Awful band name, awfully good album

How often does this happen? Too often, I say.

To their defense, Dr. Dog do men­tion dogs fairly often in their songs (doc­tors, not so much). Still, I’m not sure if that’s reason enough to give them­selves such a name. Fur­ther­more, I can’t help but be reminded of Dr. John and Dr. Hook–but then again, maybe that’s the idea. Dr. Dog are by far the most late 60s/early 70s-sounding band I’ve heard this month, and We All Belong is easily the most Beatles/Beach Boys-inspired pop mas­ter­piece since what­ever the last E6 release was (one song is a punny, direct ref­er­ence to “Sloop John B”). My friend Andrew of Tampa’s indie dar­lings Home says they sound like Todd Rund­gren, and though I’m unfa­miliar with Mr. Rundgren’s work, some­thing about the state­ment just feels right to me. Plus, Todd is Philly-based. So let’s roll on with that.

Dr. Dog are from Philly and they’ve put out sev­eral albums prior to this one, but I have to admit this is the first I’ve heard. The band mem­bers have been in all sorts of other bands, ranging from punk to indie to other 50s/60s-influenced pop bands. One of the guys is a trained jazz gui­tarist. They’ve toured with M. Ward and My Morning Jacket and even Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the Strokes. They had a song on the sound­track for Fast Food Nation.

They’ve been attacked by some reviewers for stealing the Beach Boys’ play­book and doing nothing new with it, but for me that’s kind of the point. Bill over at I Rock Cleve­land says they make his kind of com­fort music, and I guess that’s about right. If I want exper­i­mental edge in my 60s dreampop, I’ll listen to of Mon­tréal. If I just want to hear a couple of great for­mulas mixed to per­fec­tion, I’ll put on We All Belong. (And let me tell you, I’ve been putting it on quite a lot.)

Their songs are all three-part har­monies (some­times in a Wayne Coyne-y falsetto, even), plinking piano, honky­tonk organs, shiny brass and heaps and heaps and heaps of guitar. Other points of inter­sec­tion: The Band, Neil Young, Cir­cu­la­tory System. If you want a fuller mea­sure of the album, check out I Rock Cleveland’s full review, which cap­tures the southern fried magic on dis­play here.

Check out this awe­some video for the album’s lead single, “My Old Ways”:

Then try:
“My Old Ways“
“Worst Trip”

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