DigDog

DigDog is the product of Florida’s Brad Metz, Russian Alexei Dotsenko, and man of the world, Jack Ringca. Three very different minds, from very different places with very different backgrounds finding each other and resulting in high energy rock n roll with a very different flavor. With traces of virtuosic classical musicianship, quirky progressive songwriting, post-punk spirit and so much more, DigDog is emerging from the trials of the last two years with an album of fresh sounds, and a new approach.

The band has spent their time during the pandemic refocusing and producing an album that feels like a true debut. Homeless Theatre is an experience that ensures feelings of positivity, resolve, joy and determination.

Today, Ghettoblaster premieres their video for, “3 Sirens of Hell” saying, “This song is about how humanity has always been driven by power and wealth and thus can be manipulative. And to this end, the age of technology has become the age of disinformation.” - Ghettoblaster

Florida’s DogDog do have previous releases, as they mention in the press release accompanying this LP. But the trio have spent much of the pandemic retooling who they are as a band that they’re considering this to be a debut of sorts. Unfamiliar as I am with the band’s past output, I’ll accept that and declare this to be a great debut. It’s got a fantastic quirkiness to it, with pop angularity mixed with classical virtuosity. Delicate guitar plucking opens the album, with the lovely dark song about the transient nature of life, “Highfingers.” The oddities continue with “One Guarantee,” a song that has off-kilter rhythms and see-saws between thin instrumentation and wall-of-sound guttural guitars. Vocals are smooth and mysterious through most of the track, save for the spoken bridge that reminds me of the Washington, DC band 9353, one of the strangest and most fun bands to come from our nation’s capitol. I enjoy “Sirens of Hell,” too, with its evil growling guitars giving way to delicate plucking and a minimalist melody. The song reminds me of Chicago’s late lamented The Fire Show. “Country Gentleman’s Club” has a lovely flowing quality, with hints of old time western songs and gorgeous classical guitar work. “Tree Bones” begins with the intoning of guitar harmonics, then takes on a rolling and rollicking character, with jaunty guitar lines that seem to undulate. The penultimate track, “Glad at the World” is as happy sounding as the name implies, almost taking on the feel of a kids’ song. The songs here are quite varied, yet all of similar levels of unusual melodies and arrangements, making this one of the more interesting and unique records to come out this year. - Jersey Beat

Florida-based prog-punk outfit DigDog releases their new album, Homeless Theatre, a product of the pandemic-induced lockdown during which the band wrote, edited, and rewrote a batch of songs.

Made up of Brad Metz, Alexie Dotsenko, and Jack Ringca, the members of DigDog come from vastly different backgrounds, places, and musical influences. The result is kind of classical, kind of quirkily progressive, and kind of post-punk – innovative music, at once unique and atypically alluring.

Encompassing nine tracks, entry points on Homeless Theatre include “Highfingers,” which opens on post-punk-flavoured luminous guitars riding a trundling rhythm as singsong, dreamy vocals give the lyrics gliding textures.

“We are one, but are we all the same? / Some people are on drugs, and some people own airplanes / Possessions you can’t keep, put your loved ones in the ground / It’s a hard pill to swallow, but it has to go down.”

“Sirens of Hell” travels on potent, grime-flavoured percussion topped by grinding waves of sound. There’s an ominous feel and mood to the song, emphasized by groaning accents as spine-chilling vocals imbue the lyrics with portentous nuances.

“Tree Bones” begins with strident guitars rolling into a new wave-tinged melody rippling with retro essence.

“Concrete is a natural thing / And not all of nature complains / Buzzards eat roadkill / Hookers eat cheap pills / Skaters roll down hills with skills.”

“Glad at the World” conjures up suggestions of The Kinks crossed with the Talking Heads, blending Brit-rock flavours with avant-garde tangs. The last track, “Lullaby,” teeters and totters on gleaming tones as velvety chantlike vocals give the lyrics glowing colours, contrasting with the glaring, dazzle of the harmonics.

With definite punk influences, as well as touches of prog-rock, DigDog rolls out creative songs approaching the edge of unprecedented.

Homeless Theatre Track Listing:

1. Highfingers
2. One Guarantee
3. Sirens of Hell
4. Country Gentleman’s Club
5. Homeless Theatre
6. Tree Bones
7. Firemelon Beaverwolf
8. Glad at the World
9. Lullaby

Run Time: 27:45
Release Date: December 10, 2021
Release Label: Stinger Explosives - V13

Jax trio DigDog walk the punk-prog walk on their latest
By DANIEL A. BROWN

Hysteria is in. Of course, frenzy has never truly been out of season.

Contrary to the current pharma-colonization of the contemporary world, anxiety is a good thing. Agitation, emotional exaggerations, etc. might feel like the just-paroled siblings of serenity but we essentially can get off on impending something. The ancient Greeks knew this: the word “panic” was born from the arrival of the hoof-and-testosterone sporting god, Pan.

In the age of TikTok videos featuring lounging obese cats, we can rest easy in knowing that animism, the off-kilter, and socially acceptable (pl)anarchy always have a home in the human experience.

While hardly purveyors of chaos-for-the-sake-of-disruption, local trio DigDog are surely tapped into the fidgety zeitgeist. The band (Brad Metz on guitar and vocals; bassist Alexei Dotsenko, and drummer Jack Ringca) has just issued their latest full-length, Homeless Theatre. Thankfully, over the course of the album’s nine songs, DigDog don’t try to “answer” any big questions.

But don’t mistake that omission as a lack of philosophical intent, or absolute success in crafting a well-made and enjoyable album. The band is a trio, a format that can challenge musicians to simultaneously stretch and restrain their chops.

“It just happened how it happened but all of my bands have been more or less, trios,” explains DigDog founder and longest-standing member, Metz. “The original line-up actually switched instruments.”

Legendary trios like Cream, Rush, and the Minutemen all, in their own specific ways, were also driven by what would be called “virtuoso,” or at least emphatic, players. Ditto DigDog. Jacksonville has as much a foundation based in metal, a genre where technicality and precision (sadly) at times has superseded quality content.

“Jack and I were metal babies,” admits Metz, with a laugh. “I think out playing just comes out. I’m a big Silver Jews fan. They’re one of my favorite bands and they’re not a ‘technically impressive,’ like someone like Bob Dylan. I do think we like to play stuff that’s challenging. It could be a little ADD on my end.”

Locally, Ringca is arguably one of the more ubiquitous players and his interests and versatility runs the gamut from punk to neo-country rock. “If you’re you’re playing in a punk band, and all you need to express is like rage and like grit, then the good news is that you don’t need a whole lot of technical facilities. But I play and have played with several different projects and I’ve always wanted to be able to wanted to express something. Maybe I want to play sweetly. Maybe I want to play aggressively. Maybe I want to play happily or sadly. I want to be able to express that without barriers.”

Barriers are soundly demolished on Homeless Theatre. Album single “One Guarantee” opens with a squirrelly, off-time guitar lick and then widens into a syncopated dirge. The trio’s skills are evident but don’t overshadow the song’s plucky topic: samsara.

“There’s one particular distortion riff in the song that reminded us of Nirvana,” explains Metz. “So, the working title became ‘Not Nirvana.’ And we wound up basing the lyrics on the opposite of nirvana: samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.”

Again, DigDog aren’t here to supply answers. Metz sings “No Guarantee” in deliberate, reverb-drenched phrases: “Some will fail, some will excel / either way, it never ends well / I’ll never forget what you said to me / there is only one guarantee.”

DigDog’s song arrangements are too rubbery to rest into the verse/chorus/bridge/verse housing. By the end of “No Guarantee,” the trio go ballistic, playing a passage of polyrhythms wherein Dotsenko’s bass begins to play at Ringca’s cracking drumbeats, as Metz takes his guitar licks into their own parallel space. It happens quickly, almost subtly, but is surely an admirable confluence of ideas—especially when considering this is the band’s debut single for the album. In DigDog’s sound it isn’t some “anti-“ stance; it just sounds innate and natural.

During a three-way phone conversation with the band, they sound quasi-defensive about the idea of “improvising,” or even using the “jam” word, when talking about their songwriting process. “We don’t jam,” is Ringca’s terse view on the very idea. They do generate ideas while playing, so maybe it’s a semantics war. “We will have a general idea and then keep coming in towards those ideas,” explains Dotsenko, of how the band hones riffs and beats into songs.

Admittedly, Metz isn’t someone who writes “10 songs a day.” In fact, the nine songs on the album are the culmination of their efforts. Look for no outtakes or B-sides. The creation of Homeless Theatre runs counter to the underground band narrative of the past 18 months. “All of these songs were actually written in 2019, prior to the pandemic,” says Dotsenko, thus instantly neutralizing any Covid-19 commentary track.

“I think everybody is kind of going to expect [the Covid-age material],” explains Ringca. “And then if you if you’re doing that, you’re just adding to a giant wave of response that everybody in the same response is doing. Then you kind of get lost by adding to that giant wave of voices—you don’t have a singular voice.”

Press photo of DigDog
Credit: Press photograph courtesy of DigDog
Contrary to the stay-at-home DIY ethos that is both sensible and, during a plague, understandable, DigDog headed to Athens, Georgia to record Homeless Theatre at Japinski Recording Studio with engineer Matt Tamisin.

Thankfully, instead of a travelogue devoted to the lockdown and sanitizers, DigDog give us the walloping tech-born eschatology of “Sirens of Hell”; the urge to “trust your instincts” on “Tree Bones”; the title track (what began as a non-sequitur and they half-jokingly describe as their “wordy version of Phil Collins’ ‘Another Day in Paradise’”), along with hope shots in songs like “Lullaby” and “Country Gentleman’s Club.”

DigDog was first kenneled in the nascent hatchling days of the weird-and-wooly roster of Infintesmal Records circa 2010-ish, when that label was pumping out records at a refreshingly deranged clip. Back then, DigDog (lineup one) gave the world “Slaw Dog,” a bizarro amalgamation of 1972-era Captain Beefheart riffage, chanting lyrics, and a toy piano sounding like it was exploding from actual touch. A lofty start.

The band’s subsequent albums, with different levels of consistency, remained weird and humorous, with ever-present proficiency. Although arguably the current line-up is surely the most sleek and appealing DigDog. Also, their weird mix of chaos, animal-rich fables, and odd-time signatures that never time-out as annoying are all intact. If DigDog offer any social commentary, it’s smeared in such a thick plasma of art-prog moves that it’s all quickly palatable.

“I kind of feel like this is our ‘true debut,’” explains Ringca, who has been a “new guy” in the band for nearly a decade. “We hired a publicity firm, we’re doing radio. We’ve sunk quite a bit of money into this one. This would be the first time that we’re self-releasing it so it’s also the first time that that we’re treating it as a true label would. And also, we all agree that this is definitely the best sounding record we’ve ever made.” - JME - The Jacksonville Music Experience

Alexi Dotsenko, Brad Metz, and Jack Ringca have worked at DigDog for a long time but their newest release Homeless Theatre is a different sort of album for the trio. They are attempting to reinvent their sound and approach for longtime listeners and newcomers alike; both camps are on equal footing when dealing with this nine song studio album. It veers wildly in terms of subject matter between moments of hyper realism and extended flights of both musical and lyrical fancy, but there’s a consistent sound and point of view shaping Homeless Theatre. It establishes early on listeners should expect the unexpected.

“Highfingers”, the album opener, drives this point home. The band does not hesitate to mix volleys of distorted guitar in with their more thoughtful and restrained passages. You can’t turn away from the latter; DigDog play here and elsewhere with sinewy and precise skill. Their playing skills are beyond reproach. The vocals are a shrewd addition. DigDog’s singing cuts against the idiosyncratic nature of both the words and musical compositions; few if any of their songs for this album boast anything less than pure pop vocals in decidedly alien environments.

“One Guarantee” and “Sirens of Hell” are quite a pair. They have all the trappings of major tracks on this album. The song lengths never go overboard, but you can hear the band stretching here in a careful and considered fashion. The carefulness never neuters its daring, however. Both tracks, specifically the much darker “Sirens of Hell”, will keep attentive listeners on the proverbial edges of their seat.


Several times the band’s peculiar sense of humor rises to the surface. “Country Gentleman’s Club” definitely takes the path less travelled lyrically, but the vocals and music alike are a rather intelligent though certainly quirky riff on traditional styles. The album peaks again with its title cut. DigDog’s gift for unsettling melodies hits its stride with the guitar playing during this performance and the jolting shift into riffing guitar near the song’s end brings an appropriately apocalyptic note to the number.

“Tree Bones” has a revolving near-hypnotic flavor without ever dizzying you. It is one of the highlights for the band’s guitar playing on this release. The six-string achieves an immediate, engaging sound that carries the song much more than an otherwise fine lead vocal. “Firemelon Beaverwolf” may seem like a throwaway upon initial investigation, but further review solidifies its spot as one of the album’s most energetic rockers and full of clever humor as well as imagination.

“Lullaby” brings the album to a close without any pretentious fanfare. Some listeners may lay that accusation on DigDog but altering their creative direction in such a way is a mark of daring rather than desperation. These are musicians and songwriters who crave new horizons and challenges. Their biggest challenge, however, is bringing listeners along for the ride. Homeless Theatre succeeds in doing so, for the most part, and represents one of the more stunning reinventions you’ll discover in recent music history.

Kim Muncie - NeuFutur Magazine

I had to give DigDog’s new album Homeless Theatre a couple of passes before I felt comfortable beginning this review. It’s my first experience with this Sunshine State based three piece and the nine songs included on their first studio release in many years deserves a reviewer as on their respective game as possible. There are an assortment of influences underlying this collection, but the band’s progressive ethos stand out more than anything else. They love challenging themselves and the listeners alike with compositions that seem to delight in hairpin changes, pairing jagged dissonance alongside almost childlike exuberance, and rarely follow the path of least resistance. Anyone who craves music with at least a touch of the renegade will value this release.

It’s evident from the first song. “Highfingers” highlights the dramatic tug of war between seriousness and imaginative silliness helping define this release. It occupies the former side of the spectrum in this case; the lyrics for “Highfingers” explore, among other things, contending with the death of loved ones. Grief is not your typical fodder for pop songs of any ilk and DigDog deserves credit for writing about this difficult subject in unique fashion. “Sirens of Hell” is one of the most dramatic moments on this release. I believe DigDog intends for this to be regarded as a centerpiece track

The rhythm section packs quite a wallop, but it is the blistering guitar-heavy passages I remember long after the song ends. It has a ferocious and slightly unhinged quality missing from the album’s other tracks but notice how its less-than-centered attributes are held in check throughout. It comes close to outright chaos but never quite steps over the line. It’s quite an artful moment. “Homeless Theatre” starts off with a ghostly and slightly disjointed guitar melody that the rhythm section soon falls in behind. DigDog describe it as their wordier (and far weirder) take on Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise”; naturally, musical similarities are virtually nil. They refrain from lay down their customary sheets of fuzzed out guitar until later in the track.

You cannot take a song entitled “Firemelon Beaverwolf” too seriously, it’s impossible, but you can’t help but question how jokey you should treat this tune. It sometimes comes off like an outright spoof of goofy genre metal alternating with their usual clean post-punk bounce. Its subject matter hits like its ripped out of some psychedelicized comic book. “Glad at the World” is less than a minute long but don’t overlook it. It isn’t one of the album’s marquee tracks but there’s a little more going on there than meets the eye, perhaps.

There’s a lot going on in general with this album. DigDog have cornered the market for daring post-modern punk with a big helping of progressive songwriting dropped in for good measure. Their chops are impeccable. They bring plenty of personality to Homeless Theatre’s performances as well which helps these otherwise tracks potentially find an audience without placing their integrity on the chopping block.

by Jennifer Munoz - Vents Magazine

story by JASON IRVIN
The year is finally winding down, and many of us couldn’t be happier. It was a complete pile of burning garbage for many reasons, but there were plenty of positive developments on the local music scene. Perhaps you enjoy slam-dancing to the strains of metal. Maybe you love to get an earful of meditative synth jams. Or you might be looking for that rare group that can turn a live show into a transcendent experience. Whatever your preference, there are many great options out there for someone who needs a little local music in their lives.

When it comes to local live performances, no one can beat the hardest-working musicians in the area: DigDog. The group is led by the legendary Brad Metz, who’s been performing throughout Northeast Florida for more than 20 years in a number of groups. Metz is joined by the equally legendary Jack Ringca, a kinetic drummer who’s played with so many people, he has most likely been a member of your band at one point in time. These two wild men take over the stage at each performance, sharing stories about aliens, bees and other ephemera, making every performance lively. The group is rounded out by the lightning-fast bass work of Alexei Dotsenko. He may not say much on stage, but he is most certainly an amazing performer when it comes to the group’s fast-paced “party prog” songs. If you haven’t seen them yet, then you haven’t been to a show at Rain Dogs, Nighthawks, Shantytown or any of the other many clubs around the region.

Yes, 2018 was a particularly great year for this group, as they finally released their first full-length album, There’s Bees in There. This CD features such live favorites as “Small Town,” “March of the Crusaders,” “My Baby” and “Mad at the World,” as well as the title track. When you hear this record, it’s hard not to compare DigDog’s music to that of groups like Ween and Pavement. That would be doing the album a disservice. What DigDog really offers with There’s Bees in There is a distinct sound you’ll never hear from other local musicians. Some of the songs are incredibly thoughtful; others showcase the abstract silliness that many of us have come to love from this group. The next time you read about one their shows, make it your solemn duty to attend. You won’t regret it. And pick up a copy of this album while you’re there. You can also stream it on Spotify. - Folio Weekly

Jacksonville band DigDog makes a righteous mélange of a racket: prog, kraut and psychedelic rock tamed by back-to-basics grunge songcraft presented with a slacker’s sense of insouciance.

Much of that mix is down to the trio’s sole remaining founding member, singer and guitarist Brad Metz. His meandering guitar runs and dry poetry seem to have set the pace for an outfit that used to perform but twice a year (the tempo is picking up these days) and is only now releasing its third album—a full nine years into its career.

There’s Bees in There is a 13-track romp that sees Metz joined by (not-so) new bassist Alexei Dotsenko and drummer Jack Ringca. The self-released disc drops Nov. 10, with a launch party at Rain Dogs in Five Points.

Folio Weekly spoke to Metz and Dotsenko about the band’s ambitions. (Skype connection to Ringco was unfortunately lost.)

DigDog is as Jacksonville as it gets. Metz is a native and has spent much of his life here. Dotsenko was born and raised in Murmansk, which is Jacksonville’s official Russian twin town. So, close enough.

“Jacksonville has always been cool,” says Metz. “It’s not competitive like some other places. People are just hanging out.”

DigDog formed in 2009 and hung out for many years before the current lineup came together. The catalyst: Dotsenko, an erstwhile fan who offered his services to Metz and Ringco in 2015.

“DigDog was my favorite band,” the bassist pronounces, with a slight Russian accent. “When I first saw them at Lomax Lodge, I thought they were the greatest. I later went to see them sober, and they were just as awesome.”

Unlike the self-taught Metz, both Dotsenko and Ringca are formally trained musicians. The drummer even holds a music degree.

“What we all have in common is we want to do something different,” says Dotsenko. “Brad writes these really weird riffs, stuff they don’t teach you in music school. But as weird as they are, they’re still melodic.”

The baker’s dozen of tunes comprising There’s Bees in There is thus both raw and cooked. Metz’s flights of fancy are grounded in the power and precision of DigDog’s rhythm section. Lyrically, it’s pretty much blank verse. In a deadpan that recalls Les Claypool or Fred Schneider, Metz intones against pettiness, conformity and Colonel Chi (Leslie Nielsen’s villainous character in the 1993 Ernie Reyes Jr. vehicle Surf Ninjas).

The album’s centerpiece is track 7, “Small Town.” Situated midpoint through Bees, this math-inflected indictment of Middle America is peak DigDog.

“I was born in a small town,” Metz begins, channeling John Mellencamp with maximum aridity. “Killed my first deer in a small town.”

It gets better, too.

Other highlights include the throwback electronic dance mantra “Drug Dealer” and dark swamp waltz “Beaverpillar (A Song About Monkeys).”

The band members themselves recorded the album, which was later mixed by Chris Byron. A true DIY effort, it’s being released independently on CD and digital formats.

The CD sleeve features original artwork by Jacksonville painter and signmaker Grant Thornton. Taking the album title only slightly literally, Thornton dreamed up a cosmic grizzly bear, decked out in a space suit and exploring a honeycomb filled with bees.

“Grant is a good friend of ours,” says Metz. “He did the art for our previous album Early Reiser, and we hope to have him do all albums in the future. He did most of the storefront signs in the new and improved Murray Hill, too. He is a fantastic person and artist!”

As DigDog celebrates their tin anniversary in 2019, Metz and company plan to expand operations outside their hometown. They ought to be, by their own reckoning, a regional band after this decade of mischief and experimentation. In the meantime, they’ll be mining the honeycomb that is Jacksonville. - Folio Weekly