Digger: Monte Carlo

Digger: Monte Carlo

2000

Hopeless Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1.  Detroit River  2. Feeling What I'm Saying  3.  Slur  4. Lucky  5. Nervous Reaction  6.  Plastic Wings  7. Postcards Across The Atlantic  8. Living It Up  9.  Taking The Consequences  10.  Round 2  11. I Hate You When You're Sleeping  12. Dragging My Feet  13.  Trying  14. Alcohol, Women, And Misery



The other day I was talking about how much I equate "The Promise of an Uncertain Future" with my college days, "Monte Carlo," however came out well after I had finished college and moved into the lucrative career field of pizza delivery! 

Don't let anyone tell you a good liberal arts education doesn't pay off!! That last customer left me a five dollar tip!!!

 To be honest, I think working at a pizza joint is one of the most valuable educations a person can receive...If I never worked at one I wouldn't have ever seen a grown man chase a customer outside of a building grabbing his groin and shouting, "EEEAAAT THIIIIS!!!"...And then there was the time a woman who worked there buttered a guy's dick using the same brush that was used to put garlic butter on the pizza crust... Don't worry! She washed it afterwards (on the other hand,  there's not enough Palmolive in the world to wash that mental image from your mind)...

To this day, the minute I put on "Monte Carlo" the scent of crazy bread wafts through my memories and I suddenly get a garlic knot in my throat...Come to think of it, I think I had a lot more fun delivering pizzas than going to college...So my advice to the graduating class of 2015 is to skip Harvard altogether and go straight to Domino's...

Oh, and if you were around and listening to music back in 2000, you'll recall it was the era where emo had completely overtaken the punk scene...I consider 1998-2000 to be the years where 90's pop punk truly died...Shortly after the release of "Monte Carlo," the familiar Hopeless Records roster of pop-punk bands were replaced by groups devoted to the pursuit of faceless mall-emo and shit-screamo...

...but "Monte Carlo" appeared briefly before all this...Before emo was a dirty word...Before even I (a man who owns multiple Sugar Ray albums) was embarrassed to admit that I enjoyed the genre...Despite all my emo ramblings, I'd still classify the majority of this album as the band's usual brand of angsty-yet-good-natured pop-punk...The E-word is mostly contained to a couple of select tracks (" Plastic Wings" and  "Alcohol, Women, And Misery"), but it's hard not to notice a certain Get Up Kids-iness creeping into their sound...50's style pop melodies have been replaced by Moog sequences and "best time of your life" lyrics...It often comes across as pop-punk without any pop hooks in it, which made the whole thing run together for the first month or so that I listened to it...But remember, I was a pizza guy back then...Broke as fuck! If I spent $10 on a mail order CD from Hopeless, I was going to get my money's worth, by God, so I listened to it and listened to it and listened to it...

Eventually, shapes began to emerge from the mist...Turns out "Feeling What I'm Saying" is a pop-punker just as catchy as anything else they'd ever released and it was interesting to hear them toughening up their punk in some places ("Detroit River") while softening it up in others (again, "Alcohol, Women, And Misery")...For something that seemed so monolithic on first impression,  it  actually turned out to have a lot of depth...

On first listen I assumed that they'd embraced emo because..well, they had to...After all, wouldn't it have been tacky to release a straight-up pop-punk album in 2000?! But eventually I had to revise my original opinion...I truly think these guys were feeling emo at the time...The band sounded noticeably bitchier and homesick...The lyrics alternate between bitter recriminations against some unspecified other with tales of travel fatigue...Driving on three hours sleep...Postcards sent across the Atlantic...Those kind of things...That odd malaise where something's wrong but nothing's wrong...I remember there being a lot of this feeling going around at that time..Like I said earlier...Garlic knots...

This brings me to a few months back where Jens and I were reminiscing about 90's Hopeless Records and it struck me I hadn't heard "Monte Carlo" in a long time...As a lark, I went to the band's website and went straight to their vinyl section...After scrolling through pages of Taking Back Sundays, and Wait Until Wednesdays, and Scream About Thursdays, I started to run across names I hadn't seen in awhile...The Nobodys...Selby Tigers...Falling Sickness...Digger...Their vinyl was reasonably priced ($10.00 a pop) so we ordered a big, fat pile of records...In that pile was "Monte Carlo" and it felt great to revisit it...I honestly can't imagine relating to something this self-absorbed now, but I couldn't imagine my life without it then...So let's toast to all those long-forgotten emo/pop-punk bands that brought us so much joy with their misery! Hear hear! 

Here's  "Feeling What I'm Saying" by Digger...Enjoy...

 

 

Digger: The Promise of an Uncertain Future

Digger: Promise of an Uncertain Future

1998

The Promise of an Uncertain Future

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Pieces  2. Quitters Never Win  3. Tour Diary  4. Yammer  5. Board Games  6. Okay  7. Space Cadet  8. Living On A Couch  9. Picture Perfect  10. Day Off  11. Blocked Up  12. Stuck  13. Past Mistakes  14. Benner Has No Soul


Dang, sorry I haven't been able to update this as much as usual this month...I've been so busy  running my Fortune 500 company (somethingsoft) that I just plain haven't had a chance to explore the complex intricacies of Digger's Discography...But  I'm clearing my slate and tonight it's just you and me, lady...

I remember buying "The Promise of an Uncertain Future"when I was in college...I fell into some money (thanks, Mom) and bought this CD and a nice, tasteful pair of Jnco Jeans..

"No way, Daddy-o...These things are gonna be cool forever...Turn up that shit up!"

(cranks up some damn Coal Chamber...)

"Who would you rather bang? The chick bass player from Coal Chamber or (insert name of chick bass player from another 90's metal band)? hyuk...hyuk..."

Speaking of Nu-Metal, I had a very good friend who explained to me the difference between Mudvayne and Slipknot...The description really stuck with me for some reason...It was one of those weird moments where a spotlight shines down from the heavens on you, while you ask yourself, "Man, is this really a conversation I'm having?" Here it is...An explanation of what makes Slipknot and Mudvayne distinct musical entities:

"Slipknot wore masks, whereas Mudvayne had special-effects make-up..."

I don't know why but that answer is so simple and brilliant...Almost poetic...

Alright, I'm getting off topic...Here's the skinny, fatboy..."Promise of an Uncertain Future" is my personal favorite Digger album (of the ones I've heard anyway)...The band sounds much more mature, dropping most of the High School humor (minus the gross Taco Bell shout-out during "Tour Diary") and Madonna nostalgia of "Powerbait"...But it also doesn't get as introspective as the emo "Monte Carlo" album that would follow...This is just pure, heart-on-yer-sleeve pop-punk/near-emo..They sound toughened-up...Not as fluffy and geeky... 

The difference is immediately striking as soon as opener, "Pieces" begins...Their habit of stacking dual interlocking lead-vocal melodies over each other is incredibly exciting, and they use this technique throughout the album, which finally helps in establishing a unique, signature sound for the band..."Powerbait," however enjoyable most of it was, felt all-over-the-place...The band sounds so zeroed in here that the whole thing runs together on the first few listens, but I don't know many folks who listen to punk who can't overcome such an obstacle...

Despite the homogeneity of the sound and song-writing, I see "Space Cadet" often singled out as the album highlight...And it is an awesome song...Between the walloping guitars in the chorus and the spidery leads, this song does come off as a bit more dynamic than the others, particularly when it momentarily shimmers during the "...and now I'm wasting all my time..." tag....I can see how this might grab somebody's attention more than the other material on here...

I think I heard this album at the exact right moment in my life...A song like "Blocked Up" is precisely what a college kid needs...Those feel-good/feel-bad "I'm down but I'm not out" anthems...I can remember hearing this and singing along, throwing a few fists along with the crashing riffs..."Fuck you, cruel world! I'll show you! Just wait until 2 years when I get my Associates Degree in whatever subject it is that I show up for once every two weeks!" The hard-won optimism of "Okay" falls into this same category...Where you're as low as you can get, but you feel on top of the world...A difficult thing to capture in a recording, actually...

This is another one of those albums that always brings back a ridiculous flood of memories for me...And I think it still holds up...Sure, it's not the most ground-breaking music ever recorded or anything, but it's a solid-as-hell pop-punk record...Lots of hooks, but not too slick or sugary this time around...If you just out-and-out love the genre, then it's hard for me to imagine you not cranking this on a Friday Night...

Speaking of Friday Night, this feels like a good beer-drinkin' Friday...Like The beers will taste especially cold and crisp tonight...So we better get crackin'...

Clinkadink!

Here's "Pieces" by Digger...Happy Friday, forevermore...

Digger: Powerbait

Digger: Powerbait

1996

Hopeless Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Digger  2. Boy Toy Days  3. Dale  4. I Want My Hat Back  5. Lifestyles Of The Middle School Lamest  6. The Boot  7. Rollercoaster Girl  8. String In My Throat  9. Day In The Life Of Joel  10. Bigwheel  11. September  12. Geek Love  13. Ducky's Curse  14. True Blue



I love Powerbait! Sometimes I'll put on some Skinemax and powerbait all night long! 

 Tug-tug-tug-(make muscle in mirror)-tug.... 

The other day I was paging through the "Powerbait" CD booklet and after being initially stunned by the picture of the guy holding the big-ass fish...

...I glanced at the "thank you" list and the first names on it kind of popped out at me... Tim and Joel Heidecker...Is that the same Tim Heidecker from "Tom Goes to the Mayor"?

  Is there a Tim and Eric/Digger connection? It seems like that might be the case, since Tim Heidecker is from Pennsylvania and look at the address listed as their contact address! Coldplay, PA?!?!  

 So I can only assume that Joel is Tim's brother...Does that mean that the song "A Day in the Life of Joel" is about Tim Heidecker's brother?!?!

 I think I'm in the wrong line of business...I should be a Private Eye or something...

 Bourbon on my breath...Feet up on my desk...Getting mixed up with murderous dames...I mean, I do all that stuff already, but I think the Private Eye job has a better 401k...

Oh yea, I should talk about the album itself..."Powerbait" is the debut full-length by pop-punkers Digger, who sound like a less pie-fucking version of Blink 182 or something...Real Second-Term Bill Clinton punk...Lots of nerdy, sugary songs about teachers, holding hands on  roller coasters and 80's pop-culture references...And as someone who loves this kind of shit, I love this kind of shit...I'll admit, it's a bit juvenile at times and I skip about 1/3rd of the album whenever I listen to it (I guess I just don't share their nostalgia for Madonna...

...I remember being slightly more forgiving when this first came out, but listening to this in 2014 after having survived "Music" and "American Life" I can't help but grit my teeth a little....), but when these guys were on, they were on..."Dale" is a textbook example of how to write the perfect late 90's pop-punk track...The near-emo dynamics, the girly lyrics, the in-jokes...I'm not quite sure who Dale is...Is he the guy holding the giant fish in the inside cover? Who knows...I'm not even sure if that certain something in the water makes the narrator like Dale as a person or if it makes him act like Dale...I also remember "I Want My Hat Back" being something of a Summer of '96 favorite...I can assure you I spent many an hour driving around Michigan aimlessly while blasting this track before King Horsin' in at a bonfire...

So, I guess this album is all about nostalgia for me...If someone's asking me what are the vital punk albums of the 90's were, I don't think "Powerbait" would leap immediately to mind...But when I'm pounding the cheap beers on a Friday Night thinking back on the good ol' days it's one of the first things I often reach for..Comfort punk...

So let's do it...Let's put on "Dale" and drink to the old days...Hear, hear...