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: I found out about an earlier version of Golly called LifeLab from my father-in-law, a physicist, who is always doing experiments and puzzles. True to my mediocre track record in maths and sciences, I don’t understand exactly what is happening, but I know it looks cool. I’m pretty sure it’s about cells dividing, though. It looks like a grid of graph paper and you can click on a square to create a new cell. You can click as many cells as you want, in any pattern, and when you press play the program will create new generations based on the rules of how cells divide, creating intricate patterns as it goes. That was LifeLab. Golly includes LifeLab and several other pattern generators for which you can define all kinds of behaviors. And it’s in color. You can dial into Fibonacci spirals and weird worms and termites, too.
