rock

Dorothy

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Dorothy Martin's hard-rock vehicle, built on a voice with genuine blues grit — riffs that swing more than they thrash, with a streak of gothic Americana running underneath.

Dorothy formed in Los Angeles, built around singer Dorothy Martin's smoky, blues-inflected voice. Her manager, George Robertson, introduced her to producers Mark Jackson and Ian Scott, who set out to pair her singing with simple, old-school riffs in the mold of AC/DC or Black Sabbath rather than the era's more polished rock production.

The music leans on heavy, riff-driven hard rock with a strong blues rock foundation, favouring groove and swing over speed, and the band's later work has drawn in darker, gothic country textures alongside the amplifiers. Early reviewers reached for comparisons to The Kills, Patti Smith and Grace Slick to describe the sound.

The band's first release, a self-titled EP, arrived in 2014, led by the single "After Midnight," whose video premiered on Noisey. Follow-up singles "Wild Fire" and "Wicked Ones" built on that momentum, the latter drawing further comparisons to Black Sabbath and The White Stripes.

Rolling Stone named the band among its 50 Best New Artists of 2014. Around the same time, Skullcandy brought them to perform in Paris, Berlin and San Sebastián, Vogue UK used their music behind a video starring Suki Waterhouse, and KCRW invited them to play its School Night series in Hollywood.

Martin's writing tends toward themes of temptation, redemption and endurance, delivered in a full-throated style that has drawn comparisons to earlier generations of blues-rock singers. The lineup around her, now including drummer Jake Hayden, guitarist Sam Koltun and bassist Eliot Lorango, has changed over the years, with Dorothy remaining the constant.

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