The Dodos‘ Meric Long and Logan Kroeber combined their loves of country picking, West African Ewe drumming and heavy metal to create one of the more unique indie rock outfits today. No longer just the pride of San Francisco, their percussive and eclectic sound have made fans in all corners — from the headquarters of the hipster elite to the hallowed pages of the New York Times and all the way to Milwaukee.

Our very own Katie Bain caught up with drummer Logan Kroeber before a homecoming gig at Bimbo’s 365 Club this Thursday, October 28th, and talked about 2009’s Time to Die, his favorite Bay Area bands and his pick for an extinct animal showdown.

Stranger Dance: Are there any major differences between Time to Die and Visiter? Has your sound evolved?
Logan Kroeber: I would say there are differences for sure. The biggest being the production style and also a more refined and less frantic feel to the songs.

SD: How does the San Francisco music scene compare to larger cities like LA and New York? Who are your favorite neighbor bands?
LK: NY and LA seem to draw in more transplants than SF does, but I love the state of music in SF right now. Some of our most neighborly bands would be Thee Oh Sees and Spencey Dude.

SD: How do you feel about the critical acclaim that Visiter received? Did you expect such a response?
LK: That whole experience was very weird. We were not expecting it but were most certainly hoping for it. It did us a lot of good but after a while we could see a lot of attention was based on hype, which is not a stable thing.

SD: Did that acclaim create any sense of pressure in relation to making the new album?
LK: Yes, but we tried to avoid those feelings as much as possible, but they were always lurking in the background somewhere.

SD: Your upcoming touring schedule brings you all over Europe. Is this your largest tour to date? Is there a particular city you’re excited to play?
LK: It’s one of the bigger ones if not the biggest, and I think Spain is calling to us as a whole.

SD: What’s your favorite venue to play?
LK: I love venues that have rooms for the band on site. Nothing finer than finishing a show, a little celebration then stumbling up a flight of stairs to your bed.

SD: What have you been listening to recently?
LK: The new Ruby Suns record, it comes out in March. Also Diamatregon.

SD: You get put, perhaps unfairly, among contemporaries like Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, etc. Do you think these comparisons are accurate? Can your music be categorized? Do you think categorization is limiting?
LK: There are shared elements among all of our bands so I guess it’s not too far fetched. Categorization is difficult to do but is a necessary evil.

SD: Is there anyone you’d like to collaborate with?
LK: We’ve always talked about a bass player of some sort but I couldn’t tell you who.

SD: Was there a moment when you felt as though you’d “made it”?
LK: As we were driving through California at the beginning of our 2008 tour on our way to SXSW. We were listening to Jay Reatard I think. We had by no means made it at that point but I felt that we had already surpassed my expectations.

SD: Extinct animal faceoff: Dodo vs. Tasmanian Tiger. Who wins?
LK: Tasmanian tiger in the 2nd round.

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