Call it like you see it. See it how it is. Dog is Dog spelled forwards.
By Dustin Huth
In a time when sarcasm trumps sincerity in most situations and clichéd emo lyrics no longer get carded at the door when trying to pass for true-to-life human sentiment, Dr. Dog is part of a recent trend in which musicians and lyricists hold fast to the lost virtues of genuineness and sincerity.
Dr. Dog’s lead guitarist, vocalist, and co-writer, Scott McMicken is the kind of guy who, if you ask him a question in an interview that he hasn’t thought about before, or that he doesn’t know the answer to off the top of his head, he won’t dismiss it, and he won’t make up a quick bullshit answer that sounds good enough to get by either. Instead, he’ll say something like, “Let me think…I mean my initial response would be…” and then he will proceed to take you along with him as he explores how he actually feels about the question you’ve raised. It is that kind of openness and genuine desire to understand his own thoughts that has helped his band to write such insightful and honest songs.
In fact, one of the recurring themes in Dr. Dog’s music is that of the nature of honesty itself. One example of this occurs in a song from their album, Tooth Brush, called, “I Can’t Fly.” This song features a chorus that questions, “Oh why do they do it? Oh why do the lie? Oh and why do I keep asking myself and wondering why? When I know that they thought it was true.”
One of the driving forces behind Dr. Dog’s ability to write such intellectually honest songs is their willingness to examine an issue from all sides and see it for exactly what is. Musically, this means creating from the perspective of the listener.
“We always consider ourselves first and foremost, listeners of Dr. Dog, rather than the makers of it,” said, McMicken, “That’s what it always comes down to…have you succeeded in creating in yourself a happy Dr. Dog listener?”
This sense of balance extends further into the band’s philosophy on writing meaningful lyrics as well.
“I just think that part of the craft of making appealing music is to try to say as much as you can, and help yourself out with your own ideas, help yourself understand where you’re coming from and use the song to sort out the confusion that often occurs in life, as well as create something that has absolutely nothing to do with you, that allows a person to listen to it and sort of find a place for themselves within it,” Explains, McMicken.
Perhaps the task in which Dr. Dog’s ability to take things for what they are becomes most evident is in the actual recording of the music. Their first two albums, Easy Beat and Tooth Brush, both released in 2005, are extremely densely layered considering the fact that were recorded on a mere 8-tracks.
“I’ve never really look at any piece of recording equipment as necessarily limiting,” says McMicken. “If I have a four-track in front of me, I’m not going to approach it like I want to record Bohemian Rhapsody or something…you take it for what it is and you realize within this context, certain things are impossible, so I won’t even consider them, thereby removing any limitations.”
And once that reality of what is impossible is accepted, all the possibilities become evident.
“All you’re doing is basically defining for yourself what’s reasonable to achieve on this certain equipment,” says McMicken, “and then you can just have as much fun as you would in a giant studio recording Bohemian Rhapsody, because you open up a whole new context for yourself and all the nuances start to come alive, and you find all these bazillion little tiny decisions you can make even with one microphone and three tracks.”
In the recording of their newest album, We All Belong, behind which they are currently touring, Dr. Dog had fewer impossibilities to accept. The band’s steady ascent in popularity has landed them in a situation where they were able to use a 24-track recorder and 2” tape.
“Now we have this much bigger—physically bigger equipment and bigger kit and it’s no longer like looking through a pinhole at a picture,” explains, McMicken. “we sort of opened it up to more of a scope of the sounds that we came up with and so, we just took it as that, and we put in a lot of energy in trying to make it be the best that it could be for us.”
But for a band that was used to doing so much with so little, the upgrade presented a completely different set of difficulties.
“Everything kind of sounded too good,” says, McMicken. “It sounded too good in the way that good can be kind of cold or unrealistic. You know, like the drums sounded all shimmery and sort of toneless in a way that I liken with a lot of more modern recordings. Sort of an unrealistic representation of what these instruments actually sound like…so, we sort of had to fight against this equipment a little bit.”
And it was a fight that the band eventually won, because We All Belong definitely achieves the same authenticity of sound as its predecessors, but with a little more clarity
“I feel like We All Belong is a very similar record in a way to the others that we’ve done, it’s just a little more colored in. You know Easy Beat is just like this sketch, this black and white sketch or something, and We All Belong is just a little more colored in,” said McMicken.
Dr. Dog is playing this Tuesday, March 20th at the Larimer Lounge on Larimer at 28th St. in Denver, where they will inevitably see the venue for exactly what it is, accept its impossibilities, and play it perfectly as a result
Join us or perish!!!