Back in the 80s I used to read Gerard Cosloy's CONFLICT magazine so intently that his bands, the ones I'd never even heard, often became my bands, and since he incessantly and most often deservingly hyped up the ones he dug, I knew their ins & outs pretty well. One I always wanted to hear was DIG DAT HOLE. They were often described in Conflict's pages as being a wild-ass BIRTHDAY PARTY-inspired antecedent, very much in the same school as some other great bands of the day like the Laughing Hyenas and Pussy Galore. They actually imploded even before they got a 45 out the door, and all that ever existed from them was a single cassette tape (pictured here) and an aborted LP, neither of which I've heard in their entirety. The story I got from the interweb says that 2 of the guys moved to NYC and quickly started COP SHOOT COP. They were interesting for about ten minutes in 1990, weren't they?So here it is in 2007 and I've procured a solitary song of theirs from the cassette and aborted LP called "A Similar End", and - whoa. Absolutely fucking scorch. This has aged like a bottle of fine barleywine, and blows away a fair majority of the musical landscape between 1987 and 2007, wouldn't you say? Wow.
Download DIG DAT HOLE - "A Similar End" (from tape and aborted LP)
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I saw Dig Dat Hole open up for Big Black in Rhode Island. The show was great, and I remember Dig Dat Hole being right up my alley, and of course never got to see or hear them again.
The next night, I suffered one of the greatest disappointments in my life. Big Black were playing in Boston at the Channel. The openers that night were a very early Urge Overkill and Pussy Galore, who were my favorite band at the time. I drove the two hours from New Hampshire in the slim hope of being able to get in (it was a 21+ show and I was 19). I got there early, hoping maybe to become a "roadie" and help them in with some of their stuff. They pulled up in their Ford Taurus station wagon, hopped out and walked right in and that was it. Without drums and whatnot, they were able to travel extremely lightly.
I hung around a bit, and eventually Santiago came around back, and I told him my story. He thought it would be pretty impossible to get me past the bouncers (notorious assholes). I sat around for a while longer when I spotted some people I knew pull into the parking lot. I wandered over to chat with them for a bit, and as I was doing so I saw the back door of the club open and Santiago and Albini's heads poke out. I was dumbstruck and started running over there, but they didn't spot me, and I saw the door click shut, and knew that was my chance gone. I don't know why I didn't whistle or something. I just panicked.
I was so disappointed that I wasn't going to get to see Pussy Galore, that when one of my Boston friends showed up, I just had to leave. I drove straight back to New Hampshire. I never did see Pussy Galore.
Kinda funny-- I was turned away at the door for that Big Black Channel show, too. They wouldn't accept my Connecticut i.d. at the door (Boston clubs were always very fussy). I ended up taking a train to another show across town, at T.T. the Bear's. I think Rank and File were playing.
I remember reading about Dig Dat Hole in Conflict. Their name came from some graffiti that had been spray-painted at a construction site around Providence, I'm pretty sure.
They did get as far as having an ad in Forced Exposure for a forthcoming 7" (on Ruthless?) which never materialised...
i never did see (or even hear)dig dat hole.....but i did read the conflict review as well. they sure SOUNDED intriguing....anywho, i got a funny story for y'all...i did see pussy galore once (at revival in philly circa 1987 or so). my pal george and i were up near the stage before pg went on. jon spencer was on stage fucking with his amp when george, looking at bob bert's drumset ,says "i hope there's no gas in that thing" (referring to the gas tank that was part of bert's drum kit). jon spencer walks over, grabs george's fedora off his head and tosses it to the back of the club. george, who is irates, says "thanks a lot !" an spencer replies, "your welcome , asshole." ...oh man, i couldn't stop laughing the whole way home.
I saw them a couple time in NYC at one opening slot or another and I recall I really didn't like them, just big ugly noise, where Swans were disciplined and gorgeous, they were ugly and deformed.
Jim Hildreth
Actually DDH were supposed to release an LP. That's what was advertised in Forced Exposure. It was initially to come out on Tom Smith's Adult Contemporary label around 1987. But he blew his cash on drugs. And so it ended up in the hands of Ruthless Records circa 1988, at the time overseen by Albini. Somehow, that was never released either. But there was a test pressing, one of which I happen to own.
Great little album from a musical standpoint, but deeply dumb, dumb, dumb lyrics ("I wish I had a beer/I'm gettin outta here"; sheesh).
Tunes are a bit similar to the first Cop Shoot Cop EP, but w/harsh guitar and no sampler.
DDH left RI and moved to NYC around '88 or so. Shortly thereafter, they replaced the guitarist, and split up in an eyeblink. The drummer and singer/bassist went to on to found CSC.
hi
good story,do you know some were taped?,I like trading live stuff,you can visit my page at www.freewebs.com/almudeno69
What would it take to get the entire cassette? Pleeese? Purty pleeeeze?
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