Dianogah - Masters of Jenga

Sassy!

Fortunately for you, however, fakejazz.com features a higher class of post-rock journalist (for a higher class of post-rocker), and I was able to lob one back at them that they had not expected: "Just what the hell are 'Indie Rock Spock Ears?'" referring to a song title from their most recent long player, Battle Champions, released earlier this year on Southern Records.

They answered. Before revealing that answer, though, one must be aware of how their answer to that question is, in a way, indicative of how Dianogah operates as a band.

At first glance, Dianogah offers nothing too fancy: solid, mid-tempo songs of an easily digestible length. The melodies are catchy and enjoyable, and the rhythms are punchy. The two basses, however, make things a bit more interesting than your usual power trio. Dianogah takes one of the most under-used, taken-for-granted instruments in rock music and explores its abilities and possibilities. Rather than taking the easier road and playing one as a traditional bass and one in a more guitar-like capacity, each bass plays its own unique melodic line. As those two melodic lines blend, the songs open up.

When asked about their unique approach to music, the band downplays their ingenuity. Kip, the drummer, stated that "the majority of our songs are pretty standard pop material, they pretty much have familiar structures, and not anything that's free-flowing or unique in [the post-rock] sense." Jay, one of the bass players, followed up by commenting that the experimentalism of the post-rock scene is "not something we identify with or try to attain in any way."

They insist that the two-bass-no-guitar setup was purely happenstance: that they had originally existed with an additional member that did play guitar, who quit the band and was simply never replaced. The small size of the band suited their mentality. Jason, the other bass players, commented that "we were very excited about having a very small democracy" because the more people there are in a band, the harder it becomes harder to make music that everyone is happy with. Rather than have a bandleader, Jay explained, "we let the one main guy be not in the band."

However, this doesn't really resolve the issue. Why not have one bass player switch to a six-string? "None of us knew how to play guitar... Kip is the best guitar player of the three of us." Further, they claim the absence of a guitar player is of little consequence. Jay commented that "I don't think we're trying to do anything different, you could give either one of Jason or I a guitar and the sound would be a little different, but what we are doing would not vary all that much. Nobody would give us a second look"

When pressed, however, Kip admitted that having a guitar "would take away a lot for the actual tone, the sound that their basses make together that we all relish so much. I love the way their basses sound. A lot of our songs are strung upon ideas of them playing together, and how pretty the notes blend together... with a guitar, it would just sound crappier."

Given that their initial contention that two-bass setup, though accidental in origin, had evolved into something unique, a balance which the addition of a guitar would upset, I challenged the "standard pop material" issue.

A couple of years back, Dianogah released a really good debut, As Seen from Above on Ohio Gold Records, that was, really, more of a standard pop album. However, their new record, Battle Champions, has a better sense of space, a sense of balance that is lacking in most pop music. Traditional rock music is like a locomotive, always moving forward in a linear progression, all hooks, riffs, and regular ebbs and flow of tension (verse chorus verse). Dianogah's music, particularly on Battle Champions is more like a structure being created, like a house of cards or a game of Jenga: carefully constructed, frequently delicate, and often breathtaking. Certainly more complex than initial appearances might suggest.

"Maybe I spoke too soon," Kip mused, "when I said our structures are more like pop. That's kind of a manufactured answer that I have maybe based more on our last record, which I think was more cookie-cutter than [Battle Champions]. [Battle Champions] definitely [has] more complexities and structure and bounces around a little bit more. We kind of play with things a little bit more... [the difference between the first record and this one is] adding in more abstract ideas or having more intent upon changing the original pop structure so it's a little off-kilter."

Jay adds "another thing that has an effect upon it is the fact that there are relatively few vocals and there are no blaring guitar chords that take up a lot of space in a song... Kip's a pretty busy drummer."

To which Kip responds, "for me, as a drummer, from playing with a band with a guitar to playing in a band with no guitar, its like literally playing naked, so that some things that would rather normal--classic pop structure songs--will change pace or change ideas, and will sound more 'post-rock' because of a lack of, or an abundance of, space, making me feel very self-conscious about something and maybe fucking with it to get it to sound more normal in a different way."

The concept that they, as musicians, are naked is a compelling theory. Take, for instance, their use of vocals: very few of their songs have vocals, but when they are used, they are very up front. Jay, who does the occasional singing insists that "it's [Steve] Albini's fault," referring to the engineer who recorded both of their albums. He continued, "there is nothing to hide, to bury the vocals behind. Its mostly the result of the damage inflicted by really good recording quality... we use relatively few effects, that takes away the things we can hide behind." Jason added, "it would sound weird to relax on vocal volume [when] what you're hearing is so stripped down."

When listening to some of the songs which I consider among their best, such as "Time for a Game of Stick" from Battle Champions and "Spiral Bound" from As Seen from Above, the notion of nakedness goes a long ways in explaining the appeal of the songs. Much of Dianogah's music has an open, stripped feeling, and when Jay is singing on the aforementioned songs, it is with an honesty and an authenticity that is rare in modern pop music.

So, what does this have to do with "Indie Rock Spock Ears?" Dianogah creates complex and compelling music which they modestly try to pass off as simple, standard pop. Likewise, many of their songs have opaque and bizarre titles seemingly unrelated to anything. However, the truth, like their music, runs a bit deeper. The band explains that there have been "people who pursued us for a number of shows and wanted to talk about the collection of tapes they had, such as Shellac's forth show, it was in Detroit, and Steve said something funny about the Cars." A friend who was present observed of these folks, "Boy, those guys really have their indie rock Spock ears on."

That was the real end of the interview, and should be the end of this article. However, below are some comments which Dianogah had on other prominent bass players.

Other bass players they like include: Joe Lally, Bob Weston, Kim Deal ("she played what Frank Black told her"), and Doug McCombs, particularly his work in/as Brokeback.

Finally, when asked about bands with no bass players, such as the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or Sleater-Kinney, they claim to harbor no animosity towards them. Jay said, "We're not all about the bass player," to which Kip added, "I hate bass players."

Related links:

• fakejazz.com review of Dianogah - Battle Champions
• Dianogah homepage