Review | The Digs – Manic

One of my favorite things to write about on this blog is Boston bands; even better when it’s Boston bands that I know and go to see often. Today is one of those days! The Digs are about to release their brand-new album, Manic, and you should know about it.

Straddling the line between pop-punk (the good kind, though – fun, fast, and bouncy, without being trite) and… not-pop punk, these dudes put on an energetic live show and the album captures that feeling. It kicks in with “Ready Set,” which is a great pump-up song if you like yelling along with bands, which I do, very much.

You’ve got plenty of straight-ahead punk songs here, choruses that will get stuck in your head and riffs that you can’t stop humming; not that the Digs don’t ever let you catch your breath (“Photoelectric” slows it down for a second), but good luck not having “Gunslinger” in your head for days in all its fed-up cowboy darkness, or “Origins” with its eminently sing-alongable chorus. And bonus points to the Digs for having a song called “Red Ryder” that contains the line “keep an eye out.” I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.

But my personal favorite has to be “Green Line.” Listen, I lived in Allston when I moved to Boston almost exactly 11 years ago. The B-Line was my daily nemesis in every way described here, except I didn’t go to any baseball games (although I did try to get from one place to another while one was about to start or had just ended, and even that alone made me want to commit crimes). If you’ve never had to deal with the joys of the oldest subway line in North America, high-five yourself for me; the chorus is still catchy as hell, though. Everyone else: you know. So I’m pleased to be able to premiere it for you here today. Pretend you haven’t heard it at a show. If you haven’t been to a show, keep reading!

Manic comes out on Ocelot Records Nov. 21st; the album release show is at the Midway with OC45, Trophy Lungs, and The American Myth. That’s OC45’s homecoming show after they’ve been on tour, too, so this is going to be a heck of a show. Strongly recommended!

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