YOUR WITNESS: “The good press and the bad press tend to say essentially the same thing, but with a different tone.” |
Like Ann Coulter or pistachio ice cream, the music of Philadelphia five-piece Dr. Dog seems to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it things. Which side you fall on probably depends on how you judge certain qualities of music — intangibles like “authenticity” and “innovation” — because, despite NPR critic Ken Tucker’s assertion that “Dr. Dog rarely sound like anyone else,” Dr. Dog always sound like someone else, usually someone from the pantheon of late-’60s and ’70s classic rock like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Band, etc. And the band, who come to the Middle East next Thursday, make no bones about it. “The influences are as clear as day,” bassist/singer Toby Leaman once stated in an interview with EconoCulture.
“We’ve certainly dealt with some really wild responses in the press that seem to be very polarized,” says Leaman’s childhood chum and partner in songwriting crime, singer/guitarist Scott McMicken, when I reach him by phone near his home in Philly. “The good press and the bad press tend to say the same thing, but with a different tone: ‘These guys are really cool because they remind me of this other stuff that I really like.’ Or they’ll be like, ‘These guys are really bad because they remind me of this other stuff that I really like.’ ”
Pitchfork, for one, fits squarely into the latter group. From John Motley’s review of last year’s Takers and Leavers EP (Park the Van): “Dr. Dog lack the vision to synthesize their influences and create an inimitable sound of their own. On first listen, this can actually be a little alluring, playing name-that-influence for each song’s constituent parts. But on repeated listens, Takers and Leavers sounds more and more like soulless construction masquerading as homage.” (McMicken: “Are you sure that’s not a quote from me about Pitchfork?” — zing!) Even if he doesn’t seem to know what “inimitable” means, Motley’s not far off about the music’s being fodder for a game of name-that-influence. But what rock-and-roll song isn’t a game of name-that-influence? Isn’t it just a matter of degree? Didn’t John Lennon admit to ripping off ideas from others?
More important, Dr. Dog — McMicken, Leaman, guitarist Frank McElroy, drummer, Juston Stens, and organist Zach Miller — are anything but soulless. Their new full-length, We All Belong (Park the Van), is brimming with what sure sounds like genuine emotion to these ears. In the buoyant — and, yes, Beatle-esque — love song “Keep a Friend,” the vocal melody lies at the upper edge of Leaman’s range, and he strains his voice just enough to make the otherwise ordinary lyrics affecting and resonant: “I’d pawn my heart if I thought you’d break it/Sell my soul if I thought you’d take it.”
