Labels: Thrill Jockey
Review by: Sean Haughton
Hey! Double Dagger! I really like this band. They came out of the freak-scene side of the state of Baltimore, formed with a heavy focus on aesthetic and sarcastic-as-fuck lyrics, didn’t bother to get a guitar (just really loud bass effect pedals) and made 3 really good albums of loud and wonky post-punk. It sort of shouldn’t have worked but did.
‘333’ is the band’s last work, written and recorded a fair while after their final show as a bookend and with that comes a slightly more measured approach than previous releases. There’s less songs where they just sound like they’re nosediving into the ground at full volume, and some really nice experimentation with the self-imposed limitations of their sound. Defining Double Dagger’s specific sound and it’s fair to say that they did a good job of avoiding anyone pinning a direct influence to them. Parts of this EP really remind me of someone like Challenger in the way that Challenger’s vocals were more often not that melodic and just spoken but the riffs carried a real hook to them.
They keep it short at 24 minutes and six songs, two of which are instrumentals, one of which sounds a little like ‘Sound On Sound’ by Big Boys! Only two tracks push longer than three minutes. The vocals side-step the throat-shredding hardcore thing and keep to a half-sung/spoken sort of vibe throughout even when the band hitting full speed on a faster number like ‘Supply/Demand’. When they do let go it’s more of a wild yell. I’ve always admired the guy in this band’s bass playing which always manages to balance the high and low end and carry the whole band really well and not fall into a trap of just making it sound sludgy, repetitive or weak. The final song has some great lyrics which are fairly ambiguous but seem to celebrate DIY and being in a punk band.
Double Dagger were a group that had always felt a pretty complete package and one with a real knack for taking an idea and making you think “I want to do something like this that makes people wish they’d thought of it first”. ‘333’ doesn’t put a dent in what is already a solid body of work and also serves as a pretty good introduction and final piece to an occasionally difficult, weird and unique band.