THESE CDS ARE MASSIVE! Dead Dogs members Adrian, Eric, Nicholas, Jeff, and Beau just hangin’ at (the recently moved!) Revival Records.

They’re nearly impossible to label. They’ve got a name that attracts regular flak. And if you hear them today, you can almost guarantee it’ll be different tomorrow. Such are the defining characteristics of Dead Dogs, a five-piece band with an evolving creative process and amoebic sound that make them among the most dynamic in the Valley.

Dead Dogs originated about a year ago in the basement of Brickhouse Music, as Eric “Pedals” Thompson (upright bass) and Nicholas Fennel (guitar, vocals) devised a loose concept for a band. Soon it attracted Adrian Klenz (vocals), followed by Beau Brantner (percussion), and Jeff Walk (trumpet). Each member is a seasoned veteran in the local music scene and, though involved in several other musical projects, each is committed to not falling into irrelevance from a lack of playing.

We’re looking for that sound that nobody’s really heard before.  We want to stay different and original.

“We’re really hard to label,” Fennel and Walk admit, intermittently tossing out terms like blues, jazz, folk, and stomp. “One song might be really bluesy, while the next one is hillbilly stomp,” Fennel said. “And then we play something like Sonic Youth,” Walk interjected with a laugh.

It all started with a concept and direction from Fennel, Walk said. “But everybody contributes to the music,” Fennel jumped in. “It’s a full collaboration instead of ‘He writes em and we just play em.’ ”

With every other musical project (of which he has many), Walk said his role has been fairly obvious. “Like minimal jazz or Tower of Power or Earth, Wind & Fire stuff,” Walk began. “But with Dead Dogs I’m still not sure what my role exactly is. It’s something I can’t approach traditionally, like here’s my cookie-cutter jazz solo.”

Their improvisational approach to songs perhaps explains the comparison to jazz. “Someone will play a line or a rhythm that’s totally unexpected, and it’s like, ‘Oh man, I really like that.’ So we experiment,” Fennel added. “A lot of people lock themselves into a sound, but the things I like to listen to right now are completely different from six months ago.” The songs they play, and even how they play their long-established songs change in this same way.

This creative process is one that takes time, and makes their recording process more difficult. “A few months ago we decided we’re gonna bang (a record) out,” Fennel said, “but we consciously decided to slow it down and let it evolve. … Like all good things, it takes time.” Though they refuse to be restricted to a deadline date, they said the rough timeline is within the next six months. But when a CD is finally released, don’t expect to hear them play it verbatim at live shows. The songs will continue to change.

While the waves and layers of sounds evolve, one thing that stays fairly constant is the lyrical content. If there’s a theme, Fennel said, “it’s very real stuff. Real emotional experiences. It’s pretty dark, and sometimes it can be gut-wrenching.”

The lyrical content speaks to their name as well, which in fact was inspired by a Fennel lyric. “Runnin’ with dead dogs / dead dogs don’t lie.” To the band, this speaks to their camaraderie and respect for one another, while to a listener it speaks to their blunt lyrics that tell it like it is (an obvious connection to blues).

My impression, from the three times I’ve heard them live, is that Dead Dogs beg a comparison to Tom Waits (whose sound is just as eclectic from song to song), with lyrics about being scorned by love and bitten by the bottle. The kind of band that would be a regular fixture at The Joynt, had they continued with live music.

“We’re looking for that sound that nobody’s really heard before,” Walk said, mentioning the onslaught of great unique bands coming out of the area. “We want to stay different and original.”

Dead Dogs • November 19 • The Mousetrap, 311 S Barstow St., Eau Claire • 10pm • FREE • ages 21+