Texas band 'A Giant Dog' to rock the Atlantic on Tuesday

A Giant Dog, a garage-rock band from Austin, Texas, will perform at the Atlantic in downtown Gainesville on Tuesday. This is the band’s only Florida show before its American tour, where the group will soon join popular rock band Titus Andronicus.

Within the last few years, A Giant Dog has independently released several albums on its Bandcamp page. The band has recently found more mainstream success with its 2016 release, “Pile.”

While A Giant Dog is usually put under the category of “garage-rock,” its music and live performances showcase more of a manic, punk-style: Think The Stooges in terms of energy and instrumentation. Guitarist Andrew Cashen writes bluesy, off-kilter riffs that channel the low-register noodling of Lou Reed on tracks like “Sex & Drugs.” His hyperactive playing on “Sleep When Dead” also feels reminiscent of Tony Iommi on Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.”

A Giant Dog’s sound is made whole by vocalist Sabrina Ellis. This a frontwoman who performs with the vigor, fashion and sexual promiscuity of Peaches. She also has a croon similar to that of Amy Winehouse.

Still, there’s something about A Giant Dog that can’t simply be characterized by the influence the band takes from other acts. Ellis says she draws inspiration from Roman mythology, Afro-Haitian dance and even the French ballet, “The Rite of Spring.”

“When performing, I often think about the ‘Rite of Spring,’ which is a ballet about this woman who has to dance herself to death,” Ellis said. “People should expect that when they see us play live — ‘The Rite of Spring,’ but in punk-rock form.”

A Giant Dog’s “Pile” was the band’s major label debut. It was released this year through Merge Records, a well-respected indie label that has worked with several legendary acts, like Neutral Milk Hotel, The Magnetic Fields and The Mountain Goats, since the label started in 1989.

“Merge showed slight interest in us a couple years of ago, and then we had to spend some time proving ourselves, going on tour all the time and basically showing them that we could do it without them,” Cashen said. “They wanted to know that we were active and motivated.”

A Giant Dog is certainly staying active and motivated. The group will be touring through November, and even though it just released “Pile” this year, the band has already recorded most of its upcoming 2017 release.

“You might have been able to get away with releasing an album every three years in the ’90s, but the music industry is a lot more competitive these days,” Cashen said. “You have to write at least an album a year just to stay relevant.”

The band’s show at the Atlantic starts at 9 p.m., with local bands Heat Rash and Curleys opening the concert. Tickets are $10 at the door or can be bought in advance for $8 at Arrow’s Aim Records and Hear Again Records.