Fat Dog – Heart Of Darkness
On Friday, Fat Dog are releasing their new LP Cancel Me (I’m Tired) via Domino.
Two days prior to the release the band are sharing a final preview of the record, a single called “Heart Of Darkness” that arrives with a Ralph Fuller-directed video.
Frontman and songwriter Joe Love was determined that Cancel Me (I’m Tired) would be a little less intense than its predecessor. As a result, this is an album that has more of a dynamic ebb and flow to it compared to WOOF.’s all-or-nothing-but-mainly-all onslaught.
With its whirling future-folk, “Heart of Darkness” is a track that showcases the band’s softer side. That doesn’t mean the band have gotten that earnest though. As Love contemplates complications in a relationship, he realizes “I’ll be watching Shrek 5 by my ones.”
The video for “Heart of Darkness” is directed by Ralph Fuller and features a Kim Jong Un impersonator performing karaoke and dreaming of rockets.
After releasing their debut album WOOF. in 2024 and becoming one of the UK’s most exciting breakthrough bands in the process, South London seven-piece Fat Dog have a good reason to be tired. They’ve spent the period since WOOF.’s release spreading their raucous, infectious and irresistible bark around the world. The reason that they want you to cancel them is that they’ve been around the world and they’re tired.
But if Fat Dog are tired with the world, the world is not tired of them. In fact, the world can’t get enough of them. Wherever they went on the tour to support WOOF., new diehards emerged out of the carnage. “Show of the weekend,” raved The Times after they played four shows in 27 hours at Glastonbury last year. “Unserious, unhinged and sensational,” marvelled NME. Their message spread far and wide.
When it was time to think about album 2, the band’s ringleader threw himself into recording sessions a day after landing home from a chaotic US tour in which each member of the band took turns in unravelling. “At some point on that tour, everyone had a small breakdown of some sort,” says Chris, who remembers losing his mind in LA, bashing his head against a wall whilst wearing an American Football helmet.
It wasn’t all nervous meltdowns. Romance was also in the air and, midway through the trek, Fat Dog’s frontman got married in Vegas after proposing to his girlfriend in San Francisco. “We played a gig to two people in Vegas,” Joe recalls, “and then the next day I got married.”
And so, it was with depressed Elvis ringing in his ears that Joe got home and began work on the second Fat Dog album. On their debut, Love had left the lyrics until last, letting the heady momentum of the music lead the way, but this time he felt he had much more to say. Into its lyrical orbit, the record pulls mentions of addiction, family ties, love, AI, ancestry, extra-terrestrials, Chris Tarrant, S&M, B&M, H&M and M&Ms. Cancel Me (I’m Tired) possesses all the rabid frenzy and electrifying excitement of their debut but now delivered on a grand and glorious scale. Big, big things are ahead. Fat Dog are only just getting going.
Fat Dog are Joe Love, Chris Hughes, Morgan Wallace, Ellis Dickson, Michael Dunlop, Dillon Harrison and Jed Bevington.
| Tour Dates |
| Instore tour |
| 10/1 – Dash The Henge, London (no live performance) |
| 10/2 – Kingston @ Circuit (via Banquet) – SOLD OUT 10/3 – Bristol @ Rough Trade Bristol – matinee – SOLD OUT |
| 10/3 – Bristol @ Rough Trade Bristol – SOLD OUT 10/4 – London @ Rough Trade East – matinee – SOLD OUT |
| 10/4 – London @ Rough Trade East – SOLD OUT |
| 10/5 – Sheffield @ Foundry (via Bear Tree) 10/6 – Nottingham @ Rough Trade – matinee |
| 10/6 – Nottingham @ Rough Trade Nottingham – SOLD OUT 10/7 – Liverpool @ Rough Trade Liverpool – matinee |
| 10/7 – Liverpool @ Rough Trade Liverpool – SOLD OUT 10/8 – Edinburgh @ Cab Voltaire (via Assai) – SOLD OUT 10/9 – Newcastle @ HMV Newcastle |
| 11/13 – Hull @ The Welly (via Crash) |
| 11/15 – Leicester @ O2 Academy2 (via Truck) |
| 11/16 – Milton Keynes @ MK11 (via Truck) |
| 11/17 – Margate @ Olby’s, Margate (via Vinyl Store Jr) |
| 11/22 – Plymouth @ The Depot (via Rough Trade) |
| 11/27 – Leeds @ Jumbo – stripped back matinee |
| 11/28 – Glasgow @ Assai – stripped back matinee |
| Upcoming live dates |
| 10/15 – Galileo Galilei, Madrid, ES 10/17 – Varias Salas, Barcelona, ES |
| 10/23 – Mutations Festival, Brighton, UK 10/24 – O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK 10/28 – Doornroosje, Nijmegen, NL 10/29 – De Roma, Antwerp, BE 10/30 – Tivoli, Utrecht, NL SOLD OUT 10/31 – Elysee Montmarte, Paris, FR |
| 11/1 – Stereolux, Nantes, FR SOLD OUT 11/3 – Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, FR 11/4 – Die Kantine, Cologne, DE 11/6 – Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE 11/7 – Loppen, Copenhagen, DK SOLD OUT 11/14 – Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, UK 11/18 – Whelans, Dublin, IE SOLD OUT 11/19 – Whelans, Dublin, IE SOLD OUT 11/20 – Limelight, Belfast, UK 11/24 – Depot, Cardiff, UK 11/25 – O2 Academy, Bristol, UK 11/26 – O2 Institute, Birmingham, UK 11/27 – O2 Academy, Leeds, UK 11/28 – Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, UK |
| 12/3 – Rock City, Nottingham, UK |
| 12/10 – Brisbane, AU @ Crowbar 12/11 – Meredith, AU @ Meredith Music Festival 12/12 – Melbourne, AU @ 170 Russell 12/13 – Sydney, AU @ Metro Theatre 12/15 – Perth, AU @ The Rechabite |
| 1/27 – Exeter, UK @ Lemon Grove |
| 1/28 – Norwich, UK @ The Nick Rayns LCR, |
| 1/30- Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy |
| 1/31- Cambridge, UK @ Cambridge Junction |
| 1/2 – Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club – SOLD OUT |
| 2/3 – Edinburgh, UK @ Queen’s Hall |
| 2/4 – Newcastle, UK @ NX |
| 2/5 – Sheffield, UK @ Electric Studios |
| 2/6 -Southampton, UK @ Engine Rooms |
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