“ Donnie Doolittle captures the psychological process of fear and desperation to paranoia and sick salvation in his video for his brilliant single “This Wonderful World.” With an alluring sound that ranges from dark folk to post punk to gothic rock, he carries me through the self-sacrificing negative mindstate that so many of us have lived inside, regardless of what’s in the world around us. It’s a place that outside forces can take us, but only we can find our way out of.” - Meghan MacRae
“Comparisons to the likes of Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, I’m Your Man-era Leonard Cohen and Orville Peck have been levied in the press. And when you hear the songs from his forthcoming eponymous LP, you might be inclined to agree.” - Ron Hart
““Resurrect Me” manages to sound a bit like a synthesis of the Twin Peaks soundtrack, Bruce Springsteen‘s “Tunnel of Love” and Orville Peck, while rooted in a bittersweet heartache.” - William Ruben Helms
“Donnie's hails from the Carolinas and that southern gothic spirit permeates his work. Calling back to bands like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Bauhaus, and even 10cc, he casts out eerie rockers. Sometimes he simply howls over a thumping beat and sometimes he adds an ethereal synth pulled out of an Italian horror film. He's got a new double LP coming out and it is MASSIVE.” - John Gentile
“Although he eschews granting himself a title like producer, he’s involved in every aspect of his compelling visuals, making sure the final product entwines seamlessly with the emotion-driven storytelling that drives his dark and seductive songs… In a resonating sepulchral baritone, Doolittle unleashes the male subconscious, pulling us down a rabbit hole of psychosexual obsession entwined with a man’s identity as a musician and performer… There’s no room for the hazy, fog-shrouded atmosphere that signals the safe remove of fantasy. Here, details and vignettes are amplified by the clear razor-sharp imagery that haunts our dreams and burns into our memory.” - Pat Moran
— QC Nerve
“...HIS MUSIC IS CATCHY AF AND I CAN’T HELP SINGING ALONG. I GUESS YOU CAN CALL THIS INDIE ROCK—IT’S A BIT FOLKY, AND A BIT ARTY, AND HAS A THROWBACK 60S VIBE TO IT WITH THE ORGAN OOM-BOP AND WEIRD AND WAVY SYNTHS. DONNIE DOOLITTLE CAPTURES A BALANCE OF LIGHTHEARTED RETRO POP WITH A DARK AND OMINOUS UNDERCURRENT OF CACOPHONOUS MELODY.” - Meghan MacRae
“For an artist so fiercely independent, Doolittle’s unique storytelling and songwriting skills are world-class.” - Alice Teeple
CVLT Nation
Enter The Dark Dreamscape Of DONNIE DOOLITTLE “This Wonderful World”
This morning I was reflecting on the cycles of panic our society is constantly put through. It feels like just yesterday we were being bombarded with sickness and death — and while the sickness and death never stopped, the psychological siegemoved on to nuclear war, culture war, and financial catastrophe. We are so much easier to control and direct when we’re mired in fear — it’s so much easier to convert us to a false savior when we’re desperate for contentment and we’re force-fed chaos. Donnie Doolittle captures the psychological process of fear and desperation to paranoia and sick salvation in his video for his brilliant single “This Wonderful World.” With an alluring sound that ranges from dark folk to post punk to gothic rock, he carries me through the self-sacrificing negative mindstate that so many of us have lived inside, regardless of what’s in the world around us. It’s a place that outside forces can take us, but only we can find our way out of. It’s off his upcoming self-titled album, Donnie Doolittle, which comes out on April 7th — pre-order it here. Right now, reflect on the depths you’ve explored over the past few years and ask yourself if you’ve shattered the illusion of your disempowerment yet.
https://cvltnation.com/dark-dreamscape-donnie-doolittle-this-wonderful-world/
QUEEN CITY NERVE
Donnie Doolittle’s Lush, Dark Pop Delves Into a Shared Dreamscape
“A man got to do what a man got to do,” says ex-preacher Jim Casey in John Steinbeck’s magisterial 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. Through the Christ-like Casey — his initials are J.C. — Steinbeck lays out a problematic code of conduct. Misattributed to John Wayne, for decades an icon of white masculinity, the quote has percolated through society, entwined with identity, morality and the threat of violence. In the popular imagination, this line, or something like it, is uttered by the hero before he takes on a roomful of bad guys.
In the video for his winding, seductive and taut single “I’m a Man,” directed by his friend Josh Rob Thomas, Donnie Doolittle delves into the code exemplified by the quote, and concludes that it’s pretty fucked up.
“That’s me flipping the table,” Doolittle says. “I’m playing with masculinity.”
The 35-year-old singer-songwriter and video maker says that he nerds out over movies. Although he eschews granting himself a title like producer, he’s involved in every aspect of his compelling visuals, making sure the final product entwines seamlessly with the emotion-driven storytelling that drives his dark and seductive songs.
In the video, which dropped in May in advance of his debut solo album, a blanket slides off Doolittle as he rises from a metal-framed bed, incongruously placed onstage at The Milestone Club. From the very first shot, the video proceeds with dream logic to detail a regimen imposed from without but accepted and subsumed within. In a resonating sepulchral baritone, Doolittle unleashes the male subconscious, pulling us down a rabbit hole of psychosexual obsession entwined with a man’s identity as a musician and performer.
“Dancing boots at the break of dawn/Romancing youth before it’s gone/ I’ve held my breath for far too long/ There’s nothing like the threat of death to turn me on... My Blood’s gone cold but it still runs thick/ The heat’s right here, I keep it on my hip…”
There’s no room for the hazy, fog-shrouded atmosphere that signals the safe remove of fantasy. Here, details and vignettes are amplified by the clear razor-sharp imagery that haunts our dreams and burns into our memory...
https://qcnerve.com/donnie-doolittle-shared-dreamscape/?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-queencitynerve&utm_content=later-30878997&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio
cvltnation.com
Get Into The Off-Kilter Indie Rock Of DONNIE DOOLITTLE “When A Woman”
When Donnie Doolittle asks us, “What’s wrong when a woman/Wants to take a man?” I start digging into the hypocrisy of how our society simultaneously slut-shames women while expecting women to be ready to sexually satisfy men, even the ones who hate them. I keep listening to his track “When A Woman” off his upcoming album DREAMY D because it reminds me how rare it is to hear a cis-gendered man say he understands and appreciates that women have a sexual appetite, too. And it’s not tied to her status as “good” or “bad.” She’s just a human that wants a fuck.
Plus his music is catchy AF and I can’t help singing along. I guess you can call this indie rock—it’s a bit folky, and a bit arty, and has a throwback 60s vibe to it with the organ oom-bop and weird and wavy synths. Donnie Doolittle captures a balance of lighthearted retro pop with a dark and ominous undercurrent of cacophonous melody. I’d love to see him perform live, and if you’re in the Charlotte, NC, area on November 27th then fuck celebrating a colonizer holiday and instead go see Donnie Doolittle for free at Snug Harbor with Funeral Chic and Dipstick.
So take a minute with me to watch Donnie Doolittle’s video for “When A Woman,” and to all of those reading this, I hope you have mind-blowing consensual sex with someone in the very near future.
https://cvltnation.com/get-into-the-off-kilter-indie-rock-of-donnie-doolittle-when-a-woman/