It must be said that, if nothing else, the pandemic has been a positive boon for the uploading of esoteric shit on YouTube. I guess with everyone on lockdown with loads of downtime on their hands, the moment finally seemed right to digitize and upload all sorts of far-flung crap, at long last.
Such is the case this week, as just goddamn yesterday, a YouTuber named E3 — how cryptic! — saw fit to upload the so-called Adult Contemporary mix of the debut by Dig Dat Hole.
For those playing along at home, Dig Dat Hole was the band Tod [A] played in after his stints with The Dum Dum Boys, The Crabs and Shithaus, but before his celebrated turns helming the mighty Cop Shoot Cop and his current-albeit-temporarily-dormant combo, Firewater. DDT also featured future Cop Shoot Cop drummer/percussionist Phil Puleo (later of the Audio Dyslexia, The Body Lovers, Angels of Light, and more notably SWANS and, most recently Human Impact) and a guitarist named John Rose. They played a few gigs here in the city alongside names like Railroad Jerk, Pussy Galore, Rat at Rat R and White Zombie, to name a small few, at since-vanished venues like CBGB and the Lismar Lounge.
E3 shared some more info…
DIG DAT HOLE
Vocals/Bass: Tod A.
Guitar: Mike Rose
Drums: Phil Puleo
DIG DAT HOLE was the band Tod A and Phil Puleo were in just before forming Cop Shoot Cop. Most are familiar with them from the Kneejerk test pressing on Ruthless Records. What most don't know is that the record was also going to be released by Tom Smith on his Adult Contemporary label. What's more, the Adult Contemporary mix is waaaay better than the Ruthless Records mix, however it's impossible to find... except by me. I have a taped copy that was sent to the Ugly American zine by Tom Smith back in the early 90s.I had to fly in A Similar End and a short part of Cooler Than You (don't worry. you won't notice the splice) from the Ruthless version due to an overdubbing accident that happened years ago.
Track listing is:
1) Six Good Reasons
2) I Exist
3) Dig Dat Hole
4) Spiritual Monday
5) A Similar End
6) Cooler Than You
7) Down
8) Infected Again
Here is Tod & Phil talking about the troubled record during a Cop Shoot Cop interview with the Ugly American fanzine on Feb 4 1990:
Tod: Steve Albini, who is just a weasel, dicked us out of a promise he made to us.
UA: Oh yeah, wasn't he going to produce?
Tod: No, he was just going to put out our record, but he like hedged and hawed, you know, he just strung us along for, what is it? A year and a half? A year?
Phil: Something like that.Tod: And someone else before that, so it was just kind of like, "fuck it." We had other ideas, so...
UA: Was the other guy Tom Smith?
Phil: They know all about Tom Smith.
Tod: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
UA: Do you hate Tom Smith?
Tod: Um, Tom Smith is just kinda pathetic, like when I finally met him it was just... I went there with the intention of beating the shit out of him, but he was just sort of a pathetic drug addict. So I just left.
UA: What did he tell you about releasing the record?
Tod: He said he'd been doing a lot of cocaine and he used up all the money he was going to put out records with, um, doing cocaine and it was like, uh, cool... cool record label. Yeah, like "I'm sorry, I was really fucked up and I had to go out to my dad's place to build boats to straighten out."
One wonders, where is Tom Smith today?
Enjoy...
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