Trans Am walks the same line between substance and style that its namesake car model did in its heyday. Often considered the leading light of the ’90s post-rock scene, the Maryland-based trio switches between big, loud rawk riffing and spacey, experimental ambience, sometimes within the same song. Trans Am gleans imagery and sounds from the synth- and vocoder-heavy music of decades past, but also informs its songs with a detached, millennial indie attitude. The group shifts gears from album to album, and this intellectual restlessness continues with the atmospheric, trippy Thing (Thrill Jockey). The LP should appeal both to new-school stoner-metal fans and the hippie oldheads at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, where Trans Am will be playing a free show on August 18. Nathan Means will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with the band.
Means: No, dogs do not care how other dogs look. They are much more interested in how other dogs smell or if they are fixed or not. Dogs often don’t react the way you’d expect them to. A small dog like a West Highland terrier, for instance, will sometimes take on dogs much larger than itself. A Westie seems to think of itself as being much more physically prominent than it is in actuality. Similarly, a large dog like a Great Dane could be quite sheepish around smaller, more dominant dogs despite its menacing size. Dogs, particularly male dogs, will often react to or feel threatened by dogs that are not fixed. This is a common alpha-male tendency. Also, dogs that are hermaphrodites (having both sex organs) will often confuse other dogs and get snapped at. I know this to be true because I look after a hermaphrodite pug, and it is not popular with other dogs. It doesn’t help the poor shemale that it’s also very sexually aggressive. In conclusion, dogs do not care how pugs look. They just care if the pug has both a penis and a vagina.
