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A DOG'S LIFE? HARDLY : WITH `FALLS APART,' STUART'S DILIGENCE BEGINS TO PAY OFF.


Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

Dog's Eye View Dog's Eye View is an American rock band formed in 1994, best known for their 1995 Top 40 single "Everything Falls Apart". History
Peter Stuart (vocalist/guitarist) started out by playing in the acoustic club circuit.
 leader Peter Stuart had some explaining to do last week. First, there was the single, ``Everything Falls Apart,'' taken from his major-label debut, spreading like wildfire on radio playlists across the country.

Then, where did that unusual band moniker (1) A name, title or alias. See alias.

(2) A COM object that is used to create instances of other objects. Monikers save programmers time when coding various types of COM-based functions such as linking one document to another (OLE). See COM and OLE.
 come from? And was his tuneful, radio-friendly pop purely an attempt to jump on the Hootie & the Blowfish A secret key cryptography method that uses a variable length key from 32 to 448 bits long. It uses the block cipher method, which breaks the text into 64-bit blocks before encrypting them.  nice-guys-can-rock-too bandwagon?

Stuart, who got his first break when he handed a demo tape of his songs to Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz, took the last question first.

``Songwriting is my chief concern,'' the 28-year-old Stuart said. ``It always has been, way before I ever heard of Hootie. I just want to make the best music I can for people to relate to. I wouldn't know how to copy somebody else's style or success.''

A priority act for Columbia Records For the Columbia Records label which was a unit of EMI, see .

For the Columbia Records label in Japan, see .

Columbia Records is the oldest surviving brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888, and was the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as
 in the wake of the stunning success of the at times similar-sounding Hootie (upward of more than; above.

See also: Upward
 12 million copies sold), Stuart will tour behind his album, ``Happy Nowhere,'' for the rest of the year.

The push has paid off. ``Everything Falls Apart'' is quickly rising on Billboard's rock radio airplay air·play  
n.
The broadcasting of an audio or audiovisual recording on the air over radio or television.


airplay
Noun

the broadcast performances of a record on radio
 charts, and the album is bubbling under the top 100. MTV MTV
 in full Music Television

U.S. cable television network, established in 1980 to present videos of musicians and singers performing new rock music. MTV won a wide following among rock-music fans worldwide and greatly affected the popular-music business.
 has placed the ``Everything'' clip on Buzz Bin MTV's Buzz Bin was a select group of music videos by up and coming artists and bands that the network deemed buzz worthy, cutting edge, or the next big thing. As such, the selected videos received heavy rotation on the channel, and were also featured in special promotional  Stress Rotation.

``A lot of things get airplay because they sound like something that was popular before,'' said Stuart, who was born in suburban New York New York, state, United States
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of
 and attended Northwestern University Northwestern University, mainly at Evanston, Ill.; coeducational; chartered 1851, opened 1855 by Methodists. In 1873 it absorbed Evanston College for Ladies.  in Chicago before moving to Manhattan.

The record company says Stuart's work ethic has made getting the word out easier. Before he was signed, Stuart developed a 7,500-person mailing list and sold his homemade demo tape at gigs. Even today, he regularly logs on to a computer and replies to fans who e-mail him (Stuart's cyperspace address is printed in the CD booklet).

``We didn't have to take a rocket science approach to Peter,'' said Jon Leshay, senior vice president of special projects for Columbia. ``He had built a strong roots following, which we didn't want to tamper with. His drive is to keep touring, and because of it, the demographic of people into his music has grown beyond what we originally envisioned. I mean, the guy doesn't even have a permanent residence.''

As a way to introduce the act, Columbia is offering the Dog's Eye View CD as part of its developing artists series at a suggested budget price of less than $12. That's also how the label broke the Presidents of the United States of America The Presidents of the United States of America may refer to:
  • President of the United States, the head of state of the United States of America
  • The Presidents of the United States of America (band), a Seattle alternative rock band
, whose debut album is in the top 10.

In any case, Stuart points to a lucky phone call as the place where his career started picking up steam. A month after passing his demo to Duritz, Stuart called the Crows' management office and got through to the Counting Crows singer. Duritz said he liked Stuart's tape and immediately offered a week of opening dates. That turned into six months flying with the Crows, including a European swing, and then three months with Tori Amos, followed by some time with Cracker.

``Life on the road is what you make it,'' Stuart said. ``I read books and write a lot when I'm out there. It's not a hard life. I could do this, wait tables or put on a suit and do temp work in offices. I'm someone who can usually find the good in anything.''

Some listeners pick out a distinct Counting Crows influence in Stuart's songs.

``That may be because they toured together, and Adam and Peter are good friends,'' said Nicole Sandler, morning host at adult album alternative This article or section may deal primarily with the U.S. and may not present a worldwide view.  radio KSCA-FM (101.9), where ``Everything Falls Apart'' is on regular rotation and another Dog's Eye View track, ``Small Wonders,'' was recently added.

``The single is very catchy, but the lyrics don't really kick in until people have heard it a few times,'' Sandler said. ``Then, they realize it's really a very introspective in·tro·spect  
intr.v. in·tro·spect·ed, in·tro·spect·ing, in·tro·spects
To engage in introspection.



[Latin intr
 song with a lot of humor. He looks at life in a twisted way. People either love it or don't get it.''

``Everything Falls Apart'' came to Stuart during a visit to New Orleans.

``I was surrounded by people partying and drinking and staying up all night,'' Stuart recalled. ``All I could think about was how horrible they'd feel in the morning. At the same time, I was noticing these beautiful old buildings that were just crumbling with age before my eyes. I was walking around in the middle of all this and I said, `You know, everything falls apart.' Then, I got on the plane, drank some coffee and the song just came to me like that.''

As for his band name, Stuart says it stems from a basement apartment he rented in Chicago that boasted a sidewalk-level window.

``It gave me a dog's eye view of the world - nothing but fire hydrants and passing feet,'' he explained. ``It was a different way of looking at things.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: ``It was a different way of looking at things,'' Pet er Stuart says of the sidewalk-level window in a basement apartment that gave him a new perspective on life - as well as the name for his act: Dog's Eye View. He's getting a lot of airplay with ``Everything Falls Apart.''
COPYRIGHT 1996 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1996, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Title Annotation:L.A. LIFE
Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Mar 29, 1996
Words:878
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