
Dr. Dog has been creating music in various incarnations in their
hometown of Philadelphia for nearly four years now. Starting with
their humble first release The Psychedelic Swamp, a concept album
realized in the damp ruin of a flooded basement, up to the recently
recorded Easy Beat which finds the band much more lyrically and
musically complex (though recorded just as organically as previous
releases). This five piece collective continues to push each other's
creative inner selves in order to gain new musical heights while
converting and gaining new fans with each passing day--proving the
adage, “good things happen to good people”.
Although Dr. Dog has as many as 20 honorary "members"
who have assisted in various capacities throughout the years, the
core of the collective consists of five musicians all from various
musical backgrounds. Imagine The Beach Boys, Beatles, Tom Waits,
David Bowie and Neil Young as acknowledged influences that have
been interpreted through they eyes of Pavement, Palace Brothers,
R. Stevie Moore or Roy Wood. Still with us?
Currently, the lineup is as such: Toby Leaman on bass and singing,
Scott McMicken on woof+mud distortion solo guitar and voice, Andrew
Jones on lean clean occasionally tremolo'd guitar, Juston Stens
on trapset and harmonies and Zach Miller on keyboards.
"We've all done our share of playing. Toby and Scott have played
together in myriad of bands including Raccoon, Unleash the Bastards,
and Beard; Andrew played bass in Raccoon and manages the phenomenal
The Teeth; Zach has played with Bradford Trojan and Traffic Jam
and studied jazz guitar; and Juston is the man behind the punk outfits
It's Turbo Time and Oddnormal.
Up until now the live arena has been the band’s primary source
for showcasing their music. "We've played around Philadelphia
at a good number times, places like TLA, North Star, the Khyber,
and we’ve made it over to Brooklyn and Manhattan too. We’ve
also accompanied My Morning Jacket on two short tours." - the
second of which also featured M. Ward - who personally requested
that Dr. Dog open for him.
Easy Beat was recorded earlier this year and is the band's first
proper release. It was released on National Parking Records in late2005.