Dogstar w/ Keanu Reeves performs "Upside" Wed 8-28-24 The Uptown Theater Kansas City MO

Dogstar is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. The band consists of drummer Robert Mailhouse, bassist Keanu Reeves and guitarist/lead vocalist Bret Domrose (previously played bass with The Nuns), who joined in 1994 and later replacing founding member (Gregg Miller) in 1995 to become the vocalist, which he has been since 1995. They were initially active from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, during which time the band found moderate success but garnered media attention due to Reeves' status as a Hollywood actor.

The band restarted jam sessions in 2020, and announced their reunion in 2022. Their latest album, Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees, was released on October 6, 2023.

The genesis of Dogstar was a chance encounter between Robert Mailhouse and Keanu Reeves in a supermarket in 1991. Mailhouse was wearing a Detroit Red Wings hockey sweater, and Reeves (an avid hockey fan and a keen player of the sport) asked if Mailhouse needed a goalie. As the two men formed a friendship, they began jamming together, and were joined by Gregg Miller as the original lead guitarist and singer in 1992. Reeves said that one thing led to another in the band's history:

You know, we started in a garage, and then you end up starting to write songs, and then you're like "Let's go out and play them!", and then you're like "Let's go on tour!", and then...you're playing

— Keanu Reeves in an interview with Jimmy Fallon

The band originally called themselves Small Fecal Matter, and then BFS (Big Fucking Shit, or Big Fucking Sound), before settling on Dogstar, after Mailhouse found the name in the book Sexus, written by Henry Miller.

In the years following the band's final performance in 2002, its three members occasionally met up for jam sessions at Mailhouse's home in Silver Lake. The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 led the band members to spend more time together in quarantine. Eight-hour rehearsal days soon turned into songwriting sessions; within two and a half months, the band had written more than enough songs for a new album, which they enlisted Dave Trumfio to produce. In July 2022, a post on Dogstar's Instagram account declared, "We’re back".

DOGSTAR in capital letters, colored with a orange and yellow gradient
Band logo used since 2023.

In May 2023, Dogstar gave its first public performance in over 20 years at the BottleRock Napa Valley music festival, after an invitation from the festival's organizers. The performance consisted of songs from the band's first two albums, alongside new music from their upcoming third album.Two months later, the band released the single "Everything Turns Around" and announced their third album, Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees, released on October 6, 2023. The band also announced a 25-date tour in North America and Japan in support of the album, beginning August 10 in Hermosa Beach, California.