What started as a collective of friends in Philadelphia fooling around with amateur recording techniques will roll its way into Tulsas historic Cains Ballroom on Monday night, with sunny, late-60s/early 70s AM radio sounds in tow.
The band is Dr. Dog, which unabashedly records charming, harmonic rock n roll more than 40 years after the genres heyday, and on dated equipment to boot. 2007s undeniably catchy We All Belong, the psych rockers third full-length, divided critics and sparked accusations of nostalgia, which lead guitarist Scott McMicken doesnt deny.
Recording on a four-track wasnt a choice, he said. Its what we had. It also happened to suit us.
The album garnered a lot of attention ("Rolling Stone" dropped it in at No. 39 on its Top 50 Albums list that year), which drew bigger crowds and focused the bands oddball, Guided by Voices-inspired recording fetishism on a sound that would bolster its stage presence.
Were all self-taught in terms of engineering, but our knowledge is growing, McMicken said. One records really not enough material to explore things. We want to go further.
But all those years of homemade demos and self-recorded material resulted in a wealthy catalogue of obscure tracks that, often enough, get requested at shows. McMicken credited the indie labels Park the Van Records and ANTI- for accommodating Dr. Dogs wishes to distribute music however its members wanted.
These days, however, the act has returned to a more conventional album cycle, which suits the guys just fine.
Studios fun, McMicken said. But being on the road and playing shows is more influential aspect of what were doing as a band.
The result isnt much of a surprise.
He said Dr. Dogs next album, due out in February, will be louder and more up-tempo than anything the group has recorded, largely due to the addition of drummer Eric Slick.
I cant talk enough about how much better hes made all of us. The album is more guitar-focused and dirtier, cause of how fast he got us all to play. Its very punk, McMicken said. In the past, weve tended to dial it back for at times an acoustic sound. We leave guitars out of things a lot. Not anymore.