Zombie Dogs is one of those rare bands that is both fun and a band of serious ideas.  Influenced by  Riot Grrrl, ’80s hardcore, and skate thrash alike, the band describes their songs as “simple chord progressions and sparse lyrics…[but also] more jangly and about having a fun, goofy time.”

Based in Brooklyn, New York, the band formed in 2008 as a side project for guitarist Krista Ciminera’s former band, Carnal Knowledge.  Carnal Knowledge was an all-female hardcore band in which Krista played drums.  According to the band, Krista and Carnal Knowledge guitarist Diane Anastasio wanted a change of pace: “We switched roles and began writing songs that departed from the intensely political themes of Carnal Knowledge, but still touched on our personal experiences as women.”

Diane ended up leaving the band to move away and join the staff of Maximum RocknRoll magazine, but Krista wanted to keep the project going.  She recruited Kathi Ko, of Each Other’s Mothers, who was interested in playing drums, and Tamara Waite-Santibanez, who was looking to sing.  The three talked Rachel Rubino of Bridge & Tunnel into playing bass, completing their lineup, and making Zombie Dogs something of a local super group.

While Krista wrote most of the early songs with Diane, it was when Zombie Dogs became a full band that they adopted a more collective writing process: “Either Krista brought in a riff and we all worked it out from there, [or] Kathi picked up the guitar and played, or Tamara brought in new lyrics or themes for songs.”

Asked about their influences and how they manifest in the songs the write, the band replied, “It’s really easy to be pegged as a ‘feminist’ band when it’s made up of all women, and the only problem we have with that is that it tends to pigeon-hole us as a band and people, and we want our songs to reach as many different people as possible.  We’re all over the place, and our songs reflect that.”

When asked about the label “feminist hardcore” and what being associated with that label meant, they replied, “Hardcore is loud and fast — two attributes which women are socialized to disassociate from.  This is probably why the term ‘feminist’ is put upon women that play this music, because it is still so rare to find women who do so.

“Hardcore does have some roots in politics, so it doesn’t seem strange at all to apply ‘feminism’ and ‘hardcore’ together,” they continued.  “But at the same time, people use that term to write off a band as just a bunch of PC women that aren’t worth listening to.  It’s hard to navigate that feeling because women in music are still a minority, and we’re still getting the aggression we feel out in a way that men were able to do decades ago, but we also don’t want to be limited to playing only political benefit shows and rare shows that majorly showcase women.  We want to have fun and show the other side of being a woman in music.”

This attitude is reflected in the songs they write, with feminist songs like “The Once Over,” which addresses street harassment, and the tongue-in-cheek “Psycho Gyno,” which challenges men’s entitlement to women’s bodies, mixing side by side with songs touching what they describe as the theme of “growing up queer, weird, and awkward,” as in “Thirteen” and “Awkward Youth.”  Other songs are a mixed bag of mostly light and fun topics, as in “Thrashin’,” “Nerd in the Pit,” and “Braincrush,” but the band also delves into personal topics in “Rest of My Life,” a song about Krista’s struggle with a life threatening disease.

“We try to find a balance between speaking personally and politically, while definitely trying to have fun, which isn’t typically afforded to women who want to play hardcore.”

In 2009, after a year of writing, recording a demo, and playing live together, the band started talks with Karen Soskin of Strength in Numbers booking about doing a Zombie Dogs record: “We knew Karen through her booking collective and former bands and were big supporters of both.  She booked our second show at Death By Audio in Brooklyn, and the more we got to talking, the more we realized we wanted to see the same things out of the music scene here in New York.

“We couldn’t think of a better match — Karen’s been supportive of our DIY approach to the album, which has been great for us because we’re all kind of new to putting out a vinyl record.”

The Zombie Dogs self-titled full length was released in October 2010, and the band has continued to play shows in support of the album.  This winter, Zombie Dogs will be setting out on a short tour with friends and fellow Brooklynites Aye Nako, and playing more often locally.