Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to That Dog’s “Never Say Never.”
In the early 90’s world of purity tests, being the daughter of a music mogul could be Sisyphean.
No matter how good your sound was, people would often dismiss it out of hand due to your name. Lead singer Ana Waronker is talented enough as it stands, but it often wasn’t enough in the court of public opinion.
Having 2/3 of the Haden triplets in your band just adds to the magic (Petra went on to play with bands such as The Decemberists, and Rachel played with The Rentals, among others).
Admired by those that saw through the white noise and dismissed by seemingly everyone else, the band split in 1997, but not before putting out the fantastic Retreat From the Sun album and scoring a minor hit with this.
Not for nothing, I saw the band play Retreat in its entirety at 2017’s Riot Fest, and it sounded as new then as it did 20 years prior. Not an easy thing to do at a midday show…
More:
Listening to that dog.’s former swan song today, it’s completely bizarre to think it was significantly outsold by say, The Toadies. Every song on Retreat from the Sun puts on a clinic in sweet’n’sour, high-end, major-label alt-rock, as if 3/4 of Weezer in their prime were replaced by women with a violinist thrown in (the group’s Rachel Haden actually sang lead on ace Weezer B-side “I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams”) and even more emphasis on harmonies. Sounds like a sugar shot, right?
Read the rest here.
Listen:
“Never Say Never” by That Dog | Retreat From The Sun, 1997
Click on the record to listen on your platform of choice:
What’d you think of this song? Good, bad, or meh? Share your thoughts below!
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
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Always enjoy finding new bands through you, Kevin...not a fan of the song, and had never heard of That Dog. My attention was immediately drawn to the name, Ana Waronker (spelled in some places as "Anna").
I've only ever known one Waronker, and from my days in '70s radio and eventually retail records, that was former longtime Warner Bros. Records producer and eventual prez, Lenny Waronker. He also became co-chair of DreamWorks Records (he's currently 80).
Anyway, Anna is his daughter, and her mom is Donna Loren, a veteran of '60s beach party movies, and a recording artist in her own right, with Capitol. Anna's brother is session drummer, Joey Waronker, and she's married to former Redd Kross and Melvins bassist, Steven Shane McDonald!
Anna also has her own record company, Five Foot Two Records, that she formed with sister-in-law, the Go-Gos' guitarist/keyboardist Charlotte Caffey!
There's enough here for a couple of future articles, if you're interested, Kevin! I'd even imagine many of these might be open to touching base with on social media for an interview. I'm not invested enough in Anna's music, to be honest, to tackle this, but from afar, I'm loving all the inter-connectedness all of these folks have! Go nuts!😁🎶👍
Hey thanks for this! I loved this track. Pulls me right back to the early 00’s and my rocker teen days 😂.