In the thrash metal genre, there was
Believer and
Vengeance Rising. Also around that time, I began to get into the dark, brooding hard rock act called
Undercover. There was even a hardcore/skate-punk band called
The Crucified, who received quite a bit of airplay back then.
Stryper had been around for awhile, but although they were very respectable as a Metal Blade band & had great guitar riffs, they also had those wretched ballads with wimpy “love song”-type lyrics that were rather icky once you realized they were
really aimed at the J-man.
So…imagine my surprise and delight when, in 1991, I attended
Carthage College and discovered that a wealth of obscure Christian music existed that was even more distinctive, unusual, and captivating than those I’ve already mentioned.
The Lutheran foundation of Carthage resulted in me being equally yoked with a smallish horde of creepy young proselytizers – and the one that (thankfully) attacked me first was the long-haired, goatee’d, hippy boot-wearing Scott Wilman.
My evenings spent in his incense-clouded dorm room tabernacle were rich with ‘shroom pizza, VHS tapes of abortion footage, and an endless library of fantastic Jesus rock.
Scott was my introduction to the insane, gonzo melodic goth punk of the amazing
Scaterd Few, and the prog-y, experimental thrash of Seventh Angel.
He also turned me on to a rather quirky and unique “alt-rock/grunge” band called Dig Hay Zoose, who would probably have been at that time RIYL’d to fans of Jane’s Addiction or Red Hot Chili Peppers or possibly even Faith No More.
I, however, heard something quite different in the Dig Hay Zoose sound. Sure, they had stretches of slappy, popping bass in their songs, and they occasionally flirted with “rap” style vocal patterns. Yet unlike their era peers, Dig Hay Zoose explored angular, discordant, jagged guitar work that reminds me more of what Voivod, die kreuzen, or twitch were doing.
And, as the years went on, and my list of Christian music faves grew to include Starflyer 59, Living Sacrifice, Mortal, Danielson Family, Training For Utopia, etc. …even now I still really enjoy this Dig Hay Zoose material.
I’m not sure if it’s the Christian thing to do to rip and share this out-of-print CD, but – then again – it’s a sin that some folks are charging $20-$50 for the disc on eBay. So… go ahead, Dig it:
Dig Hay Zoose ‘Struggle Fish’
{ 2 comments }
I’m creating a web tv show based on mostly art and culture with a Detroit centralism to it. I was wondering if you might be willing to come on at some point to either espouse the importance of vinyl or how to tell a scratched/crap record from a good one.
Hey Chief,
You forgot to mention the follow-ups to StruggleFish: Magentamantalovetree and the live album Ascension 7: Starship to Heaven (iirc…not at home to verify it just now), which features ~3 tracks with Alan Aguirre (aka Ramald Domkus) of Scaterd-Few. I think those tracks are all S-F tunes. At one very amusing point, Aguirre introduces himself and then says that DigHayZoose is his new backing band. :)
Which brings me to Scaterd-Few’s follow-ups to Sin Disease:
Jawboneofanass (not sure why these 2 bands did that word-smashing thing with their sophomore albums) and Grandmother’s Spaceship. The former never quite grew on me, and i find the latter is more of a return to classic Scaterd-Few form.
Comments on this entry are closed.