Psychedelic Lunch

Welcome to our “Psychedelic Lunch” series, “Celebrity Bands Week,” where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore music from the 60’s to today. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

Dogstar was an American alternative rock group active from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. The band found moderate success but garnered significant media attention due to the band’s bass guitarist being well-known Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves.

1994–1999: Quattro Formaggi, Our Little Visionary and live performances

Dogstar was joined by Bret Domrose as an additional vocalist and guitarist in 1994. One year later, the band toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Asia, and opened for David Bowie at his 1995 Hollywood Palladium gig, where they covered a song by Pink Floyd, as well as for Bon Jovi on his 1995 These Days – Crossroads Tour in Australia and New Zealand. Miller however left the band at the end of the tour. With Quattro Formaggi, they released their first sound carrier in the form of a four-track EP in 1996, via Zoo Entertainment, and followed this up with their debut album, Our Little Visionary, which was only distributed in Japan, even though Dogstar already had a worldwide fanbase at the time. The band also performed at the Zee Cine Awards in India, the 1996 Zwemdokrock Festival in Lummen, Belgium, and the 1999 Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, Somerset, England.

1999–2002: Happy Ending, breakup and post-Dogstar

Although the band members had other work commitments, a second album, Happy Ending, followed in 1999, produced by Michael Vail Blum and Richie Zito. Domrose called the music on this record more “pop-aggressive” than the band’s earlier work. Their last performance was in October 2002 in Japan, and the band broke up afterwards. Domrose went on to perform as a solo artist, briefly played guitar with the band Berlin and is currently writing music for film and television. Reeves and Mailhouse later performed together in a band called “becky”.