Black Mountain and Dr. Dog Announce Tours

Two tour announcements arrived in the same week in January 2009, which made it easy to note them together.

Black Mountain announced a spring 2009 North American tour behind their then-recent record In the Future, released the previous year. The Vancouver band operates in a heavy psych-rock mode that draws from the same 1970s source material as many contemporary acts but finds something in it that the revival acts often miss: actual heaviness. The records are loud and long and not concerned with being concise.

Dr. Dog announced a tour supporting Fate, their 2008 record. The Philadelphia band works in a melodic mode that draws from the 1960s and 1970s with more Americana inflection than heavy rock. The harmonies are the central instrument. The songs are built around them.

Why these two

Noting two tour announcements together is not a standard format for this site, but these two announcements landed close enough and the acts are complementary enough that the pairing made editorial sense.

Both bands work in a mode that takes craft seriously without taking the music's commercial presentation seriously. Both make records that reward close listening rather than casual streaming. Both are worth seeing live.

The Dr. Dog connection to Americana and roots music is the more direct reason for the note here. The harmonic structures in Dr. Dog's best songs have the quality of country harmony: built for ensemble rather than for lead showcase. The Beatles comparison is frequently made and is not wrong, but the country connection is equally structural.

For tour coverage and live notes: The Light of Pickathon and the Field Notes index.