THE YEAR OF THE DOG
By Team JamBase Mar 7, 2007 • 12:00 am PST
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Just as the Beatles were defined by two alpha dog songwriters (Lennon and McCartney), Dr. Dog is anchored by McMicken and childhood friend, bass player and singer Toby Leaman. Although the name Dr. Dog – loosely adapted from the Captain Beefheart song “Doctor Dark” and a short story Leaman had written – has only been around since the two were at Pennsylvania’s West Chester University in 1998, the story of this band goes back much further.
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McMicken and Leaman would go on to participate in a number of bands through high school and college. The two were always writing material, but they would hide the best, most compelling songs for their future band together. Meanwhile, they would bring “the scrap yard material” to bands they played in like Raccoon while figuring out what did and didn’t work, honing their chops in preparation for what would become Dr. Dog.
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Although Toothbrush had shards of what the band is capable of, it was never meant to represent Dr. Dog. That’s what Easy Beat was for. The band’s proper debut was still warm, intimate, and for lack of a better term, lo-fi, but it was professional, something they could sling out the back of the van with pride. The stellar songwriting, intricate harmonies, and passionate, old-timey vocals on Easy Beat lit the hipster world on fire. Between their captivating live shows and this new record, Dr. Dog began showing up in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Fader, and landed a spot at 2005’s Bonnaroo festival.
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From there it was straight gangbusters. The blogosphere draped praise all over the band and before you know it they were touring in support of big names like The Raconteurs, The Black Keys, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Architecture in Helsinki and Ambulance Ltd. “We’ve been incredibly lucky with the bands that have called us up and asked us to go out on the road with them” says McMicken. “I feel like I’m in the center of all the music I value on this planet right now and I’ve pretty much had the opportunity to share the stage with them. Just being out there has rekindled my faith in what music can mean nowadays.”
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“I think that our almost overemphasis on positivity is a direct response to the prevalence of negativity. You can either draw from that negativity and try to make something beautiful out of it, or you can try to create its opposite” explains McMicken. “I also think that part of managing all that negativity that definitely exists in the world is being willing to say something positive when it comes up; a lot of people, myself included, get a little cynical and tend not to trust happiness as much as you trust pain. Maybe you feel vulnerable, like ‘I shouldn’t feel happy because then I’m subject to having it ripped away.’ So I think a lot of the positivity has to do with the fact that we are not afraid to say when something is great or talk about how much we love something.”
The positive message and upbeat party vibe courses through the band’s February 27 release, We All Belong. Even the album title is inviting. Yet, there’s more to it than just distorted sunshine guitar solos and sing-along melodies (although they are definitely in there). There’s a yin to every yang, and sumptuous depths around every corner.
Take a song like “Die Die Die.” Even just based on the name we know this ain’t good times for all but the more you dig, the more you find. “I love that song, and to me it typifies what Toby is about as a musician. It’s this amalgamation of this soul power and this ancient, sort of primitive bone-banging kind of thing. That’s totally where Toby shines, in his ability to come up with that older-than-dirt style of songwriting and lyrical perspective. It touches on a lot of the themes that he’s always writing about – this kind of disparaging, masculine coping process of dealing with jealousy or drying. He thinks about death a lot. He’s got that kind of quality about him.”
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“There’s a built-in attitude towards Dr. Dog which is that nothing at any point can be anything other than an awesome thing to be doing. And, that still rings true for me” says McMicken. It’s clear this ethos drove the creation of the absolutely awesome new album. We All Belong is also a natural progression for the band. It’s in the same vein as 2005’s Easy Beat but it’s juiced up, more focused and just a better record in every way.
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“I feel like Easy Beat is more of a sketch. This newer album is a little bit more techno-colorized. You get a little bit of shading on some of the songs” explains McMicken. The new gear and increased confidence certainly fleshed out the Dr. Dog sound, but they made sure not to loose any of that grainy, earthy tone that drew so many fans in to begin with. “We all really aesthetically take offense to the sound of modern production and that excess of detail and the artificial, sort of collagen implants beefing up something that really isn’t there to begin with” says McMicken. “For us it’s always been about trying to get things to sit well together and get all these instruments to blend nicely so they can all serve the song to the greatest.”
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“All you really are when it comes down to it is five high school buddies trying to impress each other” says McMicken. “I’ve realized more and more that all I really want out of a band – or really anyone – is just to be convinced that they like what they are doing. Ultimately, that’s what anybody ought to be gunning for, just a sense of self-gratification, because if you start thinking otherwise than you start to think that the world needs your music or the world needs you for some absurd reason, and I think that kind of thought process leads to bad bad bad results and character.”
Dr. Dog has just released their best album to date and is about to head out on their first headlining tour ever, and contrary to Scott McMicken’s humble belief about his band’s music, the world needs Dr. Dog.
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