Dr. Dog | Takers and Leavers EP
Dr. Dog was so freakin amazing last Saturday at the Du Nord. The band evokes some kind of bursting feeling inside, whenever I see them perform "Wake Up" it is like an epiphany that just makes me want to hold hands with the shoegaziest of the indie rockers and tell them like the things in your head, they are only what they seem, and embrace them for their ways, for we are only part of a dream. The band's label just loved what S.G. Zwickel wrote about their Takers and Leavers EP in last week's SF Weekly:

"Smug indie rockers, bare-footin' post-hippies, hooked-on-hooks pop junkies — can't they all just get along? Dr. Dog says yeah, they can, and the Philly five-piece offers this six-song EP as the soundtrack to the icebreaker. Like with any first encounter, there's gonna be some initial awkwardness, and in this case it comes in the form of unabashed exuberance. Dr. Dog's hazy, harmonized pop is sunnier than summertime, played with what could be considered lethally low levels of irony. This exuberance, young hipster, is to be savored, not feared. As is the deliciously sticky songwriting, compact but swollen with pithy turnarounds, tiny guitar solos, and surprise crescendos — like a new brand of bubblegum that somehow makes you smarter."

Give it a whirl, if you only have time for one song, and you live where I live, and you love like I love, then stream "California" now! Trust me, you'll like the whole thing, 'extended play' means it's only six songs long, every track tasty in it's own way, Philly-style. - TK