The members of Philadelphia’s DOGS ON ACID have only been playing together since 2014, but there’s nothing novice about them. For starters, the band is a veritable supergroup of revered Philadelphia acts, featuring members of Algernon Cadwallader, Snowing and others to make Dogs On Acid yet another export from the buzzed-about local scene. This longstanding entrenchment in Philadelphia’s music landscape has allowed the punk/indie band — singer/guitarist Peter Helmis, guitarist Joe Reinhart, bassist Nate Dionne and drummer Nick Tazza — a refreshing amount of familiarity to bypass the typical startup grunt work that comes with forming a new project and focus on the most important thing: the music. “We’ve never said, ‘Let’s write music like this because people who like our old bands’ stuff want to hear more,” Dionne explains. “Our past bands really never come up [in conversation]; we just know so much about each other that it’s never a discussion we really have.” And while the mention of their past projects might gain the band a few more eyeballs or perked-up ears, the last thing Dogs On Acid want to do is halt progression or resort to propping up their past to sustain their present. It’s that fixation on the future that makes the band’s self-titled debut album (out 8/28 on Jade Tree) so engaging. You’ll hear bits of the band’s musical past on Dogs On Acid, but when these moments get juxtaposed alongside a brand-new sonic outlook is when things really start to pop — the true sign of individual influences and playing styles melding together to form something exciting. “Part of the reason we wanted to start this band was because we’d all seen each other in other bands and knew how we played, the styles we all had,” says Dionne. “We wrote around knowing those styles. We write really well together because we’ve been watching each other play for so long and feed off of that.” As such, the songs on Dogs On Acid at times feel effortless in the best way: “The Prick” stomps like Pinkerton-era Weezer; the playful hooks of “Flushed” make for an earworm surprise; and ‘90s indie-rock influences like Pixies, Built to Spill and Archers of Loaf shine through on songs such as “Make It Easy.” But above all, Dogs On Acid is an album with a distinct personality, the result of the band rejecting desires to overthink things and play what feels right. That manifested itself in the studio, where the group tracked much of the album live with minimum overdubs to encapsulate what it’s like at a Dogs On Acid show: a loose, vibrant experience — much like the band itself — where listeners are free to let all preconceived notions and past baggage float away, and instead celebrate the here and now.