Philadelphia's Dr. Dog has been a band for almost a decade, but the amount of records it's pressed would not reflect that. Its members first got Austin's attention when they performed memorable sets with M. Ward and My Morning Jacket at the 2006 South By Southwest music festival. Their songs combine sophisticated falsettos and well-placed harmonies, which build to crescendos reminiscent of The Beach Boys.
The similarities to classic acts don't stop there. Dr. Dog is often compared to The Band and The Beatles, especially when it visited KUT's Studio 1A to perform selections from its latest album, Fate. While Dr. Dog may borrow from the great acts that came before it (doesn't everyone?), it has a sound all its own. As guitarist/vocalist Toby Leaman told KUT's Jay Trachtenberg, the band plays "what just feels right"; to get the sound they want, its members "think in terms of harmony."
Even given the band's reliance on eclectic instruments to produce its complex sounds, Leaman explained how his band's sensibilities drown out the sum of Dr. Dog's many moving parts: "It's not technological, it's personal; something that has been happening since the creation of music, right?"
Originally recorded Sept. 16, 2008.
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