A few of Middle Tennessee’s young men between the ages of 17 and 20—vocalist/guitarist/keyist Jesse Brock, his younger brother, drummer and percussionist, Bowman, and their high school buddy, Zach Wakefield who mans the bass, (all 3 originally from Kingston Springs, just west of the capital)—have come out with their newest independently produced EP, the 6 track Dig Deeper, released June this year, which follows their debut EP, Double Plus Good. An extension of this alternative-progressive, slightly ambient arena-emo rock sound the three are working on, Dig Deeper holds together a musical nostalgia for people raised on late ’90s/early aught’s, and MTV’s TRL-sound, while the likes of Britain’s John Eden (worked with Sting), Tony Banks (previously worked with Genesis), and engineer Richard Dodd (previously working with Tom Petty, ELO and The Travelling Wilburys) all came together for the occasion with Lines of the Sky in good Christian graces to produce one of the most lyrically catholic, “TV/Radio/Film-friendly songwriting,” (according to their Facebook fan site description) this side of the Bible belt.
Dig Deeper starts with “Thread,” which is where the insinuations of the aforementioned Catholicism and “TRL-ness” begin as a thump-bass straight from Korn’s Fieldy, mixing with similar vocals of Brandon Boyd and some snare/hi-hat spurts of Mike Einziger (both from Incubus) that eventually fall into a super-produced Coheed and Cambria sound, adding Jesse’s inspiration that seemingly comes from a confessional booth, ambiguously lyricizing, “Tell your secrets…/Deeper they pour into the fabric…/But it still hurts me…”
Steadfast in that particular sound after “Thread,” it doesn’t break until mid-way through the album’s third track, “Sonata”, which strays away from the Korn and Incubus-sounding instrumentation and vocalism spliced together to form some a Coheed and Cambria hybrid of all three, into the fast-paced strums of Gabe’s steadily plastic-picked electric on any Godspeed You, Black Emperor album; but with “Sonata” only stable as an intro to Line’s…“I Had a Dream That Everything Broke,” which lyrically stands as another questioned-faith driven song.
The final and title track, “Dig Deeper,” punches through the band’s questioning circumstances with an affirmation iterated and brought about by three people’s faith in the their Lord and ten strings (assuming Wakefield plays a 4-string bass) and a little bit of the electronic echoing from the keys to lead listeners out. And the finality strong enough to loop around to the first track again for a seamless transition to just in case anyone wants to listen to it all over.
For more on the band, check out linesinthesky.com, Facebook and iTunes.
