SXSW Spotlight: Dr. Dog
By Staff on March 16, 2010
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While this week might be Spring Break for college kids bound for Cabo, it’s arguably the holiest week for music lovers—that’s right, it’s South By Southwest. To help prep for your SXSW experience, FILTER is bringing you a taste of the Austin festival’s must-see musicians each day this week in the form of excerpts, interviews, and even a tattoo giveaway. So take some time out from mapping your road-trip, rest those cowboy boots and brush up on SXSW’s top-tier performers.
For day two of SXSW week, we’re showcasing ’60s pop-inspired quintet Dr. Dog, who are headlining FILTER's Showdown at Cedar Street March 19 and the FILTER presented Dickies Sounds @ SXSW Event March 18 at Lustre Pearl. Although the retro-sounding indie rockers traded in their lo-fi production for a higher-end studio and producer (Rob Schnapf) on their sixth studio album, Shame, Shame, the band members contend they haven’t altogether abandoned their roots.
Here, lead guitarist Scott McMicken compares Shame, Shame, which releases in stores April 6, to the band’s 2005 album, Easy Beat.
“In a way, Shame, Shame brings it back to Easy Beat because with that record there wasn’t that much thought that went into the production. Even though it was just us and no producer, we only had an 8-track and two microphones—there weren’t any tricks we could pull. That’s what we were trying to recreate but in a more dressed-up way. I mean, Shame, Shame is definitely our most-produced record and there’s a producer’s credit on there, but that’s why I like listening to it and realizing that so much of it is stripped-down and bare. A lot of it is just drums, bass and guitars.”
Read more about Dr. Dog, Shame, Shame and the evolution of their music in issue 39 of FILTER Magazine, currently available on newsstands.
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