Dr. Dog has had a comfortable run for the past half decade. The group's past three releases, "Shame, Shame," "Be The Void" and "B-Room" all peaked around 50 on the US Billboard 200 charts. Songs from each release have also found steady radio play on XM and NPR stations. Even though indie-rock can be left behind in an electronic and hip-hop dominated music scene, Dr. Dog has found a steady fanbase in its bluegrass-style harmonies and '60’s rock instrumentation.
Instead of riding its continual wave of success and releasing a new album in the vein of its latest releases, the band decided to take a few steps backward on the new album. With an already-large catalog of songs in their repertoire, the members of Dr. Dog re-recorded their debut album, "Psychedelic Swamp," which was previously only released in 2001 as a demo-tape on cassette.
When "Psychedelic Swamp" was originally released, Dr. Dog was composed of a loose collective of musicians who recorded the songs of frontmen Toby Leaman and Scott McMicken. The recordings, which can be found with a simple YouTube search, are difficult to listen to with jumbled guitars, robotic noises and muffled vocals; however, the band was proud of the songwriting. Over 15 years after its initial release, Dr. Dog’s re-recording of its debut offers an audible testament to how much it has improved as a band but also to how strong the group was when it began.
Perhaps the most surprising part about this re-recording is how easily it fits in with the rest of the catalog. However, this makes sense, considering Leaman and McMicken had been writing music together in Philadelphia since eighth grade, long before they began producing music under the monicker of Dr. Dog. Highlights on the album, such as “Swampedelic Pop,” “Dead Record Player” and “Bring my Baby Back,” could easily fit onto the lo-fi, experimental album "Be The Void," while the song “Engineer Says” sounds like an early inspiration for Leaman’s screecher “The Beach,” off of the album "Fate". The re-recording provides both a blueprint for the group's older albums while also sonically pushing the band to new places. At its end, it leaves fans begging for another album of originals, but this time showing where the band is now, not where it began.
Essential songs include “Dead Record Player," “Swampedelic Pop," “Bring My Baby Back," “Engineer Says" and “Good Grief."