New York, New York

There is something happening in New York City.  In the millennium wake of the hype surrounding The Strokes, now fractured into marriages, sobriety, and solo projects, a void remains.  Brooklyn is stiff with hipster zeal, while the Bowery is eerily silent after the signature of a judge sealed the fate of Hilly Crystal’s CBGBs.  The city is engaged in an all out rat race for vanguard exploration and scrappy vintage relevance.  Caught in the middle of the barrage is The Dig. 
           
Consisting of David Baldwin (guitars/vox), Emile Mosseri (bass), Erick Eiser (keys), and Nick Brown (drums), the band has found themselves digging through the underbelly of Manhattan’s underground scene at Pianos, The Mercury Lounge, and the Rockwood Music Hall.
           
“The way things are going right now, there is basically a different kind of scene depending on where you are in the city,” says David Baldwin from inside a small cafe.  “I think we have found a niche in the Lower East Side, which is where a lot of the venues that bands desire to play in the city are located.  We are trying to build the band from the ground up and focus on one small area so it can grow out.”
           
“We spent a lot of our time and energy promoting in the village and the surrounding areas.  The plan was to keep bombarding one area everyday with flyers and posters, and the result was the shows growing more and more each time.”

With a regional tour leg planned through early June and a recently completed residency at Pianos in the books, the band is plugging away at the road in hopes of a bid for label representation. 
           
With a melodic pop sound derivative of a psychedelic folk explosion mixed with strict arrangements filled with sneaky guitars, The Dig is crafting melodies and finding a musical existence somewhere in-between The Byrds and Rose Hill Drive.                       

           

ffffffffffffffffffffWhy New York has such an edge: ssdffffffff Because the Bands Rehearse Underground. fffffffffffBetter Chinese Food, NYC or the USA ?: YesjYeYes, the myth is true, only in New York City . Tour Itinerary Staple: Lifetime Supply Of Cell Phone Batteries.

“Emile (Mosseri) and I are from New York,” says Baldwin.  “When we were in school together we had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go musically with this project.  Emile really hadn’t played in a rock band before and he came to the table with a lot of electronic influences, which works really well with bass driven songs that thrive off a groove.  Neil (Brown), our drummer, is from Massachusetts and has more of an old school influence with 60s rock and some 70s glam.  They combine to form a rhythm section that brings forth a cool and unique thing to the table.”
           
Before exploring the recordings, which include the 2006 release of Quiet Parade, and the Good Luck and Games EP with producer Bryce Goggin (Sean Lennon, Pavement, and The Ramones), Baldwin explains how the camaraderie present between New York bands helps in forming a supporting scene. 
           
“There is one band called the Rich Girls, which do the same kind of thing as us,” offers Baldwin.  “Their home base is a club called the Rockwood Music Hall which is right down the street from Pianos and the Mercury Lounge.  They are playing a concentrated area and they are growing.  We share the same fans but we have different sounding music.  The atmosphere feels very much like a scene.”
           
With the band crawling around New York’s barrooms in 2005 they made plans for a crude recording session, which would become Quiet Parade.

_________________________________ “I think the market is oversaturated. There is so much stuff out there that is not that great, people get hyped about a band with no substance.” - David Baldwin _________________________________

 

“We started recording Quiet Parade in 2005 and we didn’t finish until September of 2006 because we used this digital sixteen track machine in which we had to record all the tracks one at a time.  We went and did the drums by themselves and then the bass.  Then we went back and did overdubbing.  Some songs ended up being close to 70 tracks; just from us constantly overdubbing stuff,” Baldwin explains.  “We were just getting used to the recording side of things when we left school. We wanted it to come out perfect.”
           
“It was the opposite of the way we did the newest one.  It just dragged on for a long time and were using a very basic set up back then; like one mic and a tape machine.”
           
Things would change, “we started working with Bryce Goggin during the time we were looking for studios to record the EP,” says Baldwin in exploring the relationship with the producer who has worked with the likes of Pavement, The Ramones, and Sean Lennon.  “We wanted to find a cool studio and knock something out in a week.  We heard about Trout Recording, which is the studio in Brooklyn Bryce runs.  We contacted him, played him some demos and went from there.”

The result was an EP that forged the sound of the band forward into an evolving musical entity.  “I don’t think the tone of the band was a conscious thought.  I think it was more of a natural progression.  We knew what we wanted to go for and we have been working towards developing the sound.”
           
His attention then turns to the American music biz.  “I think the market is oversaturated,” says Baldwin.  “There is so much stuff out there that is not that great, it is easy for people to get hyped about a band with no substance.  If you want to make a comparison to somebody like Bob Dylan, 99% of the stuff coming out now cannot come close to who that man was.”
           
“The White Stripes is one of my favorite bands out right now.  Jack White is the most important figure in rock n’ roll at this very moment.  A guy like that comes around only so often.”
           
“MTV is destroying the social figure of the rock n’ roller but I think once people get introduced to something that is quality, whether it's on TV or Radio, they will embrace it," Baldwin concludes.