“Stray Dog” has a special place in the Amigo The Devil catalog. “It’s a three-legged dog of its own identity,” says Danny Kiranos, a.k.a. Amigo. “It’s the only song recorded for this project that I initially wrote for someone else’s record. But they didn’t want it.”
Kiranos would rather not say who the artist was, and it really doesn’t matter. “Stray Dog” now lives on Yours Until The War Is Over (Liars Club/Regime Music Group), the follow-up to Amigo The Devil’s well-received—and darkly unique—2021 effort, Born Against. A product of the West Coast brewery industry and sundry punk and noise outfits, Kiranos has been living in Nashville for about a year now. Clearly, he has a Tom Waits fixation, and he’s not shy about acknowledging as much on his latest release. But there’s nothing imitative about his split-screen approach, which occupies a fractured cinematic space all its own—one that veers artfully between pathos and empathy.
On “Stray Dog,” the narrative turns inward. “Even though it was meant for someone else, it was still written from a deeply personal moment in time for me,” he says. “It would’ve probably been confusing to hear another person sing, so I’m grateful for the rejection.”
We’re proud to premiere Amigo The Devil’s “Stray Dog.”
—Hobart Rowland
