Dog Day

In my experience, when it comes to artistic significance, less is more. The rawest sounds and descriptions delivered through the most immediate medium are the ones that actually connect with me. Every extra layer or superfluous adjectives ultimately end up cushioning the impact. For Dog Day, the decision to scale back the band to two members gives Nancy and Seth a clarity of sound and vision.



The band’s struggles, or maybe more accurately their unfortunate string of bad luck when it comes to breaking out and reaching the massive audience their songs deserve, have been well documented and dissected. Rather than fixate on what they were or could have been, Deformer finds the duo happy simply existing as they are. Drums and guitar, recorded at home. Vocals buried so deep in the mix that the duo would be best served to keep a few pall bearers on retainer. Dog Day has always excelled at keeping things lo-fi without sacrificing melody; hooks and harmonies push through the sludge towards freedom like Andy Dufresne, but this effort is more focused and concise.



I don’t think the band has ever sounded as good as they do when the propulsive riffs of “Positive” and “Scratches’ explode out of the speakers, but the grit of thickness of “Bluish Grey” is just as interesting. It’s minimal; Nancy’s vocals are barely audible and the fuzz is pushed high in the mix, but the song consumes you.



The stripped down sound also results in a heightened intensity that helps shine a light on the surprisingly infectious chords the duo hammers through. “Mr. Freeze”, a simple combination of fuzz and vocals, is taught with tension and is the perfect prelude to the (dare I say) pop closer “In the Woods”, making the 6-minute epic seem like an optimistic ray of hope. Not exactly how you expect a Dog Day record to close, but a welcome change. - Herohill

Husband and wife duo, Seth Smith and Nancy Ulrich, make up Halifax’s Dog Day – but that was not always the case. Deformer is the couple’s first release with a band that is now half its original size and finds them playing instruments they have never played before.

The home-recorded process of this album lends itself to their low-fi fuzzy sound. “Part Girl” finds a balance between Smith’s low, hopeful drone and the track’s upbeat, almost overpowering drums, as Seth’s voice is brightened by the beat. The lyrics tell the story of the band, one that now has only two members, and the story seems to have a happy ending.

“Scratches,” opens with a catchy riff and backup vocals by Ulrich add a bright layer to its punkier beat.

Deformer displays a sound of a band that is in the process of finding itself. Considering what Dog Day’s two members took on to get this album to their audience, it’s obvious that it was well worth their trouble and they are headed in the right direction.

www.dogdaymusic.com/

– Addie Chown - the Spill

Oct 05, 2011

Losing half your band is a traumatic experience, to say the least, but Dog Day's Seth Smith and Nancy Urich seem to be coping.

Rather than sulk about the dispiriting departure of first drummer K.C. Spidle and then keyboardist Crystal Thili during the months after the release of 2009's smashing Concentration, the rather adorable indie-rock couple split their hometown of Halifax last year, bought a house on the coast and got busy raising chickens and reconfiguring Dog Day as a scrappy guitar/drums duo.

A teaser EP entitled Scratches finally surfaced early this year, hinting at a tougher, murkier, mildly more misanthropic direction for the band's sound. And, well, the hints proved accurate: Dog Day's third long-player, Deformer — just released on the group's new Fundog label — is an appealingly primal slab of bad-tempered punk-rock raunch and just the exorcism of demons one might expect from a band beset by turbulent times.

The Star spoke to Smith this week in advance of Dog Day's show at Lee's Palace on Friday night about fighting through the rough patch.

So what exactly caused everything to blow apart for you guys?

Well, as you know, we started as a four-piece band comprised of two couples and the other couple broke up. They got a divorce. We didn't like the idea of replacing one of them or getting some more people. We tried getting a replacement drummer and it kind of changed the vibe and it didn't really work for us, so we felt it was better to subtract than to add members to kind of keep the feel of the band. I'd already written a couple of records' worth of material that had that Dog Day feel, anyway, and I didn't want them to just go to waste.

Had Nancy played the drums before?

No, Nancy or I hadn't played drums at all. But having this house was a great thing for us because we were able to set up a drum kit and leave all of our gear there so Nancy could practise every day. We had a replacement drummer and a tour coming up, but he was leaving with one of his bands — Long, Long, Long — to go on tour so we were kind of stuck with nobody. I think Nancy learned drums in, like, a month. Then we went on tour and kinda banged out the kinks. We were able to sit with it for a year and record, so now I feel like we're doing a little bit better.

Deformer has a really raw, spontaneous vibe. Was that intentional?

It's a departure from Concentration, which is kinda what we were going for because we like to change it up with every album. With Concentration, Casey and I were really thinking about the songs — almost over-thinking — and trying to make the perfect record. But this one, I just wanted to have it a little more live and a little more raw, just to reflect the music that I was listening to at the time. It makes it fun to play.

There seems to be a lot of “meta-”commentary about being in a band in the lyrics this time out.

I've always tried not to be too personal about things because I don't want people knowing exactly what I'm talking about. But with this one, I didn't really care as much . . . Even Concentration was kind of dealing with Casey and Crystal coming apart and us falling apart as a band. You just write about what you know, I guess.

You seem to be pretty content as a self-contained unit now, though.

We were kind of scaling back altogether with all the elements of putting out a record — the promotion, the artwork, this label. We just wanted to do everything ourselves. By the end of Concentration we were working with so many people that we'd kind of lost why we got into doing music in the first place. I just wanted to have that control back again and just do exactly what we wanted. It's a lot more work but it makes it a lot more fun. We're not doing this for the money, that's for sure - Toronto Star

NNNN
Halifax indie band Dog Day are at least a bit reminiscent of some of the better-known Haligonian indie pop outfits. Not that they're derivative, but they combine folky nostalgia with a fuzzy lo-fi homemade intimacy in a way that can't help but evoke Eric's Trip or Sloan, even though you'd never confuse them. Though only a six-song EP, this is still a satisfying and comfortable listen and a sign of good things to come. -Benjamin Boles - NOW TORONTO

"This is a more modern Halifax sound, though, punctuated by effortless gems like 'End of the World' which echoes like Eric's Trip covering Interpol." (Spin)

"...The album seems to get better with each song, with 'Oh Dead Life' sparkling as if it was to be included on a tribute album to The Cure." (Billboard)

"...The album is just as poundingly infectious, punctuated with lyrics that wander lazily before resolving chirpiness and desolation into a single, synth-buoyed hum." (A.V. Club)

"Dog Day's sonic mix is unlike anything else emerging from the country's thriving East Coast music scene.." (Alternative Press)
- SPIN MAGAZINE / ALTERNATIVE PRESS / BILLBOARD / A.V. CLUB

October 14, 2005
A couple of couples make up Dog Day. It's the musical marriage of 50 percent of the Burdocks (Seth Smith and Nancy Urich) and half of the Hold (Casey Spidle and Crystal Thili) that compose the full-on pricelessness of this side project with main stage presence. At the centre is Smith's voice, both a lyrical and sonic gift to Halifax's indie rockdom, weaving through standouts from their Thank You EP like "Use Your Powers'" "Sleeping On Couches" and "Zombie." Seeing a young band that is simultaneously reminiscent of a Halifax past yet fresh and primed for a full future at the historic Khyber club is a textbook Pop Explosion moment. -Iain K. MacLeod - Exclaim Magazine

Pop-rock hasn't been this hot in years. Almost unbearably captivating, Thank You's 20 minutes contain a handful of addictively simple, straightforward gems. Completely lo-fi and unfortunately short, this debut by the half-Burdocks, half-Hold hybrid is, hands down, the best local album of the year. -Jon Bruhm - The Coast

01 -- Dog Day* -- Thank You -- Out Of Touch -- L*

02 -- B.A. Johnston* -- My Heart Is A Blinking Nintendo -- Just Friends -- L*

03 -- The Burdocks* -- What We Do Is Secret -- Black Mountain -- L*

04 -- Alpha Flight* -- Battle Royale -- Independent -- L*

05 -- Special Noise -- Special Noise -- Out of Touch/Youth Club -- L*

06 -- Wintersleep* -- Wintersleep -- Dependent Music -- L*

07 -- Windom Earle All Stars* -- A Series Of Minor Personal Tragedies -- Independent -- L*

08 -- Holy Shroud* --Ghost Repeaters-- Level Plane -- L*

09 -- The Stolen Minks* -- The Stolen Minks -- Independent -- L*

10 -- Broken Social Scene* -- Broken Social Scene + EP -- Arts & Crafts

11 -- Beck -- Guero -- Geffen

12 -- Sharp Like Knives* -- No Pressure -- Youth Club -- L*

13 -- Sweet Tenders* -- Skeleton Key -- Just Friends -- L*

14 -- The Maynards* -- Break Out The Make Out -- King Amos Productions -- L*

15 -- Controller.Controller* -- X-Amounts -- Paper Bag

16 -- Caribou* -- The Milk Of Human Kindness -- Domino

17 -- Skratch Bastid/John Smith/Pip Skid* -- Taking Care Of Business -- First Things First -- L*

18 -- Jesse Dangerously* -- Inter Alia -- Backburner -- L*

19 -- You Say Party! We Say Die!* -- Hit The Floor! -- Sound Document

20 -- Buck 65* -- Secret House Against The World -- Warner -- L*

21 -- Death By Nostalgia* -- Death By Nostalgia -- Independent -- L*

22 -- Mardeen* -- Friends Don't Love -- Independent -- L*

23 -- Immaculate Machine* -- Ones And Zeroes -- Mint

24 -- Spoon -- Gimme Fiction -- Merge

25 -- Museum Pieces* -- Philadelphia -- Independent -- L*
- CKDU

Dog Day emerged onto the Lee's Palace stage and nobody even seemed to notice until the starting notes. This isn't a bad thing; the quartet — Seth Smith, KC Spidle, Crystal Thili and Nancy Urich — seem to believe in the ethic of self-consciousness. Throughout their entire set they barely moved from their positions and rarely cracked a smile. They were focused. This didn't trip them up, in fact it only made them stronger.

Vamping up their latest album, Concentration, could have been difficult in concert. The album is more produced and upbeat than their previous, Night Group, but that's no reason to give it a bad name. Dog Day's performance had that raw actual meaning of what concentration is. Each one appeared in some sort of trance. Smith, whose vocals are victorious because it's rare to sing in a conversational-type voice without going sour, locked his eyes to the front row. Only on a couple occasions did he pull away to face Ulrich, whose voice is a chirp and cheep away from the quiet birdsong you hear outside your window in the morning. Thili may be the most curious of them all: when not taking pictures of the crowd and her band mates, she enveloped herself in her keyboard. Spindle was hidden in the classic Lee's dark drum pit, but he more than managed to make his band's beats heard.

Dog Day awarded their doting audience of head nodders many of the Concentration favourites such as "Happiness," "Neighbor," "Wait It Out," "Saturday Night," "You Won't See Me On Sunday" and adding a random tune, "Fountains," by '80s/'90s group the Nils.
- EXCLAIM

Dog Day Desires
By Chris Whibbs

Music and complacency do not go well together, yet evolution is a tricky proposition. Artists are invigorated by their newfound leap while the fans scratch their heads and wonder what the hell happened. There is no formula for making it work, it just does (or doesn't). Case in point: the third album from Halifax's Dog Day, Concentration, may feel uncomfortable at first but it is a courageously capital "A" album in an era of singles. Spreading the pop/post-punk tension and angst across a broadened instrumental palette, it is both familiar and completely alien.

Dog Day are four people sectioned off into two couples. Seth Smith and Nancy Urich started Dog Day from the ashes of the Burdocks, while KC Spidle and Crystal Thili came from the defunct hardcore act the Hold. "At the end of the Burdocks we were getting into math rock and pretty experimental stuff and while it was definitely fun, I also had these simple songs that I liked playing," Smith remembers. "Dog Day was, for me, a way to play these simple songs and not really worry about looking at my hands when I'm playing. It started up pretty simple and that was the idea: just to have a band that was pretty simple."

Dog Day's music may sound simple but the layers and tight construction showcase some really catchy shit. This was expertly demonstrated on their last album, Night Group. The name was taken from the nocturnal hours of recording at a large studio, when it was much cheaper. For Smith, "The problem with big studios is that even if you have a friend working there, it costs a lot of money and it accumulates quickly. It actually took us forever to finish [Night Group] because we were doing it in really small chunks and we had a lot of friends who had offices in that building so it was basically a bunch of parties during our recording sessions. It was hard to get a lot of work done and it was costly. It was a big studio recording but I think it sounds lo-fi and pretty naked because we were running out of money at that point."

The tightly coiled post-punk sung by the laconic Smith and Urich struck a nerve, but there were still creative avenues for Dog Day not fulfilled by the successful Night Group. Thus, the first surprise of Concentration is the fact it still has the same nervous pop energy of Night Group, but the tension's been ratcheted down, allowing their "simple" style to flourish.

As Smith explains, "Night Group is definitely a fast record, but we wanted to relax a little bit more on this record and have some songs that have energy live but still rock out. It's a pretty watery sounding record and that smoothes it all out." Mentioning the controversial idea of it being a "grower," Smith is not taken aback. "I find that pop music is having a hard time right now; most of my friends have a million MP3s on their hard drive and people have so much music they don't actually listen to a new record as much or thoroughly get to know it. It's forcing a lot of music these days to be instantly likeable and hooky but turns out to be shallow."

Just like the shifts in style, Smith admittedly varies the recording process for each album, noting, "I usually do most of the production recording work on these records because I have a bunch of gear and I like doing it but, for me, from the starting of the Burdocks to the end of this last record, I seem to have a pattern from recording in a studio and then I get sick of that so the next record I just want to do it all DIY and then I get sick of all the work that that entails and then for the next record we'll go the studio and they'll do everything." While you would think the nocturnal stress of Night Group would lead to an expansive DIY approach, the time was actually quite compact. Yet, Concentration was not a rushed album. Smith notes, "It came together pretty fast but we still had that freedom where we could play with weird instruments and percussion and play with samples and sounds because we weren't paying for anything."

As titles go, this one is quite apt, as puzzles requiring concentration don't give up their answers easily and when they do, the prize is oh so much sweeter. Smith states, "I'm not going to explain [the title] as it's a powerful word and I think people can make up their own meaning. I think it sums up the feeling of the record and us as a band sometimes. It sounds flaky but we really were in a concentrating mindset and when we were writing these songs, this was the album where I felt most like a songwriter. KC wrote half this record and I wrote the other half but we worked together and really thought about this stuff."

While Dog Day goes for leaps and twists, their experiments really just bring out the fundamentals of what make their music so warm, approachable and downright catchy. Change is in the future, but pun intended, it will no doubt concentrate their strength even more. "We're definitely going to try something new," Smith says about their next step, "Reading how your last record was received and playing the songs on tour will dictate what kind of direction you feel like going with your next record. Last time we played these songs and it was fun to play fast songs and grindy power chords but we just wanted to explore some new avenues. After this we'll probably want to do something different."
- EXCLAIM

From the opening blast of “Lydia” through the rest of their debut disc, Night Group, Halifax’s Dog Day clear-cut their way through their peers’ cutesy, group-hug indie-rock, pairing the melancholic drones of mid-period Sonic Youth with boy-girl vocals from husband-and-wife singers Seth Smith and Nancy Urich. Their sound caught the ear of European label Tomlab, who helped introduce both that record and the band to an international audience that have kept them in demand, and on the road, for the past few years. Seizing the reins for their follow-up, Concentration finds the band producing the album themselves in order to fully explore their unique blend of prog-pop and hardcore sensibilities. EYE WEEKLY spoke with Smith over Skype as the band prepare for another cross-Canada jaunt.

Growing up in Nova Scotia, how much of that mid-’90s east coast scene had an influence on you?
I think it definitely had an effect on us. Most of us were really big Eric’s Trip fans back in the day, and I remember ordering records through Murderrecords in high school. The thing I liked about Eric’s Trip that was so refreshing was that they were kind of lo-fi and sounded real. Before that, with the late ’80s and even a lot of that grunge stuff, it was so produced, with super-tight compression. Eric’s Trip were a bunch of people with a four-track recording in a basement. How much more real can you get?

What was it like touring as two couples in a band?
Well it’s actually just one couple. [Drummer Casey Spidle and keyboardist Crystal Thili] were married but they’re divorced now. Even that has a dynamic when touring. We get asked this a lot, but it really isn’t that much different than just touring with a bunch of good friends. I guess we know each other a lot better than best friends do. And Nancy and I get to share a bed, so that works well when we’re staying at peoples’ houses.

Musically, the two couples were coming from two different backgrounds when you formed — you and Nancy were in pop outfit The Burdocks and Casey and Crystal played hardcore in The Hold — so how did that play out in finding a sound?
The four of us have had a lot of projects, but when we first formed it was really a combination of those two. It definitely came from a punk background. That’s what we were good at. But pop was a good outlet. Towards the end, The Burdocks were doing a lot of math[-rock] progression and proggy elements. And I was really into that scene, but at the same time, I wanted to get back to doing some songs [where] I didn’t really have to care about how I was playing so much and kind of rock out.

Night Group had an uplifting aspect, as well as an understated cynicism. The new record seems a bit more positive, though at times there’s still a double edge to it.
A lot of the happier moments on this record came from when we were touring across Europe, Canada and the States and Casey was going through this Brian Wilson phase — we listened to so much Beach Boys. We also listened to a lot of Christian Death — one of the first goth bands — so in a weird way, I can hear both of those influences on the record. You don’t have to be depressed to make depressing music. Also, you don’t want to destroy your listeners either. - EYE WEEKLY TORONTO

An early show in Halifax is tough to pull off. As a city, we've grown accustomed to pre-drinking until midnight before hitting the town. But Dog Day's CD release show for Concentration at Reflections Cabaret had to go off before the venue turned into a dance club, so that was enough reason to tear us from our growlers of Propeller.

Halfway through the set of quintessential Halifax band The Got To Get Got — comprised of Mark Mullane (North Of America), Eleanor King (The Just Barelys), Brad Lahead (Tomcat Combat), Adam Hartling (Kestrals), Haley Thomas (The Orchid) and others — I made a mental note to side with Joel Plaskett. There are so many reasons to love this town: Dog Day being first and The Got To Get Got a close second.

The Got To Get Got, on the brink of releasing their Sahalee full-length debut, saw a group of dedicated listeners at their feet. Once the stereo cut in and Bikini Kill's "New Radio" blared through the speakers, we were transported to the early '90s and remained there once Dog Day took the stage.

Call it post-grunge, classic alternative or whatever. With apocalyptic themes, a somewhat lackadaisical stage presence, and well-worn jeans and T-shirts, Dog Day don't appear to care about being chic. It's not about indie hipdom, it's about music. In a time when anyone can decide to perform and call themselves musicians, Dog Day are unique.

The band ploughed through a slew of new material, including "Neighbour," "Saturday Night" and "Rome."

Dog Day's boy-to-girl ratio is two-to-two. Casey Spidle held down the rhythm section while keyboardist Crystal Thili added otherworldly qualities through the tips of her fingers. The binary of guitarist Seth Smith and bassist Nancy Urich's vocals mingled with the effects of a well-crafted duet without the cheesy he says/she says interplay. Urich's small frame says little about her powerful voice, as Concentration sees her on the mic for nearly every track. The two are married and are far more Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon than Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.

Urich introduced the single "Happiness" for their dog Woofy, who "wrote the song" and "was supposed to be here." It's the most danceable, hypnotic track on the record.

"All of my songs are about the end of the world," offered Smith, which seemed about right aside from the seemingly romantic "You Won't See Me On Sunday," which notes his faithfulness and love.

The essence of Smith and Urich's romance seems obvious on stage, as they smash their guitars together in matrimony, only to politely thank the audience for coming out.

After a quick shot of Jagermeister to fuel the encore, the band left the stage and Reflections turned on the dance tunes so the scantily dressed lineup of people waiting on the street could come inside, having no idea what they just missed. - CHART

Behold anew, motherfuckers, the future of indie rock: INDIE ROCK. Imagine a 21st century music constructed of blithe synth lines, scraggly riffs, boy-girl vocals, a rhythm section used to maintain rhythm and momentum, lyrical disaffection—imagined, right? You know the type? And then imagine that you loved it, loved each of those instruments and sighing choruses. That this band, this Dog Day, scrapes these tired elements into indie-rock juggernauts of melancholy whose crystalline sincerity turns the heads of CMG’s rap nerds and techno nerds and indie rock nerds alike, is, like, amazing. None of us are confused about the ultimate artistic worth of Concentration: we know it to be very good—just very good. But it’s universally very good; we all know it to be very good. I know a guy who only listens to R. Kelly and even he was like, “Yeah, that Dog Day record is very fucking good.” Not even with a sigh or disclaimer. Very good.

That these guys have done this again, two albums in a row (!!!!), is sort of unconscionable, sort of, like, amazing. Night Group (2007), which the internet claims didn’t make this site’s year-end list but that I remember performing quite differently, skulked with this same immediate popularity into the CMG office like an ugly transfer student everyone still wanted to fuck. Dark eyes, you know? I wrote pretty much this same review back then—to paraphrase: “It’s so good and it’s indie rock! But it’s so good lol i’m so funny! Lupe fiasco.” Two years later, the sounds are no more or less dated and the effect remains the same. Seventy-five percent never sounded so right. It’s hard to score higher or lower for a record that is altogether identical to its predecessor, even if blissfully so, especially when that predecessor was entirely what it wanted to be already. (INDIE ROCK.) Immediate self-actualization yields little room for growth, and while it’s tempting to tsk the band, I bet in 2011 I’ll be ready for another Dog Day record that sounds exactly like these first two.

There are no highlights here, and what stuns on close listen (like pretty much every guitar tone after the 2:30 mark on “You Won’t See Me On Sunday,” or the casual thrust to the way they deliver the title line of “Wait It Out”) is lit low, trying desperately not to be spotted or to stun. Like the ugly exchange student, sans glasses: alluvasudden the most popular kid in school, uncomfortably so (that language barrier). So the band layers its goods in homely flannels, drab production, lets its hooks sidle along sneers. But you saw a whisper of a flash of beauty there at the end of “Neighbour,” didn’t you. You know deep down that the exchange student is a stone fox.

My argument here calls to mind, well, a) the plot of She’s All That, and b) much of the anal fisting brought about by that other also-just-indie-rock record of 2009, Cymbals Eat Guitars’ Why There Are Mountains. But it recalls more, to me, Headlights’ demurely, permanently engaging Some Racing, Some Stopping (2008). Here are musicians that treat songcraft as just that: work, and treat indie rock not as an affectation or path of least resistance but as an honest-to-fuck medium of expression. They trick the songs out with nothing; these are the songs, unembellished. This may be disaffected stuff but it sounds sweated out, hammered second by second into place with “brains” as much as your all-important “heart.” Why There Are Mountains is harsher and fleeter of foot, for sure, but it uses these qualities only that it might be the mightiest of pickpockets. That is definitely Stephen Malkmus’ wallet, in other words; that is definitely Isaac Brock’s credit card. Whereas Dog Day just live rich, their theft implied by the fact that you’ve never seen them working. You know they got these goods somewhere but can never pinpoint from where they’ve pilfered. They’re the fucking Ocean’s 13 of indie rock tropes, all smooth surface over wrought planning. They’re not picking pockets, they’re scamming the entire industry, and they just bankrupted every other indie rock band trying to sound very good this year. Gotta keep your eye on the exchange student. - COKE MACHINE GLOW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvpqxqEEhUs

Hit the red HQ button for better quality. - MUCH MUSIC, YOUTUBE