90s flashback: Rachel and Petra Haden. Anna Waronker. that dog. (plus Tony Maxwell, male drummer)

[the_future_modernes]

Never Say Never - That Dog

that dog "he's kissing christian"

that dog - One Summer Night

lip gloss by that dog

that dog. Is Back, As Hitless and Excellent As Ever

Seminal Los Angeles '90s alt-rockers that dog. are reuniting for a couple of shows, auto-correct-defying name and all. They perform tonight, August 26, and Sunday, August 28 at the Troubadour.

Before playing with bands like the Decemberists and writing music for the (totally underrated) live-action Josie and the Pussycats film, that dog. served as a link between Liz Phair and Rilo Kiley, sidestepping grunge and challenging their friends Weezer in crunching pop consistency with great, yet failed, singles like "Never Say Never" -- whose bridge Rilo went on to crib for their own "It's a Hit."

"I remember being on the road and calling my dad, who was a major record executive," that dog. frontwoman Anna Waronker recalls over the phone, referencing her pops, Warner Bros. producer Lenny Waronker. "I was like, 'Is ["Never Say Never"] a hit?' And he said, 'Allllllmost.'"

They stood out from their DGC Records contemporaries both visually -- as they were three blonde females ( my note: WRONG. 2 blonde and 1 dark haired woman} and one male -- and sonically, as all of the women sang, and one played violin. Unlike say, Hole, they didn't try to hold their own with the boys.
"At a time when people were screaming about death, we were talking about crushes," Waronker says.

Crushes were that dog.'s usual choice of metaphor. "By definition a crush must hurt/ And they do," Waronker laments in "Long Island." The theme also served as an album concept (1995's Totally Crushed Out! was designed to look like a Sweet Valley High novel) and apparent reason for being.

"I started writing even before I had a band, because a boyfriend broke up with me and I was bummed," says Waronker.

They wrote as if for an alternate universe Clueless soundtrack; "He's Kissing Christian" and "Gagged and Tied" were sitcom-ready treatises on pansexual love triangles and BDSM, respectively. Yet, they never aimed pop.MORE

Wikipedia

That Dog (styled as that dog.) is a Los Angeles-based rock band that formed in 1991 and dissolved in 1997, reuniting in 2011. The band consists of Anna Waronker on lead vocals andguitar, Rachel Haden on bass guitar and vocals, her sister Petra Haden on violin and vocals, and Tony Maxwell on drums. Their punk power-pop songs were full of hooks and many layered vocal harmonies.
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That Dog Interview (1997) about their 1997 album "Retreat from the Sun"