DESCRIPTION:
Dig first came together in 1991 when lead singer/guitarist Scott Hackwith, then a video art director, began working on demo tapes on his four-track at home, mostly as a hobby. "When I wrote those first songs for the (1993 RUNT) EP and the first album, I was layering guitars on my four-track," he says. He created the three-guitar attack out of necessity in order to duplicate the layers he'd recorded. "When we went into rehearsal, we started out with me on guitar, a bass player and a drummer, and there was a lot missing, so I added another guitar player."


Fast forward to the winter of 1994: the California rock quintet tantalized the MTV generation with "Believe," the searing modern-rock hit off the group's self-titled Radioactive/MCA debut album. It was an MTV buzz clip for several months and got enough radio airplay to send the album up the Billboard pop albums chart. Taking their show on the road, the band toured with the Flaming Lips, Rage Against the Machine, Goo Goo Dolls, Bad Brains, Blind Melon, Afghan Whigs and Henry Rollins. They wowed TV audiences with appearances on the "Jon Stewart Show," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and in England played live on the BBC and at the Reading Festival. Hackwith was even called to produce the Ramones' ACID EATERS album.


1996 saw the release of the band's second album, DEFENDERS OF THE UNIVERSE. After DEFENDERS, Hackwith returned to his garage studio and began experimenting with a slimmed-down sound. "I held up in the garage in the San Fernando Valley and went to work," says Hackwith. "I started writing not on the guitar but with some vintage keyboards and a drum machine. I was pulling out a lot of old '80s records like Joy Division, Teardrop Explodes and The The. The stuff I was writing was completely different until the guitar layers were added. I was in bliss."


Fast forward yet again to 1998: Hackwith has a recently-completed record, LIFE LIKE, and a new association with Radiouniverse/Universal Records. "I am really proud of this record and can't wait to play the songs live." The band sports a new line-up (along with Hackwith, Jon Morris is the only other member from the original group). Covered in a blanket of typically-textured Dig guitar noise, LIFE LIKE mixes forays into power-pop ("Live In Sound" and "All Over You"), fetching psychedelia ("The Fuzz" and the instrumental "Bus Stopping"), slow-burn rockers ("Stay On the Grass") and moody masterpieces ("Life Like").