{"id":798823,"date":"2019-08-23T11:08:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T17:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=875247"},"modified":"2019-08-23T11:08:42","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T17:08:42","slug":"song-you-need-to-know-that-dog-if-you-just-didnt-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/song-you-need-to-know-that-dog-if-you-just-didnt-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Song You Need to Know: That Dog, \u2018If You Just Didn\u2019t Do It\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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That Dog were a beloved band in the Nineties whose legacy has only grown since they released their last LP, 1997\u2019s near-perfect Retreat From the Sun<\/em>. They just released a deluxe edition of their 1995 debut album, and they recently played their first show in 19 years. In an example of That Dog\u2019s influence on today\u2019s generation of indie rock, Allison Crutchfield of the great band Swearin\u2019 was on hand to sing backing vocals. Now, they\u2019ve announced a new album, Old LP<\/em>, their first since Retreat From the Sun<\/em>. Along with original members \u2014 guitarist-vocalist Anna Waronker, bassist-vocalist Rachel Haden, and drummer Tony Maxwell \u2014 the new set features an interesting cast of guests, including Maya Rudolph, Randy Newman, former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon (who played a brief opening set before their comeback gig), Josh Klinghoffer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go\u2019s, among others.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s lead single, \u201cIf You Just Didn\u2019t Do It,\u201d has all the hallmarks of what made them so fun and refreshing when they arrived in mid-Nineties, mixing crisp, agile alt-rock guitar charge, sleek melodies, and a uniquely refined sense of orchestration and craft that reflects their rich musical pedigree (Waronker is the daughter of Lenny Waronker, a music business legend who has produced albums by Randy Newman, Elliott Smith, and many others, and she\u2019s the brother of Beck and R.E.M. session drummer Joey Waronker, while Haden is the daughter of legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden).<\/p>\n

\u201cIf You Just Didn\u2019t Do It\u201d continues the classic pop tradition of songs that had to be written because actual language (in Waronker\u2019s case, an unsent letter) couldn\u2019t get the writer\u2019s point across clear enough (cf. Jim Croce\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song\u201d). In Waronker\u2019s case, she\u2019s singing to an old friend who can\u2019t get their life together, someone she\u2019s most likely been pulling along with advice and assistance for years. \u201cLet\u2019s go back to the coffee shop\/Back to where you wish you\u2019d run away,\u201d she sings, tough but tender, sympathetic but exasperated. We\u2019ve all had this friend, and we\u2019ve all been this friend. There\u2019s a lifetime of intimacy and drama here, delivered with a casually hard-hitting garage-pop catchiness. And if the song sounds like it could\u2019ve been an album track on one of That Dog\u2019s Nineties records, that\u2019s more than fine, because this band\u2019s all-too-brief run the first time around always suggested they\u2019d cashed out while they still had a pile of chips on the table. It\u2019s great to have them back.<\/p>\n