dog park dissidents magnificent bastards review

vanta rainbow black

25 Oct 2025 — 3 min read

the earth screams. it tosses and turns through a fevered nightmare from which it cannot escape. boiled alive. the economy prospers. sound investments, bull markets, and pervasive optimism. for the fifth consecutive quarter, the hottest growth sector is death and devastation. windfall profits... as homes fall to the winds. murder on a mass scale, planned at a conference table. BUT AT ANOTHER CONFERENCE TABLE, THEY PLOT THE MURDER OF MURDERERS...

dog park dissidents' first album is the quintessential modern queer punk album

i can't really quantify whether or their second album "magnificent bastards" is better or worse. it's different, for sure. a different vibe. the first album has more straightforward in-your-face bangers i'd blast on a bluetooth speaker at cal anderson, for example

but the second album has its own unique texture and tone. it's a work teeming with rage against capitalism and climate change and all the injustices in this world. a lot of that is thanks to the companion comic by mueritos which can be read online here (a pdf of it is included when you purchase the album)

"MANNY ICQUIAC CARLO FLORES this unlikely duo commands the planet's most elite private security force bodyguards to energy tycoons, protectors of bank CEOs hitmen for oligarchs but secretly! they are... TANGO! FOXTROT! LOS ZORRITOS! dastardly villains! ruthless ecoterrorists! passionate lovers! together they strike FEAR into the hearts of the powerful! they will throw a wrench into the gears of the modern world! they shall bring down the global order! and together they shall be... MAGNIFICENT!"

second half of that part — "this unlikely duo commands the planet's most elite private security force bodyguards to energy tycoons, protectors of bank CEOs hitmen for oligarchs but secretly! they are... TANGO! FOXTROT! LOS ZORRITOS! dastardly villains! ruthless ecoterrorists! passionate lovers! together they strike FEAR into the hearts of the powerful! they will throw a wrench into the gears of the modern world! they shall bring down the global order! and together they shall be... MAGNIFICENT!"

and i'm just gonna flat-out say it. reading the comic is necessary to getting the full amount of enjoyment possible from the album. but it's worth it because it's short and so fucking good

like i legiterally made a post on mastodon like

me before reading the magnificent bastards comic: i love the horns but who tf is carlo
me after: THIS GOES 2000X HARDER NOW

what's it about? y'know what i'm just gonna paste some quotes and images from it in here and you'll see why i love it so much

the tl;dr is it's about those two magnificent bastards, manny and carlo, and they form what is basically a superhero team to stop climate change

panel of the magnificent bastards comic where los zorritos introduce themselves to the world

page from the dog park dissidents magnificent bastards comic where los zorritos introduce themselves to the world "we are the vengeful fist of the marginalized, the poor, the indigenous, the global south, and we are here to say we are out of time. the time has come to decarbonzie or die. we will show no mercy to any government or corporation that continues to burn fossil fuels. when the emissions stop, the killings stop" — "we are the vengeful fist of the marginalized, the poor, the indigenous, the global south, and we are here to say we are out of time. the time has come to decarbonize or die. we will show no mercy to any government or corporation that continues to burn fossil fuels. **when the emissions stop, the killings stop**"

and then they

panel from the dog park dissidents magnificent bastards comic where one of the heroes holds up a putin head and says "hello! my name is putin and i make stinky farts from my butthole!" while shooting elon musk with a blunderbuss. the bullet says "apartheid!" and there's emeralds coming out too — and then they kill elon musk

musically, the album finds dog park dissidents experimenting with other genres more than on their debut album. the title track has horns. there's a ska song. and such

in the leadup to the album release they released it one track at a time and one of the things that stuck out to me even then was just... the variation! of genres and influences and vibes

it was so fun seeing them live a short time after the album released

loved the outfit switches and between-song banter

but this isn't about that! this is about the album lol

so...

overall...

11/10. goes without saying. everything about this album and comic combo goes so fucking hard. it's dog park dissidents, after all

listen to and/or purchase it here