The Dig with Sean Bones
Where: DC9, 940 Ninth St. NW
When: 8:30 p.m. doors, 9 p.m. show Tuesday
Details: $8 advance, $10 day of show; ages 18 and over with valid ID; 202-483-5000; dcnine.com
It’s little wonder that indie music fans are beginning to rediscover 1980s bands such as Shriekback, or even the East Coast faves New Math and Personal Effects.
The lure of instant fame has so enticed many musicians that few opt to develop fan bases by playing smoky, raw songs in small clubs, turning instead to Auto Tune and Web celebrity. The Brooklyn-based quartet the Dig is perhaps the freshest indie sound since CBGBs morphed from an underground club into a cultural icon.
“There are a lot of great bands out there and we’re always listening to a lot of older music, lots of Kinks and David Bowie,” bassist Emile Mosseri said. “There are definitely a lot of punk influences in our music.”
It’s little wonder this modern garage band’s 2007 EP “Good Luck and Games” caught more than a few ears and landed them residencies at New York’s club Pianos, opening slots with a slew of bands including the Walkmen, and a contract with renowned music agent Kevin French of New York’s Paradigm, who founded Bigshot Touring Artists, Portland, Ore.
The partnering with French has resulted in several boosts for the group including a just-completed full-length album — dubbed “Electric Toys” — the band members hope to see released after the beginning of the year.
Samples from the album, produced by Bryce Goggin, who has worked with such high-profile musicians as Sean Lennon and Apples in Stereo, have the same spontaneous sounds as on the EP with plenty of guitar power and in-your-face bass and percussion.
“It is similar to the EP, but there are some different directions,” Mosseri said. “There are definitely all of the punk influences but the different is in the energy and … there are more stories in the songs; they’re more straightforward.”
Perhaps that’s because Mosseri and bandmate/guitarist David Baldwin have honed their skills ever since they were grade school students, confident that they would one day form a band and find an audience. Years on the road opening for other bands have given them front-row seats at shows where they can absorb other bands’ formulas for musical success.
“We knew since we started we wanted to play as much as we could, on the road,” Mosseri said. “Just playing with the bands we admire and respect is a real treat.”
