The Dr. Dog Thread

[myboyblue]

 

While Fate was rolling, I thought I'd be able to tell you about how delicious the descending melody of "The Old Days" is, or how their stabs at Bonzo Dog Band irreverence manages to come across as genuine. The problem is, once it's over I can hardly remember how any of it went.

[explodo]

I thought the Pitchfork review was pretty dead on. Fate does not work for me. We All Belong is a much stronger affair.

[Moe_Syzlak]

Meh, music criticism is pretty stupid in general, in my opinion. No two people agree on all music. Even some of the folks I agree with the most like music I think is shit and vice versa. So a review is accurate to exactly one person: the reviewer. Let alone the notion of distilling the "quality" down to a tenth decimal grade. That said, I still get turned on to a lot of music through Pitchfork and some of the writing is so "indier-than-thou" (stole this expression from a friend) that it makes me laugh and forget I'm not reading the Onion. A good "review" is one that gives me a feel for what the music is like to give me an idea of whether or not I'd like to check it out for myself. I rarely, if ever, allow one reviewer's opinion sway me.

[giraffo]

I don't mind bad reviews, but isn't a little stupid that a publication allows their reviewers free reign to just be flat out douche bags? It seems to me like the people who write these negative reviews take it personal, or for what ever reason are just angry at x band for making whatever music they make. Rather than discuss the merits (which was given about one sentence in the entire page long review) they snipe at the band. I don't mind some pretentiousness or snobbiness, I think it makes it more fun to read, but I don't understand why they have to throw punches. I think it was on an Eminem review that one of the reviews gave a hint that the head honcho at Pitchfork was angry they weren't taken seriously-- and it's immature style of writing is mostly responsible for that.

[solace]

I thought the Pitchfork review was pretty dead on. Fate does not work for me. We All Belong is a much stronger affair.

 

nah, keep trying, it's still got some absolutely killer songs, and is nowhere near a 5.5, more like a solid 7-7.5 imo.

 

i do like We All Belong more (closer to an 8) tho

[markosis]

I am actually surprised Pitchfork even reviewed it, considering they've always hated them mercilessly. Whatever, they're still one of my 3 favorite rock and roll bands of the current era, whether people love them or hate them.

[stooka]

maybe they thought THIS was Dr Dog.

[jff]

I could only make it through a paragraph or two of that review.

 

After listening to "We All Belong" the first time, I couldn't remember how any of it went. I actually considered trading it in. Then, somehow, it wound up as one of my favorite recent releases.

 

Typically, if I find an album instantly appealing, the appeal goes away or greatly diminishes after a relatively short time.

[bigideas]

someone match the names with the voices please:

i can tell it's a shuffle - 1, one singer, 2, the other singer, etc.

the 'even' singer - i don't know if he can continue to sing for many years cause it sounds at times like he's shredding his vocal chords. i picture flesh hitting the studio mic on track 4 towards the end.

[mfwahl]

someone match the names with the voices please:

i can tell it's a shuffle - 1, one singer, 2, the other singer, etc.

the 'even' singer - i don't know if he can continue to sing for many years cause it sounds at times like he's shredding his vocal chords. i picture flesh hitting the studio mic on track 4 towards the end.

Odd - Scott

Even - Toby

[oceanman]

I second this request.

Might be in the works of a reprint.

[LouisvilleGreg]

A pretty good read on the Dog in their hometown paper. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Dog has its day

Recognition is coming to the hard-working Philly band and its must-hear music. Now there's a new album, "Fate."

By Dan DeLuca

 

Inquirer Music Critic

 

The five guys in Dr. Dog and their dog Zimba are sitting around their Kensington recording studio on a sunny afternoon talking about Fate.

That's this steadily rising band's new album, and the most-focused showcase yet for their harmony-happy carnival of sound that invites contemporary listeners with songs that playfully echo cherished '60s acts like the Beatles and the Band.

 

Fate (***1/2) is Dr. Dog's third disc, if you count from Easy Beat, which earned the quintet an instant national profile among indie music fans in 2005. But it's actually the fifth starting with Psychedelic Swamp, the obscure high-concept set recorded in singer-guitarist Scott McMicken's flooded West Chester basement bedroom in 2001.

 

Since then, Dr. Dog has remained steadfastly DIY in its approach, while literally moving up in the world.

 

Like its 2007 predecessor, We All Belong, the self-produced Fate was recorded in the band's second-floor digs in the aptly named Art & Industry building in Kensington. It was released yesterday on Park the Van Records, the Schwenksville label that is also home to Dr. Dog pals The Teeth and Pepi Ginsberg.

 

The band crisscrossed the states in their Club Wagon van last year to do more than 150 shows in support of We All Belong, which sold 30,000 copies. Over the winter, the hard-working outfit - proclaimed "America's Next Great Band" on the cover of this month's Relix music magazine - spent six weeks winnowing down dozens of tracks to find the 11 destined to end up on Fate.

 

"You throw stuff against the wall, and you make a mess, and you hope to find a picture in it," says McMicken, the band's red-headed psychedelic philosopher, who looks nearly unrecognizable in wire-frame glasses rather than the big plastic shades and floppy hat he's been known to wear on stage.

 

Fate, like all Dr. Dog records, was written in equal share by McMicken and his co-front man, bassist Toby Leaman (the band includes keyboardist Zach Miller, guitarist Frank McElroy, and drummer Juston Stens). The pair met during an eighth-grade field trip to Ellis Island, while growing up in West Grove, in Chester County. Both attended West Chester University.

 

On this day, McMicken does most of the talking because, as fate would have it, the normally gregarious Leaman all but lost his voice as a result of an accidental head-butt in the neck from his wife during a white-water tubing ride the day before.

 

The album title comes from a line in a haunted, powerful song called "The Beach," which was written by Leaman, the son of a Methodist minister.

 

"The memories we've buried have just taken seed / When springtime comes, they'll turn into weeds / And they'll creep through your window to smother your dreams / Fate has a funny way of coming around."

 

The decision to call the album Fate, says McMicken, was a typical Dr. Dog process that began as an "incidental, random, off-the-top-of-your-head suggestion, before evolving into some gigantic universe of internal meaning."

 

That might make Fate seem like a heavy-handed concept album, especially since its production was animated by debates about whether fate and free will can coexist (the answer, Dr. Dog decided, was yes). But the album is breezy and light on its feet.

 

Songs like McMicken's Lennonesque "From" and "The Rabbit, the Bat, and the Reindeer," and Leaman's open-hearted "Hang On," search for home truths in a superficial world by wrapping their musings in fetching melodies and stunning harmony singing.

 

Fate may or may not have played a role in the rise of Dr. Dog, whose name comes from a mis-hearing of the title to the Captain Beefheart song "Doctor Dark." But hastened by some big breaks out of the blue, they've become, along with cacophonous pranksters Man Man, one of the most prominent bands in the burgeoning Philadelphia rock scene.

 

In 2004, McMicken gave My Morning Jacket singer Jim James a CD case covered with sprinkles. Impressed with the packaging, James listened and liked the music so much he invited Dr. Dog on tour.

 

The money they made there paid for equipment to record Easy Beat in Miller's West Philadelphia basement. (He and the other band members, who are in their late 20s or early 30s, are unmarried and still live in West Philly, except for Leaman, who is married and lives in Wilmington.)

 

Easy Beat was released by Park the Van's Chris Watson. Watson says the album was "an epiphany to me because I thought killer duos like this were a thing of the past." Comparing Leaman's raspier, rootsier style with McMicken's more whimsical psych-pop moves, Watson says, "Toby is the rock, and Scott is the bird."

 

But the pair, whose shared musical education includes an obsession with Rush when they were both 13, as well as a mutual admiration for Tom Waits, aren't "isolated in songwriting style and approach," says Watson. "They really influence each other and work together."

 

Lately, Dr. Dog is racking up celebrity endorsements. Last year, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy gave the band a shout-out in the New York Times, and Beck remixed We All Belong's "The Girl." At the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, in March, Velvet Underground founder Lou Reed announced that Dr. Dog was his new favorite band. "I like you guys, and now that I've seen you, I like you more," the legendary rocker told the band, McMicken says. "And then he disappeared into a puff of smoke," quips McElroy.

 

While Easy Beat received widespread praise from music bloggers and magazines, it hardly translated into overnight success. "I don't know if we ever witnessed any kind of buzz," says McMicken. "If that manifests itself in people being at your shows, we never really saw that. We got some attention from some high places . . ."

 

". . . but the meat and potatoes aspect didn't really add up," Leaman says. "It's been a slow build."

 

On its current tour, which has the band playing the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago on Aug. 2 and a free show in Rittenhouse Square on Aug. 13, the band is booked into larger venues.

 

"It's a great time to be in a band," says Leaman. "If you can play live, you can tour, and if you're committed to it, you can have this lifestyle for as long as you want."

 

Because their music bears the influence of such classic rock acts as the Beach Boys and the Zombies as well as not-so-vintage indie bands such as Pavement, people aren't quite so sure what pigeonhole to put Dr. Dog in.

 

"I like to think of us a pop band," says Leaman. "We don't play indie-rock . . .. We write pop songs, we make the songs tight." He slaps the back of his hand into his palm. "We're a pop band."

 

And when Dr. Dog aim to make pop music that will stand the test of time, they look back for inspiration to music that was made before they were born.

 

"In some ways we are making music that is trying to sound old," says McMicken. "And there's nothing shameful about that. Because we're not trying to seem like people from another time, or dress up like Robert Plant or something. It's on purely aesthetic terms. It's 'I ought not to go out and eat Pop-Tarts. I should eat Grandma's apple pie.' "

[bigideas]

thanks.

i wondered about all the religious references.

since Fate is all i've heard, i don't know if they come up in previous records or not.

 

i wondered why they said he was "punched in the throat" though?

[LouisvilleGreg]

thanks.

i wondered about all the religious references.

since Fate is all i've heard, i don't know if they come up in previous records or not.

 

i wondered why they said he was "punched in the throat" though?

 

I suppose saying he was punched sounds more glamorous than an injury while rafting.

[markosis]

Might be in the works of a reprint.

 

Whoa, really? Where did you pick up that piece of info? I sure hope it comes to pass.

 

Hey Greg, thanks for the article. I used to get that paper when I lived in Jersey. That's actually where I first heard about Dr. Dog. Even though they mentioned The Teeth, they forgot to mention that The Teeth recently broke up .

[oceanman]

The Dog is big now. Last 4 times, maybe 40 people, last wendsday was packed. I should keep my mouth closed.

[RainDogToo]

Hey, is anyone going to Philly for the free Dr. Dog concert August 13th at Rittenhouse Square? Also, if anyone is from the area or knows the area, where is a good place to park that is close to the square?

[markosis]

where is a good place to park that is close to the square

 

Nowhere. Rittenhouse Square is in Center City, and street parking is really a crap shoot. Since the show will be in the evening, its going to be a mess, even driving through that part of the city sucks. There's always plenty of parking garages if you want to get fleeced. Where in Pennsylvania are you coming from? There are some options for taking trains into the city that would put you relatively close by, I think. Don't hold me to that. Google SEPTA and see what they can tell you about that, because that will be your best bet.

[RainDogToo]

Nowhere. Rittenhouse Square is in Center City, and street parking is really a crap shoot. Since the show will be in the evening, its going to be a mess, even driving through that part of the city sucks. There's always plenty of parking garages if you want to get fleeced. Where in Pennsylvania are you coming from? There are some options for taking trains into the city that would put you relatively close by, I think. Don't hold me to that. Google SEPTA and see what they can tell you about that, because that will be your best bet.

I was thinking this would be a problem. I am coming from the Lehigh Valley, it's about a 40-50 min drive south for me. I guess I don't have many options, do I? But I will check with SEPTA to see what they are are. Thank you for your help! And if you can help me out with any other info- I'd appreciate anything you can tell me. Thanks again.

[hardwood floor]

I was thinking this would be a problem. I am coming from the Lehigh Valley, it's about a 40-50 min drive south for me. I guess I don't have many options, do I? But I will check with SEPTA to see what they are are. Thank you for your help! And if you can help me out with any other info- I'd appreciate anything you can tell me. Thanks again.

 

ya know, if you're coming from the allentown - bethlehem - easton area, you could just park at one of the northern SEPTA stations - Doylestown maybe? - and ride in

 

but parking isn't all that bad. give yourself enough time & you'll be fine

[markosis]

God damn, Friday's show at the El Rey in LA sold out. Bastards. I liked Dr. Dog first!

[Mystik Spiral]

They're playing a small club here in a couple of months... I must remember to get tickets in advance.

[stickman]

Yippee! Show tonight. I'm super pumped.

[stickman]

i'm kinda glad honestly... a good Pfork score would have just brought in mostly annoying scenesters/hipsters to Dr. Dog's shows anyway

 

 

Too late I think. Well at least they were out at the show in LA, although I should probably have expected it. Anyway really great set last night even though Toby only sang two or three numbers. All in all, really great for my first Doc Dog show. And Delta Spirit killed it. I thought it was really cool how they had the train sound play while they exited and entered the stage for the encore.

[jff]

I'm enjoying the new album, but that choo-choo train song is annoying. From what I understand Dr. Dog has a huge backlog of unreleased song. They should've saved that one for the childrens album.