Dr. Dog's intricate harmonies, thrilling guitar breaks, and gut-busting sing-alongs really ramped up with 2005's Easy Beat. And with each subsequent record, the band's fidelity and craft has improved. Most recently, indie powerhouse label Anti- (Tom Waits, Neko Case) released the group's fifth studio album, Shame, Shame, which bears the mark of Dr. Dog's always whimsical wordplay, an unmatched warmth and polish, and the sweetest walls of sound yet.

But bassist Toby Leaman says a batch of decidedly more positive tunes he and lead guitarist Scott McMicken have been cranking out are headed for another Dr. Dog release later this year, and they're 99 percent certain Ben Allen is the guy to produce it. Aside from being a fan of the band, "he did that Gnarls Barkley song, 'Crazy,' which was the first thing," Leaman says. "The bass tone in that song is so good. When that song came out, it blew my lid."

Another important consideration for the future, Leaman says, is changing up Dr. Dog's workingman wardrobe. "Once the new record comes out, we talked about maybe going straight to suits," he says. "I feel like if we're all wearing the same suit, we'll look really sharp."