American Dogs in Europe- American Dogs in Europe

The title track to the EP American Dogs In Europe was written after the 2011 tour of Europe. The band on that tour was me, Steve, Dan, Mike McKnight, and Mando. We were out that year with Chris "Big Rock" Shaefer in his new van. The van would break down later in France, but at the time it was running fine. We also had two of our French friends with us as crew, Dudu (sound) and Bender (guitar) who were working with us. We borrowed their skills from the great French band Burning Heads (click here).

I had been robbed of my wallet and passport at the airport in Milan the day before, and we were on our way to the embassy in Munich to get me a new one thanks to Cathy Mason who was working for Bad Religion and had, thankfully, helped arrange an appointment for me to get it replaced with an emergency passport.

In Bavaria, however, we were pulled over, and the police made us get out of the van and then ran the van through a large x-ray machine. This was no surprise, really, as Shaefer, an American expatriate, was now a Czech citizen, and we were driving through Germany with a bunch of Americans and a couple of Frenchmen. 

However, we were detained for close to two hours, and after the police found no evidence of drugs or cigarettes or weapons, they then proceeded to go through all of our luggage. I found the whole thing rather fascinating and funny, until I had to try to explain to them that all of my medication was necessary. 

"What's this for?"
"Blood Pressure."

"What's this for?"
"Cholesterol. I eat too much sausage and cheese in Germany."

"What's this for?"
"Anxiety. I should probably take one now."

After going through the luggage, x-raying the van, and x-raying the luggage, the Bavarian police were still not satisfied with the fact that we were not smugglers, and then began to put on rubber gloves. By this time we were starting to get concerned that they may not release us anytime soon. What was to follow, however, was that they swabbed all f our hands, probably for narcotics and gunpowder. They found nothing and released us.

The lyric starts with a nod to Happy Tom of the Norwegian band Turbonegro (click here) who graciously took us to the Viking Museum (click here) and Kon-Tiki Museum (click here) in Oslo when we were there. He treated us like friends and guests in his country. The museums are an extensionof his family, with one of them being co-founded by his uncle.

The rest of the lyrics describe the confusion in being stopped, held, and treated like subhumans.

American Dogs in Europe

The signal starts and ends

Like Thor’s Kon-Tiki winds.

Too late- 

Too late to begin again.

With fire in our eyes

Unmoved by alibis.

Desire- 

Desire built on rumor and lies .

En route we’re locked outside,

Too deep we must decide

If we’re down-

If we’re down for the ride.

Presented their demands,

Palms up they swabbed our hands

Like dogs-

Sick dogs in foreign lands.

Dogs, dogs

American dogs in Europe

No Need to emphasize

Ideals that polarize

Opposition-

Opposition to analyze.

Five thousand miles from home

We stood their all alone

Accusations-

Accusations in the danger zone.

CD track 1

EP side one/ track one

Released on Concrete Jungle Records, Germany (click here)

Released August 3, 2012

This video was recorded and edited by Tony. It is one of the few online that we actually created.