Hailed as “musical explorers” by Rolling Stone, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong first took flight roughly a decade ago at the University of Maryland, and the pysch-funk trailblazers have since gone on to play more than a thousand shows across 44 states. In just the past two years alone, the band has co-billed at Red Rocks, played halftime at Madison Square Garden, performed on Adult Swim’s FishCenter Live, celebrated the tenth anniversary of their beloved music festival, Domefest, and even earned their first headlining arena show. The Baltimore quartet’s latest album, ‘Presto,’ is their most sophisticated and joyful collection to date, drawing on everything from funk to rock to electronic music as it builds off the group’s unparalleled live energy and hits new heights of emotional and technical maturity. At a time when America seems to grow more divided by the day, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong still believes in the power of music to bring people together, and ‘Presto’ is a big, bold album all about celebrating the present and sharing it with the ones we love most.

The sandy shores of Asbury Park, New Jersey are hallowed ground in the northeast; the rolling waves have ushered generations of venerated musicians to worldwide acclaim. Dogs in a Pile, an eclectic quintet, has emerged as the heir apparent to the town’s rich musical legacy. Merging funk, jazz, and rock and roll with psychedelia, the quintet presents a completely original vibe built on kaleidoscopic soundscapes eerily reminiscent of the days of yesteryear.

The Dogs employ a unified approach to performance and songwriting, crafting aural mosaics through adept instrumentation and humble precocity. As avid storytellers, they draw inspiration from personal experiences, balancing life’s foibles with ever-present youthful sanguinity.

Dogs began when Philadelphia University of the Arts guitar gun-slinger Jimmy Law began playing with young Joe Babick (drums), a student at the Count Basie Theater program in Red Bank, NJ.  Lightning struck when they were introduced to Berklee School of Music student and bass player Sam Lucid, who immediately suggested fellow Berklee student and keyboard player Jeremy Kaplan. The addition of fellow Berklee student Brian Murray (guitar) in 2019 made for the quintessential final piece in the Dogs’ puzzle. 

A string of successful local shows drove the development of a massive northeast fan base, affectionately known as the Dog Pound. The band’s astronomical growth culminated in an epic, sold-out performance at the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park during the summer of 2021. Armed with a fresh batch of new material, Dogs in a Pile is taking its perpetually evolving testament to the Great American Songbook on tour in 2022, visiting plenty of new cities and spreading good music and good energy to good people along the way.