Dr. Dog

“We played with Wilco in front of 10,000 people a couple of weeks ago in Chicago,” said Dr. Dog singer/bassist Toby “Tables” Leaman, who found time to chat with whatzup despite his busier-than-ever schedule. “Jeff [Tweedy, Wilco’s frontman] made is pretty clear that he’s a fan of ours,” said Leaman when asked about how his band’s recently wrapped tour with one of the world’s biggest bands came about. “We read a couple different things in magazines where he talked about how we’re one of his favorite bands right now, so he actively sought us out. We pitched the tour, but he sought us out.” Clearly Tweedy isn’t the only one stoked on the Philadelphia indie rock quintet’s latest record, We All Belong, which has seen snowballing attention since its release seven months ago.

“Sorry we didn’t get back with you sooner. The guys are so busy they days,” explained the band’s manager, Brian Winton, who in only a few months has watched the band go from being a favorite amongst obscurists to sweeping the late-night talk show circuit to playing the main stage at this month’s annual Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Formed early in the decade, Dr. Dog’s first big break came in the spring of 2004 when My Morning Jacket’s Jim James personally asked the then-young band to join the Jacket on their national tour. Known for his sharp ears as much as he is for his echo-accented vocals, James picked the band (who at the time had not even released an official album) based on a few heard tunes and a hunch. “We put Toothbrush out ourselves before anything else,” explained Leaman about Dr. Dog’s de facto first release. “The first tour we did was with MMJ, so we put Toothbrush out pretty much as a mix tape, but it ended up being an album. It’s pretty much just a collection of songs Scott and I recorded over two or three years.”

Hyped inaccurately as a jam band by Rolling Stone in their March 2007 issue, Dr. Dog (guitarist Frank “Thanks” McElroy, drummer Juston “Triumph” Stens, guitarist/singer “Taxi” McMicken, keyman Zach “Text” Miller and Leaman) play a soulful brand of poppy rock music often described as “throwback music.” Leaman had much to say when asked about the various inaccurate tags his band is often given by the media: “We have guitar solos, but we don’t ever, like, jam; it’s just not what we’re going for. I think people get that because we’re not stylish. We don’t have cool haircuts and tight pants. I think people say, ‘If they don’t look cool, they might be a jam band.’ We certainly don’t think of ourselves like that, but it doesn’t really matter what people say.”

Further explaining the band’s sound, Leaman attributes their DIY aesthetic to the indie rock silent bang of the 90s. “We grew up on that stuff,” he explained. “I think we’re more of a pop band than a rock band but with a lot of guitar solos and stuff like that. I think the reason we get the throwback thing all the time is because we have so many harmonies, and a lot of current bands don’t seem to try the complicated harmonies like we do. We all love harmonies and think it’s kind of silly that people don’t use them more. A lot of times you get six guys on stage, and to me it seems kind of silly not to sing harmonies if everyone’s there.”

After returning from their big-break tour with My Morning Jacket, Dr. Dog immediately went out and bought a microphone, the final piece of the pie needed to complete their 8-track-based home studio in Philadelphia. Building off the thrill of touring the country, the band started working on what would become their next – and first legit – studio album, Easy Beat. The dusty 9-song pop album – which would sound right at home in any smoky working class tavern from the 1970s – was eventually released nationally by Park the Van Records (as the label’s first release, no less) to national acclaim.

The New York Times called the DIY Easy Beat “epic,” hailing it as an “extraordinary catalog of off-kilter ballads and light-headed riff rock. All nine songs are filled with breezy vocal harmonies and unexpected digressions.” On the strength of their widespread acclaim and a couple more national tours, Dr. Dog spent the whole of 2006 working on what would become their next album, We All Belong, an 11-song pop album many are hailing as the “album of the year.”

Flash back to the winter of 2006/2007 and you’ll find local singer/songwriter Kevin Hambrick (The Orange Opera) following every “hello” with “have you heard of Dr. Dog yet?” The perfect opportunity for Hambrick to turn Fort Wayne’s indie-minded set onto the band he loved so much came when We All Belong was released in February, and, boy, did the city’s rock crowd ever follow Hambrick’s lead.

“Maybe I’m just a fan of bearded bands, but I’m like an obsessed 12-year-old girl, but in a good way,” said an excited Hambrick, who – along with his whatzup Battle of the Bands IV-winning bandmates – went looking to meet the men of Dr. Dog following one of the sets earlier in the year.

“When I met the band in Cincinnati I asked how much it would cost to bring them to Fort Wayne, Scott said, ‘Man, we’re an easy sell, but you’ll have to talk to our manager.’ So a couple days later I called their manager Brian and began finding out what it would take to bring them here.”

Enter Fort Wayne’s longtime independent music retail chain, Wooden Nickel, who just happen to be celebrating their 25th anniversary this year.

“I first thought about putting together a show for our 25th anniversary this spring and started talking to employees and local band members to see who they would like to see come to the Fort,” explained Wooden Nickel owner Bob Roets when asked about how he became involved in the Dr. Dog show. “I was thinking of a vintage rock band at first because of our long-time relationships with many classic rock bands. The feedback that I was getting from everyone was to maybe bring in a band that normally wouldn’t play in a market like Fort Wayne. I had started on researching Internet sites for potential bands and looking at local venues to see what was out there. One of the bands that was frequently mentioned by the locals was Dr. Dog. I had seen an appearance of the group on David Letterman and started to listening to their new CD and loved the music; I love harmony vocals, and they reminded me somewhat of my favorite band, the Beatles.

“Then one day Kevin Hambrick stopped into the North Clinton Street Wooden Nickel to talk and said that he had recently had seen Dr. Dog in Cincinnati and was blown away by them. He said that he had started to build a relationship with the band and would love to bring them to Fort Wayne but lacked the finances to do so,” said Roets.

From there Hambrick and Roets began looking at what it would take to make the show happen with a modest budget. Eventually, after a modest share of groundwork, Roets and Hambrick confirmed a date for the show (Sunday, October 7), booked the venue (Fort Wayne’s Sunset Hall) and started tying up loose ends and getting the word out.

“Kevin’s enthusiasm for the band was infectious,” exclaimed Roets. “We then added whatzup and Rock 104 as sponsors and were on our way.”

The news of this show – a show featuring, mind you, one of the premier indie rock bands of the current generation – all but brought tears to the collective eyes of Fort Wayne’s progressive scene. Both Roets and Hambrick believe this show could be the start of a new trend.

Said Roets about Fort Wayne’s reaction to the booking of Dr. Dog: “We had been stocking a couple of Dr. Dog CDs with limited success; then some of our key employees bought and played the new album in the stores and created a buzz. After their appearance on many late night television shows – and their tour with Wilco – we [started] seeing a nice pickup in sales.”

“This [could work as] a fine start at something that could be really cool, so as long as we all continue to actually go out and ‘get it.’ It’s a good chance for Fort Wayne to make a much more capable venue for the abstract,” said an excited Hambrick when asked what this shows means to Fort Wayne.

“I am hoping that this concert is successful because it would show us that we can bring in bands that are critically acclaimed on a national scale and attract an audience here in Fort Wayne, thus proving that we don’t just have to bring in the same 20 bands over and over. Kevin and I feel as though we can best drive this point home by selling out Dr.Dog. Wooden Nickel certainly would be interested in sponsoring more of these adventurous shows in the future if this one does well,” echoed Roets.

As for Dr. Dog, well, they’re looking to the future, too.

“Our headlining tour after the Wilco tour will last six weeks, but as soon as we’re done with that we have a million songs ready to go,” said Leaman. “We have our own studio, and I think everyone is just really excited to get in [the studio] and make an even better record than We All Belong. We might work with some other people; we won’t really know how it’s going to happen, but the songs are there.”

But don’t worry. Leaman assures us that all the attention hasn’t led the band down the wrong path.

“We’re still in a van; we’re not even quite to the bus stage yet. Musically, I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where we’re doing all kinds of production and crap and using all kinds of equipment and stuff. [The next album] will probably sound about the same, maybe a little tighter.”

“This is the coolest show in Fort Wayne this year,” said Hambrick in closing. “I feel bad for anyone who misses out.” Hopefully no one does.

If the show goes as well as Roets and Hambrick anticipate, this could be the start of a new era for Fort Wayne-area audiophiles.

Written by G. William Locke