Dr Dog 'Fate' album - MusicRemedy

Dr. Dog’s newest album, Fate, is rapidly approaching, and the band is unleashing a wealth of material in anticipation. First there’s the first official single, “The Ark,” a song chock-full of Biblical references and existential meaning that the band slipped out digitally last Tuesday, followed by a premier that also included a multi-camera peek into the dog-house with “Hang On.”

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the Philly-based band, who’ve already booked the next four months with premiers and performances. They’ll be landing in New York later this month for an appearance on everyone’s-favorite-late-night-television-show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien on Thursday, July 17th followed by stops at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on the 23rd and the Music Hall of Williamsburg on the 24th. And they’ll be swinging back through their hometown on August 13th for a free show at Philly’s Rittenhouse Square.

The July 22nd release of Fate holds extra promise for iTunes users, who will receive two bonus tracks and a second never-before-seen, in-studio video with purchase of the album. And while it seems like the band couldn’t be any busier, there is sure to be more on the horizon. Until then, fans will have to tune in to words of wisdom from the group and “Hang On.”

more information
As with the band’s previous releases, FATE was produced and recorded by Dr. Dog at their studio in North Philadelphia. The eleven tracks that fill FATE embrace the inevitable consequences of human experiences and relationships and reinterpret them using the basic sounds of voice, bass, drum, piano and guitars. FATE rekindles the same spirit that embodied Dr. Dog’s first album PSYCHEDELIC SWAMP: creating a sound with a singular voice and a purist tone.

Dr. Dog has spent the last five years working and writing to make an album like FATE. Clocking in at 43 minutes, FATE draws upon the events and circumstances that have surrounded the band and incorporates them into the group’s most stunning work to date. Putting the focus on the actual instruments in hand, Dr. Dog has reached a new level of intricacy in terms of both composition and production giving the songs a cohesiveness and timeless appeal.

From the simultaneously loose and assured HANG ON to the caffeinated Americana of OLD DAYS, from the flirtatious UNCOVERING THE OLD to the duality of MY FRIEND, FATE is a intoxicatingly symphonic sound of strings, horns and open-hearted vocal arrangements.

press quotes
The most appealing thing about Dr. Dog’s music is its unwavering knack for harmonies and hook-filled choruses. – Billboard Magazine

It’s hard to find fault when the record is this enjoyable, appealing to both indie-hipsters and their baby-boomer parents. – People Magazine (3.5 out of 4)

The songs are so damn likable… We All Belong sounds truly inviting. – Rollingstone

Philly rockers Dr. Dog are your favorite band’s favorite band. – Esquire Magazine

One of our favorite records of the year. – GQ Magazine

tour dates
06-01 - Mountain Jam- Hunter, NY
06-06 - Friday Cheers-Richmond, VA
06-06 – Wakarusa - Lawrence, KS
06-08 – Wakarusa - Lawrence, KS
07-18 - Club Café - Pittsburg, PA
07-19 - Chameleon Club - Lancaster, PA
07-23 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
07-24 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - New York, NY
07-26 - Boulder Annual Music Festival - Rochester, NY
07-27 - Forcastle Festival - Louisville, KY
07-29 - Mojo's - Columbia, MO
07-30 – Bluebird - St. Louis, MO
07-31 - Radio Radio - Indianapolis, IN
08-01 - Lollapalooza (at Grant Park) - Chicago, IL
08-04 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH
08-05 - The Basement - Columbus, OH
08-08 - The El Rey - Los Angeles, CA
08-13 - Rittenhouse Square - Philadelphia, PA
09-05 - IOTA Club & Café - Arlington, VA
09-06 - The Earl - Atlanta, GA
09-07 - 3rd and Lindsley - Nashville, TN
09-08 – Bottletree - Birmingham, AL
09-09 - Thirsty Hippo - Hattiesburg, MS
09-11 - Walter's On Washington - Houston, TX
09-12 - Lola's Saloon - Ft. Worth, TX
09-13 - The Parish - Austin, TX
09-16 - Club Congress - Tucson, AZ
09-17 - The Casbah - San Diego, CA
09-19 - The Detroit Bar - Costa Mesa, CA
09-20 - Cellar Door - Visalia, CA
09-23 - Doug Fir's Lounge - Portland, OR
09-24 - Tractor Tavern - Seattle, WA
09-26 - Urban Lounge - Salt Lake City, UT
09-27 - Hi-Dive - Denver, CO
09-29 - The Waiting Room - Omaha, NB
09-30 - The Record Bar - Kansas City, MO
10-01 - High Noon Saloon - Madison, WI
10-02 - Blind Pig - Ann Arbor, MI
10-10 - Middle East (downstairs) - Cambridge, MA

biography
“FATE” is the record Dr. Dog were destined to make, a timeless yet contemporary distillation of the band’s open-armed, big-hearted sound taken to new heights of craft and creativity. Inventive, magnificently realized, and absolutely irresistible, the Park The Van Records release sees the Philadelphia-based quintet filtering the gamut of American popular music into its own idiosyncratic brand of blue-eyed, dilated-pupil soul. Songs like “Hang On” and “Uncovering the Old” delve deep into the mysteries of life and love, offering bittersweet and buoyant reflections into the very nature of our human condition. As ever, Dr. Dog makes magic from an enduring pop palette of intricate harmonies, shape-shifting melodies, and ramshackle audio ingenuity – all presented through the band’s slightly skewed and utterly individualistic outlook.

As the title makes plain, “FATE” was fueled by la forza del destino. Dr. Dog allowed the winds of fortune to carry them towards making an album they came to see as a uniquely conceptual work, though they are careful to point out the amorphous nature of that notion.

“We realized pretty early on that the songs tied together,” says singer/songwriter/bassist Toby Leaman. “We didn’t really know how – and I’m still not completely sure – but we know they do.”

“We didn’t start the record with the idea of ‘fate,’” explains the other half of the band’s voice, singer/songwriter/guitarist Scott McMicken. “It just became apparent to us at a point that it was already going on. It was happening and it was just a matter of us noticing. Once we got a good chunk of stuff down, it was apparent that something was going on, that these themes were just coming without our awareness of it. Then it became really exciting to say, wow, there’s this aspect of fate that’s governing this process as well as being the subject of it.”

Songs such as “The Old Days” and the album-opening “The Breeze” touch on big picture truths like the inexorable passage of time, of taking inventory of one’s current state through the prism of the past. The songs express wistful regret and thoughtful introspection, both in terms of subject matter as well as their classicist musical content.

“It takes this kind of muddled and fragmented path towards a very simple understanding of the present,” McMicken says. “That comes in part from getting a little older and realizing that you’ve spent all this time crafting this imaginary sense of self. But the older you get, the more you realize that what you are, you’ve always been.”

The confluence of matter and method, of songs grappling with the powers of destiny being driven by outside forces beyond the band’s purview, proved invigorating, offering Dr. Dog both freedom and structure.

“It was really helpful to look at it thematically,” Leaman explains, “because then we were able to look at the songs and go, ‘Okay, this one isn’t really relevant to the album.’”

“Being conceptual takes it out of our hands,” McMicken says, “and that’s very empowering. Ultimately you’re still driving to the studio and doing it every day, but you’ve created this fantasy that there are these gigantic other factors which are outside of your control that are as relevant to the process as you are.”

In some ways, the intangible relationship between fate and “FATE” links back to Dr. Dog’s 2002 debut, “THE PSYCHEDELIC SWAMP,” which was constructed around a narrative in which the band “translate” messages from a parallel universe into its own music.

From the band’s birth in 2002, recording had always been rather loose and slightly homespun. 2004’s “EASY BEAT” catapulted the combo to national – and then worldwide – attention and acclaim. Their increase in stature allowed them the opportunity for growth, exhibited by the increase in sonic scope found on 2006’s “TAKERS AND LEAVERS” EP and its full-length follow-up, “WE ALL BELONG.” The album’s recording proved an often-laborious learning experience for the band, as they struggled with the complexities of crafting their organic, naturalistic pop via 24-track equipment. This time, Dr. Dog was better prepared for the work at hand and as such, the sessions flowed smoothly from the get-go.

“We knew how to work the equipment a lot better,” says Leaman. “We all got a lot better at working fast, knowing how to mic stuff properly, getting the sounds we wanted faster than we used to. There was still a lot of guesswork, but it wasn’t like on the last album, where we spent so much time figuring out the logistics of it.”

To further relay the interwoven thematic content, Dr. Dog bonded “FATE” with the sound of one of the album’s most frequent lyrical symbols, the train. A romantic, distinctly American metaphor, the railroad ties the songs together, spanning the many parallels in the process in which Dr. Dog were immersed. They viewed themselves as hard-working craftsmen and delighted in the homonymy of railroad and recorded tracks. Most significantly, it seemed an ideal physical manifestation of fate itself.

“We decided on the train as the best metaphor because it represents this thing in the distance,” McMicken says, “moving towards you or moving away from you. Or it’s right in your face, ever-present and forceful.”

Forward-thinking but reflective, searching yet remarkably confident, “FATE” is the work of an extraordinary band operating full steam ahead. Perhaps it was inevitable. Dr. Dog has always trod its own analogous path, a band of outsiders from the start, now more than ever holding true to its own inimitable place in the universe.

“This band was started and built on the idea that we were the only band there was,” McMicken says. “That gave us the freedom to be in complete control. You can start a band and say, ‘In Dr. Dog World, up is down and blue is red.’ Because who’s gonna tell you you’re wrong?”

who is who
Frank McElroy (Thanks) on multi-string guitar, full-grip chords, harmonies
Juston Stens (Triumph) on trapset and harmonies
Scott McMicken (Taxi) on woof+mud distortion solo guitar and voice
Toby Leaman (Tables) on finger bass, vocals
Zach Miller (Text) on organ

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Dr Dog - Fate