Originally from Oxford, Ohio; cousins Daniel Agee and Joshua Carter formed Puppies in Nashville, TN. Their first album, “outcasts & astronauts”, was released in 2005, and drew just as much from bands like The Flaming Lips, Muse, 12 Rods, emo rock pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate, and even Japanese electronic music composer Tomita, as it did such rock giants as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, Radiohead, and even Peter Gabriel. Dubbing their sound as “art pop”, they sought to bridge the gap between indie rock experimentalism and drama, and the sensibilities and commercial appeal of pop music. Puppies was then ranked one of the top fifteen bands in the Northeast by Billboard Magazine, TAXI and Disc Makers out of over 1000 submissions in the 2005 Independent Music World Series with their song, “Fade Away”. In 2007 they released their second album, “Sick Machine”, adding drummer extraordinaire Christopher McGuire (also an Oxford native) of the Japanese sensation Quruli, John Vanderslice, Mark Mallman and Kid Dakota to the line-up. The album exploded with guitars and drums, surrounded by super futuristic synths and extreme “nothing to everything” dynamics. “Lonely When I Dream”, the band’s most downloaded song to date, also saw the band venture into the realm of electronica with its organic drum loops and backdrop of celestial soundscapes. Puppies is currently working on their third release, “War & Reconstruction”, due in 2009. "[They] have a clear sense of song structure and delivery...good musical hooks...big lyrical hooks to match and high quality vocals... [they] definitely have [their] own identity amongst all the other stuff that is currently out there." --TAXI