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* Article by Tony at Secular Web site

"What Tony Oros is to Egodog,
Ron Tugnutt is to Columbus."
- John Buccigross, ESPN's NHL Tonight - 14 March 2001

Now and then you receive a demo from a band that blows you away. Egodog hails from
Van Nuys, California. The five songs on this EP are played amazingly tight and with a lot
of power. Although the songs are heavy as shit and in your face rockers they also have
this commercial edge to them which make them playable on most radio stations.
The rhythm section is as tight as a perfect tuned engine. The guitar work is exquisite and
the emotional loaded soulful voice of Tony Oros is the icing on the cake. I can go on forever
raving about this band but I won't. Simply e-mail them order their CD and let yourself be
overwhelmed by this talented outfit.

Egodog, a hard rock foursome out of Los Angeles sure is a good-looking band. Obviously comfortable in front of a camera, what a happy coincidence that these guys also possess a considerable amount of talent. There five song EP, Words Are Kerosene, is heavily laden with hooks and just a few near misses. Singer, Tony Oros seems to emulate a pre-haircut Chris Cornell right off the bat, on “Bad Guy,” with Jesus Christ Pose-like vocal inflection. Driven by the guitar riffs of Mike McMannus and rounded out by the steady bass lines of Damien Pampena and powerful drum work of Joey O’Higgins, Egodog creates some very edgy rock and roll. You know these guys are hard; they’ve been touring Bosnia and Kosovo for Christ’s sake!

It's a bird, it's a plane... it's Egodog! This foursome from Boston, Chicago and So Cal has put together a nice package. It's all about the music and in listening to them, I can't argue. It's tight and precise and while on the heavy side is very radio friendly. I picked out the track "Testify" because as I was listening to the opening riffs I could see (in my twisted little head) an Egodog character dancing across my brain... OK so that's a problem of mine I'll have to deal with. The band, who has opened for Deep Purple in Norway (Sweet!) is giggin' around the L.A. area in preparation to release their new 5-song EP called "Words Are Kerosene".

C O L U M N I S T S B I O
Long Paul helped metal acts Metallica, Guns N Roses, Queensryche and more slice into the mainstream as head of KNAC radio in Los Angeles. Now he's leading the charge on the internet with the station reborn as KNAC.com - the only live hosted 24/7 source of Pure Rock in the world.

Ten years ago, Tony Oros said goodbye to the Fox Valley and the Midwestern landscape and headed to the earthquake state with dreams of shaking it up as a musician.
So, it didn't quite turn out that way.
Instead, there were lots of crummy day jobs, raw times, lousy gigs with fading rockers. The learning curve behind him, Oros says he now has reason to wax victorious.
The reason, says Oros, it's all coming together for EGODOG. "Finally everything is up and running," says Oros, who celebrates his 28th birthday this week.
EGODOG, a hard rock band with a modern edge, has been getting airplay here in the Midwest. The group's first compact disc, Free in Captivity, is in stock at area record stores. So why doesn't this group, which claims to be an empowered voice above a din of whining nihilism, have a following L.A. way?
"You'd be surprised at how lame the rock scene is here," explains the California man. "It's all coffee bars and jazz places."
According to Oros, the East and West Coast folks are always looking for something new, the latest trend-setting sound, i.e., "they kind of miss what people want now."
Not so, in the cornfields of northern Illinois, where EGODOG hasv built a respectable following, says Oros, who grew up in Aurora.
So, the four-piece band decided to go on a road trip, landing in the Fox Valley corridor, before heading on to a limited run in Europe. Their first gig: 5 p.m., Saturday at Elburn Days. From there, they hit a couple of radio stations, some local rockhouses and a festival or two.
Dan Voight, co-host of the program Local Chaos on radio station WONC (89.1 FM), couldn't be happier. Voight, who has been making sure EGODOG comes out across the local airwaves, says the group is "definitely going places."
"They are definitely on the cutting edge," says Voight. "And Tony has an amazing voice."
Ch-ch-changes
It wasn't always that way, Oros admits.
Back when Oros was an Aurora Central Catholic High School student playing at Malo's (now Riley's Rockhouse and a stop on the Illinois tour), he thought he had the makings for stardom.

It took only a day or two at the Musician's Institute in Hollywood, where Oros enrolled after graduating, to learn the truth.
"You think you're great. You think you know what you're doing, but you really don't," says Oros of the early days. "I was kidding myself. I'd blame everything on the production, say, `Maybe it's the microphone.'
"What it was is, I was in denial. I needed to work on my voice."
That work led to a nomination for Outstanding Vocal Student of the Year and some part-time work. Still, Oros' musical future was mired until one night about two years ago when he was "jamming at a Thin Lizzy tribute at the Palace in Hollywood."
There, he met the guys from EGODOG.
"They were already recording and had kicked out the lead singer," explains Oros. "I decided to stop being a free agent and sign with them." Europe, here I come It turned out to be a fruitful union.
With Oros and Mike McManus on guitars, Matt Diaz on drums and Lars Kolshus on bass, the fledgling band has been catching attention for their melody-rimmed hard rock sound.
"A lot of bands just bash and bash in your face," says Oros. "You don't walk out with a song in your head. That's where we're different."
Voight says the band follows in the footsteps of Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots, "playing a sort of '60s, '70s psychedelic music". The group will appear on WONC at 8 p.m. Saturday, for interviews and live play.
That style sells well in Europe, where EGODOG has the possibility of opening for Deep Purple in a 12,000-seat arena. To get there -- and here, Oros cashed in the 401K from a former job in a bank. Since then, Oros has remained liquid on the job scene, taking temporary jobs so he can pack up at any time.
That time, EGODOG decided, is now. Even so, the group has to be realistic says Oros, who tries to temper his obvious enthusiasm. "We're cautiously optimistic." - by Penny Falcon