to keep the chaos firmly on its feet.