Last summer, rock ‘n’ roll six-piece Dr. Dog made a return to its Philadelphia home studio to record its seventh album, Be The Void (Anti-). In MAGNET #85 (order a copy here), we talked to the group’s founding members, co-songwriters and vocalists Scott McMicken (guitar) and Toby Leaman (bass), about that journey, and what it takes to bring a band with a formidable label deal and a professional touring setup back to its DIY roots. One thing that has remained consistent in Dr. Dog’s music across its evolving career is a juxtaposition of existential, occasionally desperate lyrical concerns with exuberant pop songs. Dr. Dog keyboardist Zach Miller will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with McMicken and Leaman.
Miller: This place is almost impossible to describe in words; a more apt descriptor would be to call it a fantasyland or dreamscape. We happened to be in the area last year for Scott’s birthday and had so much fun. It is, in and of itself, a fully valid excuse for visiting St. Louis. (The Arch is really great, too, while you’re in town.) I’ll do my best to give a sense of what it is, but it is really something you have to experience for yourself. It encompasses four or five stories and the roof of an old shoe factory, which has been transformed into a playground, with a system of caves sculpted out of concrete, dozens of slides, including a 10-story corkscrew through a dark corridor, rebar tunnels connecting hollowed-out aircraft teetering 40 feet in the air, a human mouse wheel, a maze, the largest functioning pencil in the world, an aquarium and a massive theater pipe organ, most all of it from scavenged materials. Most incredibly, it was almost entirely the work of one man, who was recently and tragically crushed by a bulldozer. The entire place is adorned with elaborate painting and tilework. It is a breathtaking place, and it has a bar, an ice-cream shop and a pizza oven, too. There is no map or guide of any kind. We certainly weren’t the youngest people, but we weren’t the oldest either. It was really incredible to see everyone with the same child-like enthusiasm. I can’t recommend it enough. I feel like everyone should make the pilgrimage.
