Dog Fashion Disco



Dog Fashion Disco was an Alternative Metal band from Rockville, Maryland. Under their original name, 'Hug the Retard', they formed in 1996 by vocalist Todd Smith, keyboardist Jeff Siegel and drummer John Ensminger. According to Word of God, they changed their name because they thought it was too offensive and could cost them fans. Between then and their final show in 2007, they released seven albums (not including the EPs or live albums). Their subject matter included witches, lepers, serial killers, evil cults... You get the idea.

After they broke up, Todd Smith announced a new project, Polkadot Cadaver, which has a similar style to Dog Fashion Disco. They have released two albums; Purgatory Dance Party and Sex Offender.


 * A Good Name for a Rock Band: Though it's subverted for those who think their music is actually disco.
 * All Just a Dream...OrWasItADream: The lyrics in the 'elevator music' part of The Hitchhiker. Subverted within the remainder of the song.
 * Black Comedy: The lyrical content. Todd Smith's later projects kept this aspect.
 * Careful with That Axe: The bridge of The Darkest Days. "You remind me of the flowers...on...your...GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE!"
 * Concept Album: Adultery, which is about a seemingly normal guy with a normal job and a normal family life...who's actually a serial killer with split personalities.
 * Hell Hotel: Vertigo Motel.
 * Lyrical Dissonance: They love this trope.
 * Metal Scream: Usually used sparingly; often Justified when you read the lyrics.
 * Monster Clown: "Pogo the Clown", with lyrics about the Real Life example of John Wayne Gacy.
 * Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: Their 'sound' is based on a mix of metal, jazz, 1970s psychedelic and circus music. They just considered their music (specifically the album Adultery) 'Movie Metal'.
 * Shaped Like Itself: "Corpse Is A Corpse".
 * Soprano and Gravel: A lot of the songs on Adultery involve Todd Smith alternating between falsetto and 'gravel', most notably in "Sweet Insanity".
 * Stop and Go: "Magical Band of Fools" subverts this. After four minutes of silence a completely different song plays: the remake of "Scores for Porn" off an earlier album. (And Averted with the iTunes release, which removes the pause and separates the two tracks.)
 * Title Drop: "Cartoon Autopsy", which mentions the album title Anarchists of Good Taste.
 * White Dwarf Starlet: "Plastic Surgeons" is a plastic surgeon's serenade to his White Dwarf Starlet clients.