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Music

Dog Day

DOG DAY with DILLY DALLY, MARINE DREAMS, CASTLE GARBAGE and SOFT HELL at Cinecycle (129 Spadina), Saturday ( December 14), 9 pm, all ages. $10 (must RSVP via Facebook) .


When I reach Seth Smith, one-half of Halifax’s self-described “fog-pop” duo Dog Day, he has just finished loading some hay for his chickens, which need an extra layer of cushioning for winter. “That’s my life now,” he laughs.

Smith and musical/life partner Nancy Urich moved to a 12-acre farm about 30 minutes from Halifax a couple of years ago. It’s where they recorded, among other things, Fade Out (Fundog), their newest and, to my mind, best album yet.

Beneath a subtle, persistent layer of eerie ambience are bold college rock riffs, shy vocals and superb melodies. The album builds slowly, and then midway through knocks out half a dozen darkly perfect indie gems one after another.

The disquieting mood comes in part from their use of “old junky gear: broken reel-to-reels and four-tracks.” Smith says they record on computer but then send the songs through a piece of analog gear, like an amp, “just so they go through something real.”

As for the harder edge, he and Urich had been listening to the Rolling Stones, Flamin’ Groovies and the Stooges – stuff he loved when he was younger. “A lot of the [record’s] themes dance around things returning and continuing, so it felt like a good time to go back to playing some rock riffs.”

For this tour, their last for a while, the band will expand to a four-piece and Urich will play guitar rather than drums. She’s pregnant, you see, with the couple’s first child. Smith shies away from too much talk about the event’s influence on the record – he and Urich are really private, he says – but allows that he’s very excited.

“I’ve done a lot of projects and created a lot of art in my life and this is one thing where I really don’t know what to expect,” says Smith, also a filmmaker, poster designer and co-organizer of Halifax’s new Outlier Film Fest. “All I know is, people my age who have kids already are really scaring me, saying, ‘Oh man, your life’s gonna end!’

“But it’s kind of an interesting idea: having a kid in your belly while you’re playing music. Born of rock. And our doctor says there’s nothing wrong with it. We’ll probably get a couple of extra eyeballs, but it’ll be all right. We’re not too worried about it.”

carlag@nowtoronto.com | @carlagillis

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