The Doctors Fox

Whatever these bands are playing Wednesday, Thursday, it’ll be nice
By Marc Levy
September 29, 2012

In what is basically the opposite of the Monsters of Rock, the nicest bands in the area play this coming week: The Doctors Fox on Wednesday at Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge and The Grownup Noise on Thursday at Somerville’s Radio.

Aside from niceness, the bands share another trait: It’s difficult to identify their brand of music with any precision. The Doctors Fox can identify strains of rock, jazz, bluegrass, reggae, hip-hop, soul, prog, pop, klezmer and latin/brazilian music in their tunes and have recently named Tropicália, which came out of Brazil in the late 1960s as “its own derivative non-genre” as the closest term they could embrace as a signifier. As lead singer and bassist David Ladon told Vents magazine, “We have our own sound, but I’d be damned if I could describe it any better than this.”

The Grownup Noise, meanwhile, refers to its “eccentric pop” as having an “avant-baroque” sound that starts with a traditional rock setup and adds accordion and cello to perform songs influenced by the Beatles, Velvet Underground, Stars and Ra Ra Riot on stages shared comfortably with everyone from Amanda Palmer to Rock Plaza Central.

The Doctors Fox began work on their first video in September behind their second album, “Handful of Laughs,” while The Grownup Noise are recently back from touring behind their second album, “This Time With Feeling.”

How nice are these bands? The Doctors Fox have sold plenty of CDs at Saturday morning farmers markets after catching the attention of kids dragged along by shopping parents. The Grownup Noise are so nice that woodland animals come around to help them do laundry — okay, not a real example, but spend any amount of time with them or hearing their music and you’ll get the sense. These bands are not made up of dark souls howling at the ceiling for existential release, just pleasant people who are exceptionally good at writing and playing music.

The Doctors Fox play at 10 p.m. Wednesday at The Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Ave., between Porter and Harvard squares, after Steve Subrizi and before Tilt-A-Whirl. Tickets are $5.

The Grownup Noise play 8 p.m. Thursday at Somerville’s Radio, 379-381 Somerville Ave., across from Market Basket heading into Union Square. Tickets are $5. - Cambridge Day

They call themselves “eclectic,” but nearly every band bio today dons the same word. The Doctors Fox aren’t just copping-out with a claim like that, though. The local four-piece are guitar-driven rock, but with violin (Ryan Aylward) and glockenspiel (Daniel Harris, along with vox and guitar) as backing forces to their sound, “eclecticism” isn’t a stretch in the slightest (for those of you who don’t know, a glockenspiel is a German sort of xylophone, but a bit smaller and with metal bars instead of wooden ones).

They also call themselves a “burrito,” a band with the ability to use these seemingly misplaced musical elements in their own spotlight, each ingredient creating a flavorful medley of sound without blending too far into the background. With a style that nudges boundaries, The Doctors Fox can be intriguingly mellow, or throw in a countryfied two-step, or stomp out a hard blues jam. Their rhythms are right, their groove is addictive, and the guys use their musicianship to full advantage in taking all the right risks.

The Doctors Fox released their first full length “Plural Non-Possessive” back in 2009 and have since become a regular in the circle of Boston bands. They’ll be by Great Scott tonight to release their second full-length “Handful of Laughs,” and the city is curious to hear the newest creations the band have cooked up for us this time. Go see for yourself.

-Carolyn Vallejo - Allston Pudding

Let’s just go ahead and call this upcoming weekend “the weekend that The Doctors Fox played all over the state.” The myopic trio is bringing their selection of different eyeglass frames far and wide, putting some mileage on the old band van and basically straddling the entire commonwealth. Doesn’t that sound awesome? They’ll be starting playing the starry, starry night of April 13 at Vincent’s in Worcester. They’ll leave the gear in the van (I hope) because they are playing the greatest day of the weekend at Great Scott. Is Sunday going to be their day of rest? In a word, no. They are spending their Tax Day in beautiful industrious downtown Lowell at the 119 Gallery. What are they doing Monday? My guess is “sleeping.” But you can keep rocking out.

“Gauge” straddles the polka-dotted line between solid, right-angled rock and heady, mist-veiled exotica. While there is a lot of mystique flying around in the air, the group does an admirable job of making this sound like one cohesive piece and not two mutually exclusive vibes that just happen to be going on at the same time.

The wild bit comes from the sinuous interjections of the lead fiddle. It’s sort of Like they captured a band of gypsies and not just for the healing quality of their tears. The fiddle is the standout element of this track, and what’s more, it proves its mettle by not only providing the yrack’s personality but keeping up with the electric guitar with its own sizzling lead.

“Gauge” ends with an extended coda, where every element – the horns, the bassline, and the chord progression all aim their noses down at the same landing spot. This spot is a big finish with the fiddle popping out of a cutout in the wall like an old 70's comedy show, all for the personality of a big finish. - Boston Band Crush

All genre labels are served as shit sandwiches in 2012, but when the ADHD-addled Doctors Fox describe their sound as "postmodern, multiple-crossover, semi-classical, bebop lemon marmalade," well, you know the violin-sporting quartet is on some next-level ambition. A mash-up of styles that marries distant relatives like disco and klezmer, the devil is truly in their frantic details. - The Boston Phoenix

by Jonathan Donaldson

Picture this: you walk into a room and some interesting music is playing. More than likely, one of the first things you'll ask those around you is, "What is this?" As if the answer to that question is somehow going to help you make sense of your enjoyment. Categorization is one of the brain's natural tendencies: hear something you like, and you want to know its name.

Genre-bending rockers the Doctors Fox know a little bit about that. Show attendees are always asking them what their band sounds like before their shows. "We tell people, 'Listen to us and tell us what you think,' " says Doc singer/songwriter David Ladon with a smirk. "We get comparisons to Steely Dan, Weather Report, 'Mr. Bungle if they cared about getting on the radio,' the Charlie Daniels Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers. . . . The one we probably get the most is They Might Be Giants." It must be the glasses.

Unsurprisingly for a band with a name that sounds like the title of a children's book, the men in the Doctors Fox also meet plenty of listeners who don't care at all about describing the quartet's sound — namely the little kids who stop and listen to them on Saturday mornings. "We sell a ton of CDs at farmers' markets," gushes guitarist Daniel Harris, with staunch appreciation for his diminutive fans (in their extra-musical lives, he and Ladon are both teachers). "Kids love it and parents can afford it!"

And who can blame them? The Doctors Fox's goofy, engaging blend of rock, jazz, bluegrass, pop, reggae, bluegrass, ska, and klezmer could be pretty attractive to the eight-year-old in all of us. The cartoon record covers don't hurt either. "I'm animated in all parts of my life," says Ladon. "I'm ADHD all the way."

Now only on their second record (Handful of Laughs, which will be debuted this Saturday at Great Scott in Allston), the Doctors Fox's history actually goes back to 2001, when classically-trained Ladon and Harris (both then 17) met during summer camp in upstate New York. Fast-forward to 2007 when bassist Ladon and original guitarist Jon Dashkoff (who recently left the group for a MD/PhD program) moved to Boston from Rochester to meet up with violinist Ryan Aylward. From here the core of the Doctors Fox was established, and debut album Plural Non-Possessive followed in 2009. The next year brought the addition of old friend and guitarist Harris, and the construction of Handful of Laughs was underway.

Tracks like the disco-fueled "Diva" and the country rambler "Annabelle" support the notion that the Doctors Fox really are all over the place. "Living Simple" could be a klezmer song, but you could also hear it as a Latin song or a surf song. By the time you pin down one influence, the Doctors Fox have probably slipped out from under your thumb and are on to something else. But in the current musical climate, where style is typically just a euphemism for streamlining a sound for identification purposes, a little diversity is refreshingly bold.

"Some of the feedback that we've gotten in the past is that we would be better off if we stuck to a genre," says Ladon. Harris agrees, but goes on to say that most genre-crossing bands (jam bands in particular) that try to focus their style end up with something superficial. "You hear that a lot in the jam band scene, you hear these bands that want to sound like Phish," he says. "If Phish was a beer, they are only taking the head. They make this entire genre that is only out of the head of the beer. They're missing all of the flavor. They're missing all of the substance."

- The Boston Phoenix

The Doctors Fox
Handful of Laughs

Reviewed by: Dorise Gruber

Kaleidoscopic Boston-based band The Doctors Fox will be releasing their sophomore album Handful of Laughs next weekend, and I had the good fortune of finagling a sneak-preview. Led by singer, bassist, and occasional mandolin player David Ladon, he receives support on this album not only from his very talented bandmates (including Josh Kiggans on percussion, Jonathan Dashkoff on guitar, electric violinist extraordinaire Ryan Aylward, and guitarist/occasional glock-ist Daniel Harris, previously featured on TWRY), but also spotlights other local artists Abbie Barrett, Scott Flynn (John Brown’s Body), Bryan Murphy (The Shills), and Chris Belden (Goosepimp Orchestra). Handful of Laughs is seriously playful and playfully serious, bringing together the neighborhood talent to accompany them on their journey of silly storytelling over skillful musicianship.

I’ve always associated The Doctors Fox as being funk-driven Klezmer and a bit They Might Be Giants-esque in their quipsterdom, but Handful of Laughs brings a new level of sophistication to the goofiness. While the funky Klezmer fun is still present in songs like their new single, “Gauge,” “Living Simple,” “Zonkers,” and “I’ll Never See Your Face Again,” I was surprised to hear more straightforward pop with “Kiguru,” Israeli singer-songwriter-meets-rockabilly in “Dictionary,” classic country in “Anabelle,” and a hilarious disco tribute to the silicone menstrual Diva Cup in “Diva.” I started cracking up listening to the lyrical ode: “Every time you care I smile knowing that you’re there/Every waking hour I feel your power in my underwear.”

“Diva” is not the only song where The Doctors Fox assign human emotions to an inanimate object in Tom Robbins fashion – indeed, one of the prettiest songs on the album is a ballad called “Yellow Button,” about a button found and rescued, only to once again disappear into the ether. The circus-country track “Carly” is the album’s other ballad, and these tracks are among my favorites on the record. I think the peak of the release, though, comes with the second-to-last track, “The Garden Song.” This track mixes tender harmonies with an orchestra of local talent, and while it begins sweetly, it expands to include rock, funk, and blues flavors, weaving between sweet and churning before it theatrically culminates in a Polyphonic Spree-like instrumentation, and finally fades as delicately as it began. “The Garden Song” is a good summation of the The Doctors Fox’s depth, and while it may be one of the most serious tracks on the album, it never loses its geniality.

A Handful of Laughs delivers precisely what it promises, and if you want to join in on the euphoria, I suggest you check out their cd release at Great Scott next Saturday, April 14th. My only word of caution: be prepared to be a bit sore the next day from all the grinning and hip-swiveling to come! - Theywillrockyou.com

Reviewed by: Dorise Gruber

Kaleidoscopic Boston-based band The Doctors Fox will be releasing their sophomore album Handful of Laughs next weekend, and I had the good fortune of finagling a sneak-preview. Led by singer, bassist, and occasional mandolin player David Ladon, he receives support on this album not only from his very talented bandmates (including Josh Kiggans on percussion, Jonathan Dashkoff on guitar, electric violinist extraordinaire Ryan Aylward, and guitarist/occasional glock-ist Daniel Harris, previously featured on TWRY), but also spotlights other local artists Abbie Barrett, Scott Flynn (John Brown’s Body), Bryan Murphy (The Shills), and Chris Belden (Goosepimp Orchestra). Handful of Laughs is seriously playful and playfully serious, bringing together the neighborhood talent to accompany them on their journey of silly storytelling over skillful musicianship.

I’ve always associated The Doctors Fox as being funk-driven Klezmer and a bit They Might Be Giants-esque in their quipsterdom, but Handful of Laughs brings a new level of sophistication to the goofiness. While the funky Klezmer fun is still present in songs like their new single, “Gauge,” “Living Simple,” “Zonkers,” and “I’ll Never See Your Face Again,” I was surprised to hear more straightforward pop with “Kiguru,” Israeli singer-songwriter-meets-rockabilly in “Dictionary,” classic country in “Anabelle,” and a hilarious disco tribute to the silicone menstrual Diva Cup in “Diva.” I started cracking up listening to the lyrical ode: “Every time you care I smile knowing that you’re there/Every waking hour I feel your power in my underwear.”

“Diva” is not the only song where The Doctors Fox assign human emotions to an inanimate object in Tom Robbins fashion – indeed, one of the prettiest songs on the album is a ballad called “Yellow Button,” about a button found and rescued, only to once again disappear into the ether. The circus-country track “Carly” is the album’s other ballad, and these tracks are among my favorites on the record. I think the peak of the release, though, comes with the second-to-last track, “The Garden Song.” This track mixes tender harmonies with an orchestra of local talent, and while it begins sweetly, it expands to include rock, funk, and blues flavors, weaving between sweet and churning before it theatrically culminates in a Polyphonic Spree-like instrumentation, and finally fades as delicately as it began. “The Garden Song” is a good summation of the The Doctors Fox’s depth, and while it may be one of the most serious tracks on the album, it never loses its geniality.

A Handful of Laughs delivers precisely what it promises, and if you want to join in on the euphoria, I suggest you check out their cd release at Great Scott next Saturday, April 14th. My only word of caution: be prepared to be a bit sore the next day from all the grinning and hip-swiveling to come! - Theywillrockyou.com

Handful of Laughs, by Boston’s own The Doctors Fox, is one of those albums which will warp your mind and assuredly change your definition of what makes genre-bending music work. These are epic arrangements of raw, furious experimental depth which rival anything you’ve likely heard in years. “Gauge” in particular showcases their genre-twisting style in all its glory, defying any attempt to classify them lazily. The closest I can come to pigeonholing their sound is at the song’s midpoint, when the song shifts from 4/4 basic pop to a frantic 6/8 fiddle-fueled stomp of glorious proportions … Boyd Tinsley himself would be gobsmacked by the single’s raw awesomeness. The rest of the album lives up to that almost unreachable level of jam band creative bliss track after blistering track, making The Doctors Fox one of my favorite new music finds this year. If you’re lucky enough to live on the east coast, check them out live while they’re still unknowns. - Hear! Hear!

Listening to this album is a lot like turning the dial on a radio from the low-end stations and slowly working my way up to the top. Wait, scratch that. Listening to this is a lot like listening to a bunch of radios tuned to different stations all playing at the same time. No wait, maybe it's a bit of both. I don't know. Decent metaphors are tough when it comes to a band like this: one that not only combines such a chaotic array of diverse musical styles, but one that does it so goddamn well. They're all over the place. One moment, the music has a reggae feel, but with gypsy-style fiddle thrown in the mix. Then, before I can get my bearings, I'm hearing a samba tune decked out with disco flair. Next thing I know, they're knee-deep in doo-wop, country-western, and more. You name it, this band plays it. Seamlessly, too. The fiddle's fluid leads, the singer's husky vocals, and the band's jaunting pop-rock warmth provide just enough familiarity to keep the album grounded amidst all the genre changeovers. (Will Barry) - The Noise

The Doctors Fox are an amalgam of eclectic taste, huge talent, and space-alien spermatozoa. Half unknown extraterrestrial and half They Might Be Giants/Frank Zappa fanboys, they reverse-engineer rhythm and melody to produce an original, intergalactic sound. Through their deconstruction of diverse musical structures they create hybrid standards for what has to be considered a post-genre age.

Their first album, Plural Non-Possessive, is available FREE to download from their bandcamp page. - The Unsigned, ep. 9

Give a typical indie band a fiddle and a few old records and you've got The Doctors Fox. In all seriousness, this Allston outfit sounds like Stephen Merritt if he chose to play about with some crazy stringed instruments instead of electronics. And the result is dramatically quirky, particularly the '70s disco-inspired tune, "Silly," a song that isn't quite as ridiculous as its title may suggest. Were Fleet Foxes to make less draggy music and had a tight sense of humor, they probably would have produced something as sonically packed as "Silly." The Doctors Fox, however, don't simply cram in different sounds and instruments for comic affect; each fiddle progression, drum beat and, yes, weird Doors-like swoony sound is well-placed and thoughtful. If their live performance is as entertaining and curious as tracks like "Whole Foods" – with its clashing cymbals and driving riffs, plus ubiquitous fiddling and a touch of theatricality – The Doctors Fox should put on a decent show. Check them at their myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/thedoctorsfox - Alston Rock Weekly

“Ode to Sun” is a great track featuring a gorgeous blend of middle-eastern folk-influenced melody with clapping rhythms and a captivating bass line. The song switches between old country folk, jazz, and rock without sounding at all disconnected. “Sasha” combines elements of rock fusion and blues within a bouncy upper of a ditty including a trippy electric guitar solo backed by bumping bass and drums. - by Nadia Lelutiu - Target Audience Magazine

The Doctos Fox is an eclectic mix of...well, everything. Incorporating the history of music into their wide variety of music styles there is nothing not to like about this new record. Stand-out track Sacha has this disco vibe crossed with some early 50's soul and is sure to have crowds at their live shows packing the dance floor. The Doctors Fox put shows on that create an atmosphere that is fan and band friendly. Each set and show is different from the one before. They work extremely hard to make sure that each and every fan's money is well spent.
-Mark Kaye, Hear Now Live! - Hear Now Live!

3/25/2010
By Rick Koster

I don't know how many CDs flow through my cubicle on a monthly basis, but the sheer law of averages dictates that A) most of them aren't that good and B) almost none manage to distill gypsy, Western swing, Fountains of Wayne, ska and It's a Beautiful Day - and emerge with something utterly infectious and unique.

Boston's The Doctors Fox, though - including Montville High grad Josh Kiggans on drums - pull all this off in breathlessly great fashion. On their latest CD, "Plural Non-Possessive," the band constantly delights and amazes with witty, harmony-caked pop songs. No tune sounds remotely like any of the others, and yet each sparkles at once with unmistakable Doctors Fox-ness. You know how rare that is?

Advance word is that they're spectacular live, so it's imperative you catch them Friday at the Bank Street Café.
- New London Day

The Doctors Fox - Sacha

From the very beginning, it is apparent that The Doctors Fox and "Sacha" are something that is of a certain peculiar flavor. It's not totally unfamiliar, yet it remains exotic. Unfamiliar sounding instruments keep doing familiar sounding things all throughout the 5:29 run of this track, but it's deceptively easy to get a grip on what's happening in this track. For whatever reason.
"Sacha" has a skewed appeal in that there's no musical perch upon which the listener can easily latch onto and sit a spell - the floor of this song is a moving target.

This track is well-suited for short attention span listening. The plus side is that it is thoroughly enjoyable to hear. The minus side is that it's difficult to retain the sounds after they have ceased playing. "Sacha" sounds perfectly at home with itself, for all the weird off-speed curves that come flying at the listener, everything matches up well as a continuing piece of music for all its swoops and swerves.

Sometimes "Sacha" comes straight at you, but more often than not, it's whipping from side to
side, caroming through weird genre changes and odd sounds. If that's the kind of ride one seeks, then one will certainly dig the pleasant weirdness of this track. - Boston Band Crush

Can Toad swallow The Doctors Fox? Band may be big draw at small club

Toad had better brace itself.

The Doctors Fox plays Wednesday at the tiny Porter Square bar and music venue — so small its stage often doesn’t fit whole bands — and it has been packing larger houses lately.

Even the band may not know what it’s in for. All bassist and singer David Ladon was thinking Monday night was how happy The Doctors Fox members were to finally be booked at Toad. But he also reported pulling 130 people for a CD release party Oct. 24 at Church in Boston despite pouring rain, and a line out the door at a recent show at The Cantab Lounge in Cambridge.

Which leads to the next reason Toad may want to brace itself: The club consists mainly of a bar, a row of booths and an aisle, and The Doctors Fox is an extremely danceable band. Its eccentric, eclectic, somewhat rootsy funk kept people dancing late into the 7th Night party Thursday at Cambridge’s All Asia, and Ladon says that was no fluke. The experience was the same at what he thinks of as the band’s best shows, at the Cantab.

“That was just a really great crowd,” Ladon said, but, modesty aside, the band surely something to do with it.

Its origins can be traced back to the University of Rochester, N.Y., in 2003, where Ladon and guitarist and singer Jon Dashkoff met and formed the band More Cowbell. (“We picked the name before it became a huge craze,” Ladon said, referring to the “Saturday Night Live” sketch in which Christopher Walken keeps demanding “more cowbell” from a sweaty Will Ferrell during a “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” recording session. The name won More Cowbell an interview in The Boston Globe and a mention in Wired.) For a while, they were happy being a jam band with funk and rhythm and blues elements.

But even as Ladon took music theory courses, got turned on to an encyclopedia full of new music and became a prolific writer of songs, members’ need to study prevented much of that fresh knowledge from being applied; the band boiled down its repertoire to the same dozen songs. “I stepped out of the jam band scene, but didn’t have the band to play it with,” he said.

That changed after graduation, when Ladon and Dashkoff arrived in Boston for a reunion with violinist Ryan Aylward, a Rochester friend getting a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Orchestrating with a violin changed everything again,” Ladon said. The final revolution was when the band found drummer Josh Kiggans through Craigslist. Kiggans, with a degree in jazz from the University of Massachusetts, “is a different drummer than we’ve ever played with and the best drummer I’ve ever played with,” Ladon said. “He’s been playing since he was 18 months.”

Musically and thematically restless, the band has evolved an idiosyncratic style that starts with frequent dual male vocals, includes the occasional burst of klezmer and culminates in violin work that often replaces the kind of work a guitarist would be used to doing — intense leadwork and solos over sparkly picking and strumming base. Aylward can also draw the violin back in the mix but keep it distinct even during the intense, funk guitar assault of the band’s “Sacha.”

Critical response has been good.

Wildy’s World, an Amherst, N.Y.-based blog, called “Plural Non-Possessive,” the band’s album, a “delirious brand of musical magic,” and twogroove.com said the “talent in the songwriting, arrangement and performance is apparent in every track.” Somerville’s Miriam Lamey, who reviews online and for The Boston Phoenix and spin.com, said “each fiddle progression, drum beat and, yes, weird Doors-like swoony sound is well-placed and thoughtful.”

Ladon’s songs are eclectic as well. At the 7th Night party, the band catered to an audience attuned to social-justice issues with overtly political tunes such as “Whole Foods” and banter about who fits the description of “The Man.” (Sallie Mae? Lieberman? Obama?) “But we don’t think of ourselves as a political band,” he said.

“There’s politics and war and there are issues like consumption, and those are all a part of life like sinus infections and getting your heart broken, and we have songs about all those sorts of things,” he said. “One of the things I feel we do well is that what we choose to talk about is different [than many bands]. We can find meaning in different things, on serious topics as well as funny topics.”

“My writing is a little ADD,” Ladon said.

And, yes, the band does have a song about sinus infection, as well as an “Autobiography of a Beached Whale” and three and a half minutes on the ubiquity of the name “Sarah.”

It also has a benign political bent toward collaboration with other bands, on the stage and in working toward “economic cooperation” that saves profits for bands instead of ceding them automatically to managers and labels. Ladon and Kiggans manage The Doctors Fox, booking shows and seeing to details such as album art, and they support efforts such as indieonthemove.com that provide tools bands can use to stay self-sufficient.

The approach is working for The Doctors Fox, Ladon said — despite qualms about whether the its sound really fits comfortably in the local music scene. The band is booking more shows in bigger venues and drawing a following even as its widens its reach, now performing regularly in Lowell and Worcester and heading to New Jersey later this winter.

Like many bands, The Doctors Fox has bigger dreams than that.

But for now, Toad still has a chance to fit the band, its dreams and its audience inside.


originally published at
http://www.cambridgeday.com/2009/12/22/can-toad-swallow-the-doctors-fox-band-may-be-big-draw-at-small-club/ - Marc Levy

Here is another emerging artist offering for your mind, your body, and your soul. Today, we take a look at Boston’s The Doctors Fox. The foursome layer multiple genres on top of each other, calling their music “experimental pop”. It’s upbeat and accessible without being easy to write off. The talent in the songwriting, arrangement, and performance is apparent in every track. Not that it’s particularly hard to miss, but pay attention to the fantastic violin work. It’s at the forefront of the arrangement for a reason.

Fresh off the release of their first full-length album Plural Non-Possessive, The Doctors Fox is looking forward to 2010 when they will be back in the studio again. As a little holiday treat, they are offering a single off the album to you for free. Click here to download “Sacha” (right-click and Save As…)

Go forth and read the interview with the good doctors and be sure to check out Plural Non-Possessive.
Plural Non-Possessive Cover

Members/Instruments:

David Ladon – Bass, Vocals

Josh Kiggans – Drums

Ryan Aylward – Violin

Jon Dashkoff – Guitar, Vocals

Year Formed: We formed in 2007 as a string trio. Josh Joined the band in April 2008.

The Doctors Fox1. Past: What is your musical background? What has led you to this point?

We all took music classes in college and have been playing music since childhood. Having people who come from different musical backgrounds is something we try to capitalize on as much as possible. Drawing on such a wide variety of styles is evident, not only in David’s writing but also, in what each member of the group contributes to the final product. Collectively our influences include but are not limited to The Band, The Police, The Beatles, Of Montreal, Mr. Bungle, Ween, The Cardigans, Otis Redding, Sly and The Family Stone, and Miles Davis.

2. Present: Where are you at now in your career? What are you currently working on?

Currently, we are busy promoting and playing behind our debut album Plural Non-Possessive. We’re playing live throughout the Northeast and trying to get our music out to as many independent radio stations as possible. We’re also very active in the Boston music community – collaborating with a wide variety of musicians, hosting an open mic, and going to shows whenever time permits. Most recently, we’ve started demoing tracks for the next LP. We’ll begin recording the follow-up to Plural Non-Possessive in the spring.

3. Future: What’s coming up for you? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

We’ll be gigging a lot this winter. In particular we’re psyched about New Years Eve in Rochester, NY and an our NYC album premier in Brooklyn. In the long run, we’d like to broaden our audience while continuing our musical and stylistic growth as a band. Ultimately, we’d like to see The Doctors Fox become a self-sustaining entity.

4. Where can people find more of your music?

www.thedoctorsfox.com

www.sonicbids.com/thedoctorsfox

Digstation

CD Baby

iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster and all of your favorite digital music websites.

5. Anything you’d like to plug?

We’re on Facebook and Myspace or email us a thedoctorsfox[at]gmail.com. Be our friend, we give great hugs. Thank you to TwoGroove! - Twogroove.com

Every so often a band comes along that's so totally marching to their own drummer they are tough to classify. In this case the drummer is Josh Kiggans, and the band is Boston's The Doctors Fox. Blending Rock, Jazz, Funk, Ska, Doo Wop and Klezmer into a thoroughly novel yet comfortable is the specialty of The Doctors Fox, who claim such diverse acts as They Might Be Giants, The Band and Of Montreal as influences. Their debut album, Plural Non-Possessive, finds The Doctors Fox pulling out the musical kitchen sink and creating a delirious brand of musical magic.

Plural Non-Possessive opens with Olympic Sculpture Park in an unlikely pairing of the Gypsy Jazz style of Django Reinhart and Joe Venuti with the Be-Bop feel of Brian Setzer. The Doctors Fox waste no time creating an impression either, whacking you across the ears with the violin that plays such an essential part of their town from the opening notes. Olympic Sculpture Park is an excellent introduction to both the album and the band. The Doctors Fox bring the funk on The Man, a working class anthem that's universal in times like these. On Chemistry, the band explores the human tendency to look for a quick fix through quick fixes, if you will. It's not my favorite arrangement on the album, but is lyrically apt and has a natural flow that works in its favor.

Don Juan is a smooth ballad with great vocal harmonies that takes sudden turns from time to time to create tension and interest. The Doctors Fox get quasi-comical on Autobiography Of A Beached Whale. The arrangement includes horns, a funk-infused bass line from David Ladon and a quasi-Reggae beat. Fourth Of July works as a passive call for resolution representative of a generation that continually waits for someone to please do something. The song is well-written and arranged and is as pointed an indictment of the power structure as it is of those of who little but complain about it.

Plural Non-Possessive is full of strong songs, but the highlight of highlights is Ode To The Sun, a delicious bit of Gypsy/Funk/Rock that's highly danceable and intriguing. Sacha is a highly variable rock tune that sounds like it could have been drawn from a Chicago Transit Authority recording session. It's a highly enjoyable tune and something of a different flavor for the band. The Doctors Fox closes out with Whole Foods, a musical riff on the store/chain familiar primarily to those who live in large metropolitan centers like Boston, New York and L.A. At times the song sounds like an ode, but it also points out some of the darker aspects of the whole foods movement and store in general. It's a great arrangement and socially conscious in politically and socially dangerous fashion.

The Doctors Fox are too talented to remain just a Boston band for long. Their sound is so eclectic and original it's bound to gain them more attention and a larger stage, and the songwriting and musicianship are more than sufficient to sustain them when they get there. Vocalists David Ladon and Jon Dashkoff create some pretty impressive harmonies, and Ryan Aylward provides a master class in non-traditional fiddle playing. Plural Non-Possessive is brilliant, and will leave you longing for more. - wildysworld.blogspot.com