{"id":5287,"date":"2012-03-11T22:49:37","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T05:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5287"},"modified":"2012-03-11T22:50:54","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T05:50:54","slug":"dr-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/03\/dr-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"DR. DOG"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"DR. DOG\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Fresh faces, familiar places and a newfound urge to have a good time\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

On their last album, the members of Dr. Dog tried to teach themselves new tricks. They left their familiar Philadelphia practice space and studio, Meth Beach, and enlisted the help of an outside producer. The result was 2010\u2019s Shame, Shame<\/em>\u2014an album that, for all its groovy nods to the Beatles and Beach Boys, was uncharacteristically somber. \u201cIt was sort of a struggle,\u201d acknowledges bassist and singer Toby Leaman. \u201cWe ended up gravitating toward song choices that sounded down, because we were feeling down.\u201d<\/p>\n

For its latest, Be the Void<\/em>, the band rediscovered the joys of working from home\u2014especially because there was some fresh blood on hand in the form of two new members, drummer Eric Slick and multi-instrumentalist Dimitri Manos. By the time work began on the album last summer, the group was re-energized. \u201cBefore the last record we had hit a wall in terms of what we were capable of doing in the studio,\u201d Leaman says. \u201cBut we\u2019d never done a record\u00a0with these two before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meth Beach itself also got an overhaul, as the band worked with engineer Nathan Sabatino to outfit the studio with new gear. With its setup thus modernized, Dr. Dog bashed out some 30 songs in about as many days. Leaman and singer-guitarist Scott McMicken handled the bulk of the songwriting, but the six musicians constructed the songs together, coming up with parts as they went. \u201cPreviously it would be a couple of us in the studio, and the songs would get built that way,\u201d Leaman says. \u201cThis time everybody was there from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results were immediate. On tunes like \u201cDo the Trick\u201d and \u201cBig Girl,\u201d every guitar riff, piano lick, cowbell ping and sunny \u201csha-na-na\u201d vocal fell right into place. \u201cEveryone understood their role immediately and exactly what needed to happen,\u201d Leaman says of the band, formed in Philadelphia 13 years ago. \u201cIt\u2019s so satisfying when everyone comes up with their own parts and it gels\u2014plus it\u2019s a great time saver.\u201d Although not without its dark moments\u2014the first two songs are called \u201cLonesome\u201d and \u201cThat Old Black Hole\u201d\u2014Be the Void<\/em> may be the first great feel-good rock record of 2012. \u201cWe were really psyched to be playing, having the new guys and everyone feeling really good,\u201d Leaman says. \u201cThere\u2019s really no point doing this unless you\u2019re having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Kenneth Partridge<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DR. DOG\u00a0 Fresh faces, familiar places and a newfound urge to have a good time\u00a0 \u00a0 On their last album, the members of Dr. Dog tried to teach themselves new tricks. They left their familiar Philadelphia practice space and studio, Meth Beach, and enlisted the help of an outside producer. The result was 2010\u2019s Shame, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[3219,305,3185,3221,3220,3222,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5291,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5287\/revisions\/5291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}