A band’s first headlining tour is a turning point in its career. To begin as an opening act is good experience, but to be playing for a crowd that came specifically for you is something entirely different. It’s one of the first indicators that a band is on its way to “making it.”
Dr. Dog, a ’60s-influenced psych-rock quintet, is at this point. The group, which will play at the Troubadour on Wednesday night, has opened for numerous high-profile groups, including My Morning Jacket, The Strokes and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Touring with these successful bands has taught Dr. Dog a few things about music and being on the road.
“For years I never really listened to new music, but getting on tour opened my eyes to new bands,” said guitarist and co-songwriter Scott McMicken. “Contemporary music is just as important as older music. I’ve learned so much from seeing these bands that’s all sort of a result of having the luxurious position of seeing them every night.”
But after years of experience and winning fans on the road, Dr. Dog has reached a critical point in its career, having just released its fourth album, “We All Belong.”
“We were an opening band, but that phase of things is over and now we’re headlining. We have a whole bunch of new songs to play and it’s very rejuvenating after playing the same songs over and over,” McMicken said.
The new songs expand upon Dr. Dog’s tendency to layer lo-fi psychedelia over rootsy and melodic pop songs. The influence of The Beatles’ song structure and Beach Boys’ harmony is still there, but with a cleaner aesthetic due to some new recording equipment, namely an upgrade from 8- to 24-track recording.
“Having all those more tracks allowed us to try things we would have done on “˜Toothbrush’ and “˜Easy Beat’ (the band’s previous two albums) if we had the means to do so,” McMicken said.
The sound is cleaner than in previous work, but the studio is still a place for Dr. Dog to experiment. Since McMicken and Toby Leaman, the band’s other songwriter, started the group, they have used the studio not as a way to record well-rehearsed songs, but as a vital part of the songwriting process. And the band’s new equipment is all part of that process.
“I like how the albums worked that way,” McMicken said. “”˜We All Belong’ represents, for me, a good amount of exercising muscles of the craft of crafting songs, and maintaining an air of experimentation as something that comes naturally.”
Much of the experimentation stems from happy accidents. The new song “The Girl,” for instance, changed drastically once it was recorded.
“It’s the perfect evidence of accidents that you hope for. I was thinking it as a darker vein, a more folk, country vein. But when we recorded it we made the mistake of mic’ing up the piano with the gain knob all the way up. At first it nearly knocked me off the piano bench, but I asked them to leave the tone and just turn it down so it didn’t blow off my ears,” McMicken said.
The song is still dark, but it’s no longer folksy. After the distorted piano, it opens up into a huge sing-along breakdown, another common Dr. Dog trick.
“The breakdowns are just fun in the studio,” McMicken said.
Dr. Dog’s fan base is growing around its sloppy, heartfelt pop tunes, and the band is just beginning to be recognized by mainstream media like Rolling Stone and MTV. But now that “Dr. Dog” is showing up at the top of marquees, it’s something it’ll have to get used to.
“It’s surreal. It feels a little strange to see yourself in this context you don’t really feel you’re a part of,” McMicken said.