The Dig are exactly the band you could expect to stumble upon after a long, dark night in New York City — pulsing, low-end bass, screaming, angular guitars and catchy, thrashing choruses.
The whole thing sings ‘dimly-lit basement show,’ that is if the sound wasn’t so damn big. A more apt description might be ‘darker, less hokey Muse’ or even ‘less faux-arty Tapes ‘n Tapes.’
Still a bit confused? Fair enough — The Dig’s Brooklyn stomp is hard to pin down, except for one descriptor. And that, of course, is ‘good.’ The swagger’s there, the style’s unique and the sound is propulsive. With one 6-song EP and one 3-song under the band’s belt, as well as a yet-to-be-financed but already-written debut album in the works, it’s safe to say The Dig are going to be big.
Check out the band's best song so far, "She's Gonna Kill That Boy."
Here are cuts from my talk with singer/guitarist David Baldwin and drummer Nick Brown. The band’ll be in Pittsburgh February 28 at the Thunderbird Café in Lawrenceville – a sure bet for a solid evening.
Gravity Rides Everything: How can being a ‘Brooklyn band’ be both a benefit and a hindrance?
Nick Brown: It’s a hindrance within the city more than anything. There’s so much bullshit to weed through. But if you have a sound that stands out and you work hard, the best opportunities are here.
David Baldwin: There are thousands of bands in the city, but it doesn’t seem that there are too many bands that are constantly promoting themselves without a label — flyering and talking to people on the street.
GRE: Is it weird to hit the road and not find the following you’ve built in New York?
Nick: We just started playing out of town a year ago. It’s crazy playing a show here to 200 people, then going out of town and play to 10 people. I’d think ‘What’s the point?’ But after awhile, you accept that and you see a difference when you go back to those places. There’ll be 20 people, then 30 people. Play a kick ass show, and you’ll see the payoff.
GRE: But does online promoting devalue playing a show for 10 people when they can just as easily hear you on MySpace?
Nick: I don’t think so. In our case, I feel our live show has more of an impact. Before we come to Pittsburgh, we will hit up people on Myspace. And some of those people will come out, but all of those hardcore fans we’ve made are those that have seen us live. The more we play live, the better a band we get.
GRE: The band’s been friends for a long time. Does that help you work together or cause a lot of bickering?
David: Definitely both. We’ve become so similar musically – we’re always on the same page. But because we spend so much time together there’s always bickering. Little differences get magnified. But still, I think it’d be hard to find songwriters that are more in the same boat as us.
GRE: Is it hard to find ample practice space in the city?
Nick: I guess you could call ours ample in that we can all fit in the room. It’s called The Music Building, a 12-story building in midtown Manhattan that’s all rehearsal space. Our room is about the size of a bedroom and we share it with four other bands. We also have some cool neighbors – The Strokes were rehearsing last night two doors down. The Teenage Prayers share the space and The French Kicks used to play the room.
GRE: You’re hitting the Midwest and East coast this month. What do traveling arrangements look like?
Nick: We try, whenever possible, to crash with friends. The last tour we only stayed in a motel 3 nights, the rest we stayed with friends. If we don’t have any friends in that town, we’d make friends. I’m planning on buying an inflatable mattress, so we can eliminate the arguing of who gets the couch, the floor, the bed.
Be sure to check out The Dig February 28 at Thunderbird Cafe
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment