This is a page for various random dig documents i've found on the web. take some time and read it over and you just might find something you find interesting (but i make no promises! :)

found at http://music.excite.com/artist/biography/290665

Dig

From San Diego, California, USA, Dig are led by cult guitar hero Scott Hackwith (vocals, guitar). Named after Hackwith's dog, the group were formed in 1993. They were approached by the UK label Radioactive Records after they heard the group's debut EP, Runt, a vital blast of harsh guitar riffs recorded in just 48 hours. The group's debut album contained further examples of muscular power chord rock on tracks such as "Unlucky Friend" and "Feet Don't Touch The Ground". The sound (created in tandem with Dave Jerden, who had previously worked with Jane's Addiction and Alice In Chains ) was so powerful that it persuaded the Ramones to enlist Hackwith as producer for their album Acid Eaters, and prompted Vox magazine to describe the contents of Dig as " Cheap Trick buried in toxic waste.' The group should not be confused with the Australian d.i.g., the Christian name of whose lead singer is also Scott . .

(dig site note: while some members were from San Diego, dig was actually more L.A.-based. And i believe they formed in '91, not '93)

found at http://www.trouserpress.com/entry_90s.php?a=dig

DIG
Runt EP (Wasteland) 1992
Dig (Wasteland) 1993
Soft Pretzel EP (Radioactive) 1994
Defenders of the Universe (Radioactive) 1996

With the mass-market success of grunge peaking in 1993, Los Angeles' Dig fit right in, with distorted, aggressive guitar riffs, insidiously catchy melodies and rough-voiced singer Scott Hackwith. Fortunately, the quintet's self-titled album, produced by Dave Jerden, isn't some hastily thrown-together copycat shuck: the dozen tracks are uniformly well-written. Commercially, of course, Dig entered the fray a couple of beats too late, when the audience for this stuff was already too jaded to give much consideration even to a good act worthy of little attention. (Under different circumstances, there's no doubt the soaring "Believe" or the raging "Feet Don't Touch the Ground" could have become well-deserved hit singles.) Those not suffering from grunge overload and willing to sacrifice surprises for solid songwriting, however, may find Dig truly likable.

Ex-Weirdos guitarist Dix Denney replaced Johnny Cornwell in time for Defenders of the Universe, a less stylized and more genially engaging rock record written and produced by Hackwith.

[Katherine Yeske/Ira Robbins]

found at http://www.tulane.edu/~tuhulla/19960927/dig.html

Dig: Defenders of the Universe
by Jamie Baron - Staff Writer

DIG exemplifies its stylistic high and lows in "Mood Elevator".

"If I was at a bar and they were playing, I would leave," my friend told me when I asked her what she thought about Dig. On the other hand, I would go to the bar just because Dig was playing, as Dig is definitely a band worth checking out. The songs on Dig's new album, Defenders of the Universe, exemplify diversity and display varied rhythms.
The intrigue of the music is temporarily interrupted by annoying vocals on the first track, "Whose Side You On," but as the song continues, the voice smoothes out and the music becomes more engaging. "I'm a vagabond. I'm a superbore. I'm an open wound ...," Scott Hackwith whines with the usual self-pity of an artist. But as the album progresses, each song is surprisingly better than the one before. The music certainly grows on you. Some lyrics are clever; "I am just a little pill. It takes six to make you high," Hackwith professes on "Little Pill." A sudden change in vocals pulls listeners into the song as his voice lowers and softens.

A favorite track is "Stop Holding Your Breath." Although this seems like the typical rock song, with someone telling a girl to give up on a loser guy because "he's not coming back" and he's "not going to change this time," Dig makes it work with a catchy beat and a great melody.

Other songs showcase more interesting themes. The originality of the band shows itself in "Mood Elevator," a song about how doctors can alter our minds and emotions with psychiatric drugs.

While the lyrics of some of the songs are twisted, most of the music is soothing. Although the lyrics tend to voice complaints, the songs are not necessarily downers because the music feels good. The sound is a little grungy, like this could be the soundtrack to a Seattle movie.

I played Defenders of the Universe when I had friends over, and they called it "great background music." I like this album. And after a few drinks, most of my friends liked it, too.

found at http://www.orbitband.com/diary/1995.shtml (some band's diary?)

August 24, 1995 @ The Dragonfly, Los Angeles, CA
- w/ John Easdale (Dramarama)

Show was in the category of worst organized shows we ever played. We got added to the bill a few days before, but no one told the other bands or anyone at the club. Everyone started freaking out. It got so bad that they had to pay a couple of the bands NOT to play. The Dragonfly is swanky and lots of celebrities hang there. That night, Ian Asbury (The Cult), Tommy Stinson (The Replacements) and (my friend) Scott Hackwith (Dig) were hanging out at the bar. I needed few beers after this one. --Paul

apparently there is another band called Dig...

Dig - Christian modern rock band based in Rochester, New York. Offers MP3 samples, tour dates, biographies and photos.

they have apparently since changed their name to The Dig Project.
http://www.d-i-g.org/
http://www.thedigproject.com/

found at http://www.cd101.com/reviews/dig.asp

Dig
Live in Sound
By Michael Palermo

Dig has a new line-up but not so new sound. This is not to say the music has any less pop power. Although no main stream success, dig is a name most in the alternative scene have heard. “Life like” is the first record created by leader Scott hackwith along with gene trautmann (drums), john morris (guitar), and jay nicholas (bass).

The first single and track, “live in sound”, sets the stage for the “sing in your shower” quality of this entire record. it’s catchiness is not to be outdone by guitar work that ties the brit psychedelia together with the strait forward cheap trick-esque rock. “Coming down” follows with a song structure and delivery similar to early bowie. Keyboard introduces “the fuzz” that explores the fascination we all had with eighties brit-pop. This nineties mix of partridge melodies and guitar rock rhythms continues throughout with only a few stops to change tempo. For example, “I don’t
mind”, the rock ballad of the record.

This record is one that is raw enough for the indie wants of every one. creative and original enough for we pop folks. Through it all, the band is dig, and dig it I did.

Alternative pop/rock quintet Dig formed in Los Angeles in early 1991, with vocalist/guitarist Scott Hackwith (a producer who worked for the Ramones), guitarist Dix Denney (ex-Weirdos and Thelonious Monster), guitarist Jon Morris, bassist Phil Friedmann and drummer Matt Tecu. After gaining a following around the area and releasing the Runt EP in 1992, the group signed to Radioactive/MCA late that year and released their self-titled debut album in 1993. The single "Believe" spent almost three months in MTV's Buzz Bin, and prompted the release of Dig's second, Defenders of the Universe, in mid-1996. Life Like followed in early 1999. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide

Dig Dig (3 stars)

AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Got alternative if you want it. And was it ever wanted in those halycon
days of the early 1990s, if one accepts the story behind the recording of this album. Allegedly the
group were told to go into the studio and 'make an alternative record' by its label -- a crass approach to be sure, but it never stopped the likes of Stone Temple Pilots. Regardless of the truth behind the album, it didn't hurt that Hackwith was assisted on production by Dave Jerden, whose work with Jane's Addiction and Alice in Chains is clearly echoed here. Sometimes a little too closely -- "Believe," the album's semi-hit single, isn't quite Jane's redux, but the sheer sense of epic whomp and build has an obvious forebear, not to mention the pitch of the vocals. As for the rest of the album? In its own little way, charming -- while the whole thing certainly wants to aim for world striding heights of mega-rock riffage, and does so at least in terms of volume, it feels more like an entertaining homage to such an idea, and why not? Hackwith is an appropriate vocalist for the proceedings -- essentially anonymous stylistically, his vocal acrobatics salted with just enough anguish and wracked attitude to taste, plus distortion here and there. His lyrics are equally derivative but just right -- "I'll Stay High" doesn't say much, but in context it's a darn good smackdown against whoever is being targeted. Similarly his bandmates riff loud and hard -- having three total guitarists in the band doesn't hurt, and together they can aim for both crank-to-eleven volume and just enough prettiness here and there as it goes. Led Zeppelin pulled off that combination a little more readily, but it's entertaining stuff regardless. Listen to Dig for nostalgia's sake these days and it's all good fun. ~ Ned Raggett

Dig Defenders of the Universe

AMG EXPERT REVIEW: A few years on from an alternative demi-hit at the commercial peak of the early nineties version of said style. What to do? Should you be the band Dig, you record this follow-up to the self-titled start -- with not exactly thrilling results. Hackwith's a good producer and everything sounds radio-friendly, full-bodied and agreeably loud, but the songs are something else entirely. Defenders isn't out and out bad, but it's terribly mediocre, even comparison to the group's first album. At least that was something that at its best sounded pretty good on the radio in between Nirvana and Soundgarden and the like, but here everything feels much more by rote, and is generally fairly po-faced to boot. When the band approaches the same level of semi-Zen metal stomping that Jane's Addiction so easily achieved, as on the opening notes of "Detune" or "Wall Socket," then Dig make the best case for its continued existence. The occasional lightening of tone doesn't hurt -- "Song for Liars" is much more relaxed than anything on the first album and works wonders as a result, while the wittily titled "E.L.O." doesn't quite sound like said band but does have a pretty good chorus. Otherwise, it feels like snotty rock and roll too labored to work as such or vaguely poetic nothings that just sound tired and lacking compared to Chris Cornell's wry subversions or Kurt Cobain's blunt kissoffs. Everything from ukelele and theremin to Moog keyboards and banjos are thrown into the mix here and there to make things sound more adventurous than they really are. Otherwise, this is all stuff that's been heard before, potentially thrilling or involving for when one listens to it but unlikely to stick much beyond that period. ~ Ned Raggett

October 21, 1996 The Daily Mississippian

Dig's 'Defenders of the Universe' not much to get excited about

By Rebecca J. Lauck
Assistant Entertainment Editor

Dig's latest album, Defenders of the Universe is an eclectic blend of guitar rhythms and
percussion.
Overall, I thought that the album was an OK effort. Most of the songs were either about being
pushed around or drugs, and after about 12 songs of that, it gets sort of old.
For instance, "Little Pill," based on a poem written by Elizabeth Frierson Minzes, has lyrics that
include "I am just a little pill/ It takes six to make you high/ You can fly a spaceship/ As I sit and
watch you cry."
The band -- made up of Scott Hackwith (vocals, guitar), Jon Morris (guitar, backing vocals,
banjo), Phil Freidmann (bass, baritone guitar), Matt Tecu (drums, percussion) and Dix Denney
(guitar, ukulele) -- has a thing for starting off a slow song, pausing, and then breaking off into
something harder.
"e.l.o." is a perfect example of this, as is "Stop Holding Your Breath."
They are a band that is very together, though. Their jams were good, and with so many guitar
players, you just can't go wrong. However, nothing really struck me as being fabulous about Dig or
about Defenders of the Universe. I am not rushing out to get anything else they have done. For
some reason, they just sound like every other little alternative band out there.
My least favorite song on the album was definitely "Bashing in Your Head." The rhythm is good,
but the lyrics talk of a violent beating. I would have liked it a lot more if the lyrics were different.
One song I did like was "Electric Cord," although I can't quite put my finger on why. The lyrics
include, "It's not easy to let go/ It's hard to lose control/ I try to calm you down/ But you can't push
me around."
Don't get me wrong. Defenders of the Universe is not a bad CD, there just was not much on it
that impressed me.

Nightstick
By Keven McAlester, Jeff Niesel and Douglas Wolk

This Week
(January 8-14 1999)

Dig
Despite protestations to the contrary by a small cadre of
believers, Dig should be considered a prime example of music as
marketing. When it emerged in the early '90s, the L.A.
quintet--led by former music-video art director (strike one) Scott
Hackwith--embarked on a career that might as well have been
predetermined by some malt-rock master computer. The group
hired all the right producers, including Dave Jerden (Jane's
Addiction, Alice in Chains) and, later, Neil Perry (Smashing
Pumpkins). It employed the right sound, mixing wall-of-guitar
dynamics with sandpapery pop vocals. Its 15 minutes arrived in
the form of "Believe," a semi-hit single that can best be
remembered as an archetype for the alternative-era one-hit
wonder. On the heels of that success, the band added a former
punk-rocker to its ranks to secure the necessary street cred. (The
winner was Dix Denney, the former Weirdo and Thelonious
Monster who promptly left after one album.) Taken together, its
sound and biography play like the stuff of demographic targeting,
as opposed to something so quaint as personal expression.

Which makes it somewhat puzzling that the band even exists any
more, but it does; the pared-down quartet will release its third
album (Life Like) next week. Faced with the prospect of a world
ever more disinterested in the B-grade guitar rock that gave the
group its reputation, Dig has responded by...not responding.
While such stasis is better than the most obvious new route (Dig
does electronica!), it doesn't offer much in the way of interesting
music; the record begins with a typical smashed pumpkin ("Live in
Sound"--no thanks) and then proceeds to oscillate between
negligible ballads and a newfound Oasis fixation. In the latter
regard, "Coming Down" is absolutely comical; not since Robert
Pollard has an American tried so transparently to sound British,
and at least Pollard has great songs. Hackwith, however, offers
the kind of standard power chords and piano color that made the
Gallaghers into stars but only make him a laughingstock--aping a
caricature is no way to go through life, son. A record as
depressing as it is generic, and a band that desperately needs to
find something in which it genuinely believes. Thu., Jan. 14, at the
Viper Room, 8852 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. With Exit
159. (Keven McAlester)

here's an article from http://www.newstimes.com about the Saturday Morning Cartoons comp. Some words from Scott near the end.

Television News

Rock bands play in 'toon for album tribute to Saturday-morning TV

By Thor Christensen

Dallas Morning News

When it comes to low-brow art, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more perfect marriage than rock 'n'
roll and cartoons.

The two go together as perfectly as Lucky Charms and chocolate milk on ``Saturday Morning''
(MCA), a tribute album that has 19 alternative-rock acts covering the theme songs of animated
kiddie shows.

``Being onstage in a rock 'n' roll band isn't all that different than being in a cartoon - it's your job to
make funny faces at people,'' says bassist Jimbo Wallace of Reverend Horton Heat, which performs
the theme from ``Jonny Quest.''

The album, which arrived in record stores Tuesday, includes the Ramones singing the praises of
Spiderman, Liz Phair tra-la-la-ing through ``The Banana Splits'' and Matthew Sweet posing that
time-honored question ``Scooby Doo, Where Are You?''

Four Texas bands also attended the rock 'n' cartoon summit: Joining Horton Heat on the disc are
Fort Worth's Toadies, Dallas' Tripping Daisy and Austin's crazed Butthole Surfers, who bark their
way through ``Underdog.''

``Our band is a cartoon,'' says Surfers guitarist Paul Leary. ``We've always gotten a lot of inspiration
from Underdog. ... He's a blundering idiot who always wins in the end, which gives hope to ... losers
like us.''

``Saturday Morning'' isn't the first time rock 'n' roll has visited 'toonsville - or vice versa. Over the
years, everyone from the Beatles to New Kids on the Block has had his or her own show. The
Archies, a studio band invented to cash in on a cartoon, scored a No. 1 hit in 1969 with ``Sugar
Sugar'' (sung here by alterna-folkie Mary Lou Lord). Josie and the Pussycats - a band of female
pseudo-Monkees - followed suit in 1970 (Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donnelly's trademark girlish
voices are just right for the Pussycats theme).

And countless cartoons have had a ``rock-star episode'': Frente's version of ``Open Up Your Heart
and Let the Sun Shine In,'' for example, comes from ``The Flintstones'' segment in which Pebbles
and Bamm-Bamm became a pop singing duo. And Judy Jetson's date with rock star Jet Screamer
(from ``The Jetsons'' in 1962) spawned the song ``Eep Op Ork A A (Means I Love You),'' which
the Violent Femmes turn into psychotic folk-abilly.

If you're hoping to find deep meaning hidden in the loony tunes of ``Saturday Morning,'' you've
landed on the wrong channel. No matter how passionately Sweet sings the line ``Scooby Doo, if you
come through, you're gonna have yourself a Scooby snack,'' it's still not ``The Times They Are
A-Changin'.''

Yet like ``If I Were a Carpenter'' - 1994's rock 'n' roll tribute to the Carpenters - ``Saturday
Morning'' turns cheese into pure gold.

``You can't expect to hear Wagner from a cartoon. But if you take these songs for what they are,
they're genius,'' says Leary, who helped the Surfers turn ``Underdog'' into a surf-rock/spaghetti
Western freakout.

The album is the brainchild of Ralph Sall, the 32-year-old Los Angeles record producer behind
1989's Grateful Dead tribute album, ``Deadicated,'' and last year's ``Common Thread: The Songs of
the Eagles.'' Sall admits a lot of the songs he picked for ``Saturday Morning'' are hokey but says
that's missing the point.

``Nobody takes these songs and these cartoons seriously. But the weird thing is, everyone
remembers them. When I met Tim (DeLaughter) from Tripping Daisy in the studio, it turned out he's
an over-the-top Marty Krofft fan,'' Sall says, referring to the producer of live-action puppet series
such as ``Sigmund & the Seamonster'' (Tripping Daisy recorded the theme song for the album). ``So
I took him to meet Marty Krofft and introduced him to the guy who plays H.R. Pufnstuf. You should
have seen him - he was genuinely excited.''

The Toadies pay tribute to ``The Groovie Goolies,'' a horror-themed takeoff on ``Laugh-In''' that ran
from 1970 to 1972. ``The Toadies suit the song `Goolie Get-Together' perfectly,'' says Sall. ``They
make this great, dark music and The Goolies have this dark connotation.''

Reverend Horton Heat collides the theme to ``Jonny Quest'' with the song ``Stop That Pigeon'' from
``Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines.'' As obscure as those cartoons are, people
recognize the tunes at the trio's concerts.

``Their jaws start dropping, especially when we go into `Stop That Pigeon,''' said Wallace, speaking
by phone from a concert hall in Lawrence, Kan. ``It's become a real showstopper - even people
who aren't familiar with it start moshing.''

``Saturday Morning'' serves up plenty of music to mosh by. In fact, the disc could pass for a
Ramones tribute album, because everyone from the Toadies and the Violent Femmes to Sponge
(``Go Speed Racer Go''), Wax (``Happy Happy Joy Joy'') and Face to Face (``I'm Popeye the
Sailor Man'') attacks the music with jackhammer rhythms and staccato guitars.

Ramones-style punk might be all the rage again. But it's debatable whether today's alterna-teens will
wake up to ``Saturday Morning'': They weren't even born when most of these cartoons went off the
air.

``This isn't going to be a stroll down memory lane for your average 15-year-old Green Day fan,''
says Scott Hackwith, lead singer for Dig, the band that remade ``The Fat Albert Theme.'' ``I brought
home a Fat Albert sign from our video shoot and showed it to the kids who live next door to me,
and they had no idea who Fat Albert was.

``But if you're 24 to 35 years old, you're definitely going to get it,'' Hackwith says. ``I might sound
like an old man saying this, but I remember when getting up early on Saturday mornings, eating Froot
Loops and watching cartoons was a big part of what your life was all about.''

found at http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/1996-08-22/calendar.html

friday august 23
Dig: The L.A. group, named after leader Scott Hackwith's dog, commingles a mid-'70s melodic sensibility and that distorted-wall-of-guitar-and-Weltanschauung thing that rules the mid-'90s. A good example is the song "e.l.o.," from the band's new Radioactive release, Defenders of the Universe; the tune boasts a crunchy riff right out of the Jeff Lynne songbook and the decidedly un-Lynne-like refrain "It's a cold world when you're in need/And I'm a needy motherfucker." Oh, yeah; Defenders also includes an appropriately sludgy tribute titled "White Sabbath." Possum Dixon, and Yum Yum share the bill on Friday, August 23, at Nita's Hideaway, 1816 East Rio Salado Parkway in Tempe. Showtime is 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $7, available at Ticketmaster. For details call 967-9531 or 784-4444.

woodpussy.org
this is a band that Scott worked with (produced) a little bit. if you search around you can probably find a mention of him somewhere on the site.

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/39/irving.html
Irving - another band Scott did some production work for. i found no mention of him here, though.

Dig , 5/10

Gruppo presentato come una delle promesse piu` brillanti del grunge, i Dig pubblicano nel 1994 il primo album (per la Radioactive). Nati all'inizio del 1992, messi sotto contratto dopo soli cinque mesi, esorditi nel gennaio dell'anno scorso con l'EP Runt (Wasteland), con I'll Stay High, i Dig sono un esempio eclatante di come stiano sfondando anche a Los Angeles i nuovi gruppi di hardrock. Scott Hackwith, coadiuvato alle chitarre da Jon Morris e Johnny Cornwell, e` il cervello dell'operazione. Stenta parecchio a decollare il brano di partenza, Let Me Know, ma le doti che hanno fatto gridare al fenomeno vengono a galla appieno in I'll Stay High e Ride The Wave: il loro e` un hardrock di prima qualita`, d'altronde propulso da tre chitarre e da una sezione ritmica di tutto rispetto (Phil Friedmann al basso e Anthony Smedile alla batteria), traboccante di brillanti spunti strumentali e al tempo stesso compatto ed elegante, sul quale si distendono litanie vagamente psichedeliche. Ora con furore e velocita` da garage-rock (Tight Brain), ora con arrangiamenti quasi barocchi (Feet Don't Touch The Ground) e` quello dell'hardrock il sangue che scorre nelle loro vene (ma raramente si tratta di un mero plagio dai Led Zeppelin, e quindi dai Soundgarden, come in Fuck You). Anche nella "power ballad" di rito (per chi vuole scalare le classifiche), ovvero Unlucky Friend, i Dig dimostrano fantasia, personalita` e, in definitiva, classe, in piu` della media, nel modo in cui il grido sofferto di Hackwith cozza contro lo stordente riff all'unisono delle chitarre, alternandosi a struggenti e come spaesati passaggi acustici. Dai Flaming Lips i Dig di Anymore hanno imparato a lasciar sfumare un ritornello lezioso in vertigini sibilline di distorsioni; quelli di Believe hanno imparato a riesumare le armonie vocali a tre parti dei Beatles e degli Yes. Per i fedeli delle religioni di Pearl Jam e Smashing Pumpkins e` nato un altro dio; ma tutto e` vano, artificiale, prefabbricato, sterile.

--

now here's a rough (and almost amusing) translation of that from http://babelfish.altavista.com

Group introduced like one of the shining promises piu` of the grunge, the Dig publishes in 1994 the first album (for the Radioactive). Been born to the beginning of 1992, single puttinges under contract after five months, esorditi in January of the year slid with the EP Runt (Wasteland), with I' ll Stay High, the Dig are a eclatante example of like are smashing in also to Los Angeles the new groups of hardrock. Scott Hackwith, coadiuvato to the guitars from Jon Morris and Johnny Cornwell, e` the brain of the operation. Much finds it hard to take off the brano of departure, Let Me Know, but the dowries that they have made to scream to the phenomenon come to galla fully in I' ll Stay High and Ride The Wave: them e` a hardrock before qualita`, however I propel from three guitars and a ritmica section of all respect (Phil Friedmann to the bottom and Anthony Smedile on drums), traboccante of shining cues orchestrates them and al time same compact and elegant, on which psichedeliche litanie are stretched vaguely. Hour with fury and velocita` from garage-rock (Tight Brain), hour with nearly baroque agreements (Feet Don' t Touch The Ground) e` that one of hardrock the blood that very rarely slides in their veins (but draft of mere plagio from the Led a Zeppelin, and therefore from the Soundgarden, like in Fuck You). Also in " power ballad " of ritual (for who it wants to scale the classifiche), that is Unlucky Friend, the Dig demonstrate fantasy, personalita` and, after all, class, in piu` of the average, the way in which the outcry suffered from Hackwith cozza against the stordente riff to the unisono of the guitars, alternating itself to struggenti and like spaesati acoustic passages. From the Flaming Lips the Dig di Anymore has learned to leave to vanish ritornello lezioso in vertigos a sibilline of distortions; those of Believe have learned to riesumare the vocal harmonies to three parts of the Beatles and the Yes. For the faithfuls of the religions of Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins e` been born an other God; but all e` vain, artificial, premanufactured, steri

found at http://www.trouserpress.com/entry_90s.php?a=dig

quote used in a magazine ad promoting dig's self-titled album...

"they may be headstrong, unruly and mischievous, but they're not naive about it. dig tempers brashness with brains."
- creem

from BIKINI magazine, 11/96

Defenders of the Universe

It takes balls to title your album Defenders of the Universe. One would think that KISS or Queen would've put out an album with that title. Alas, Dig has chosen to go all out, not only naming their album Defenders of the Universe but also typing on the CD the statement "Defenders of The fucking Universe." With the list of bands that Dig has toured with (Ramones, Rage Against The Machine, Nazareth) the essential sound of Dig has been to be as unessential as possible. It's as if we are dealing with the king of all rock bands and we don't even know where they came from. Actually, their landing occurred with the release of their self-titled album, which ruptured through the asphalt like Superman onto the streets of New York. The single "Believe" had people, well, believing. The rock & roll on this second album lies and beguiles like a belly dancer. It's foreign, but still tastes real good. They do, however, hide their apprehensiveness with Defenders. They might save us from the evil terror of Lex Luther or Darth Vadar, but they didn't create a masterpiece. It's enjoyable but they hype is exhausting, with big song titles, KISS-esque guitars, and grand photos, as if they actually planned to take over the planet. Listen to Defenders...and then go back to the first record.
-Brian S. Gross