It’s Time for Your Ear Exam
Who is Dr. Dog? The answer is probably so simple that it is complicated, and so complicated that it cannot help but be simple. In a world that is saturated by the heads of media telling us how we should feel about a movie, a Presidential candidate, the nutritional contents of our lunch, our human experience, it is the moments where you stop and truly observe what has happened around you, that make it worth getting from your bedroom to your front door each day. In the case of music, a piece of kismet can exist when it seems like nothing else can ever be the same after you hear a new album. In music, like fashion, like politics, everything old is new again. Dr. Dog can’t help but be compared to The Four Guys From Liverpool Who Changed Pop Music, The Canadians Who Backed Up Bob Dylan and The Dudes From L.A. Who Liked To Use Crazy Instruments And Harmonize, but then again, they also weren’t raised in an isolated world without music, given instruments and subsequent formal classical and jazz training, and taught how to use Pro-Tools. They did, however, create something beautiful and real, called “Fate,” which is now available on Park The Van Records.
Unless you make a habit of attending large-scale music festivals, reading hip magazines, and paying attention to best-of lists for 2007, you probably haven’t heard of them. It’s totally cool, though; because this is the kind of band that will renew your faith in the cream rising to the top, regardless of how humble a beginning, or how lucky a break.
“Best” is a word that I hesitate to use in life, which probably stems from the fact that my only official ‘best friend,’ Abbey Edwards, broke my heart in elementary school when she not only ditched me for cooler girls, she discarded her half of our ‘best friends’ necklace. I would say, without hesitation or hyperbole, that Dr. Dog is the best band from Pennsylvania, and one of the best bands of our generation. “Fate” like 2007’s critically acclaimed, “We All Belong,” takes you in from the first few measures, and demands that you keep listening.
“Fate” is a smorgasbord of what you need in a record. Killer opening guitar riffs? Check! (“My Friend”) Hark! Is that a metronome? Whoa! And some fierce drums? (“Uncovering The Old”) Tasty shakers and sultry vocals? (“Hang On”) Lyrics that are effectively simple: ‘If you’re always on the go, make an angel in the snow, and freeze…If nothing ever moves, put that needle to the groove, and sing’ (the gorgeous, “The Breeze”) There is an abundance of lush orchestrations, enhanced by the not-at-all-overbearing presence of woodwind, horns and stringed instruments, driving drums and bass lines, but with an almost-choral sounding harmony vocals. This record is a delicious new treat.
