Dr. Dog Don't Have Time For Haters

Timing is everything in the music industry. Over the last few years, we’ve witnessed the revival of garage rock and have had our ears assailed by countless post punk and 1980s inspired bands. While many of these bands like The White Stripes and Interpol have become critic’s darlings for invoking a bygone era, other bands such as Philadelphia’s Dr. Dog have found that they have been met with some resistance due to the style of music that they play.

The biggest knock on Dr. Dog is that they write derivative music. 1960’s inspired rock will never be considered an overlooked genre but Dr. Dog doesn’t really care. It’s something that they’ve always wanted to do and have mapped out for some time. Drummer Scott McMicken and bassist Toby Leaman were formulating their plan for Dr. Dog while they were playing in 90s indie rock band, Raccoon.

“We had a vision of a perfect band and Racoon was more of a side project,” Leaman elaborates as the band was on the way to New York City for a one off gig. “Our vision with Dr. Dog involved logistically of us playing our natural instruments. From a musical perspective, we wanted to write pop oriented songs with harmonies. We were going for a different vibe, a bit more easygoing vibe with Dr. Dog.”

Almost from the get go, Dr. Dog received praise from their peers. My Morning Jacket singer Jim James handpicked the five piece (the band also includes Zach Miller, Juston Stens, and Sukey Jumps) to open for their band after listening to the band’s debut album, Toothbrush. Ironically, the band doesn’t consider Toothbrush their true first album.

“Toothbrush was sort of a fluke. It was more of a collection of some of the recordings we made before (sophomore album) Easy Beat that we took from second, third generation mixtapes that we made,” Leaman explains.

It’s telling that Dr. Dog considers Easy Beat their first real album because it emphasizes how important the studio is to the Philadelphia group. Recorded on an 8 track, Easy Beat would show Dr. Dog’s love for lo-fi sound experimentation. The album received praise from The New York Times and led to opening gigs for such varied acts as The Raconteurs, The Black Keys, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and The Strokes.

With their new album, We All Belong, Dr. Dog has graduated to a 24 track studio that leads to a more layered sound. The result is a lush album that includes the strange studio tricks that Dr. Dog has become well known for. However, Leaman is quick to point out that having a bigger studio has its own set of problems.

“Any time you get new equipment, there’s a learning curve,” Leaman states. “It took four or five months to get used to. We spent hours and hours to record and we were recording what we thought was going to be an album. After six months, we listened to it and scrapped it. We redid the songs but we’re really happy with the end result.”

While self-recording can have its drawbacks, it is something that Dr. Dog isn’t about to abandon. Leaman says, “We’ve always had a place to record. We’re used to recording ourselves. It doesn’t make sense to go into a studio. You’re stuck with the songs from that day and that doesn’t make sense to the way that we work.”

With an acclaimed new album out and having graduated from opening band to headliner on their current North American tour, things are looking as sunny for Dr. Dog as their pop songs. As for the criticism of being derivative, Leaman takes it all in stride.

“It doesn’t really bother me. We’re not trying to be derivative. The criticism really is just the nature of rock music. Every four or five years, people are constantly choosing one sound to focus on. Honestly, if the music is good, it’s good.”

- Andrew Chin 









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