Many people have a Holy Grail of music. One or two songs that they've looked for constantly but have never been able to buy. One song that has haunted them, usually one that isn't well known but made an impact on you. A rare B-side, or only on an import from Japan. One of those things that you think everyone should know, but few do when you mention it. It plays with your mind and then you think maybe you made the entire thing up.
Then, through the internet, you find that others loved the song too, and YouTube even has the video for the song. However, you can't find it to download, and your wife has already said that there are too many DVDs and CDs for us to take around the world, so you don't order the album just for one song. And so you are stuck with only listening to the song when you're with a wi-fi connection and remember to hear it.
Well, ladies and gents, I present to you one of the two songs I long considered my Holy Grail. (Grailes? Grails? Can a Holy Grail even be plural?) As of November, I found both online after many false starts and fakes. "Believe" by dig and "3 a.m. Eternal" by The KLF were the two songs I'd basically pined for since I was in high school. I finally found both of them, and now I'm a bit happier. I'll do The KLF another time, but I want to focus on this lost 90s gem: "Believe" by dig.
dig were a band from LA that formed in 1991. They were unique in that they had 3 guitars instead of the usual lead and rhythm. It was a wall of sound. Their one hit was the aforementioned "Believe" which got a lot of airplay on MTVs Buzz Bin. (But strangely is not on the Buzz Bin CD Volume 1, which I have and is awesome. "Low" by Cracker, "Hey Man Nice Shot" by Filter, "Zombie" by the Cranberries, and songs by Bush, Gin Blossoms, STP, White Zombie, DMB and Danzig. However, I digress.)
The song can be read a lot of ways: Questioning your own religious beliefs; questioning the actions of others in regards to their own religious beliefs; or even questioning the role of religion in a society full stop. They definitely get a lot of mileage out of the loud quiet loud dynamic that the Pixies pretty much invented and everyone has ripped off since then. Still, it's a great song, and it opens with the bass player starting off which, as a tuba player in my previous life, I wholeheartedly support. The entire sound of the song is just overwhelming when you hear all three of the other guitars enter, smashing their way through the song.
I highly recommend trying to find this song if you can to buy. It's amazing, and definitely took me back to my high school days when I was awkward pretty much all the time, and a friend and I used the word "Elmerish" to describe things we thought were pretty cool. (Short for Elmer Fudd, which everyone agreed that I sounded like when I was trying to pick up girls so we made a joke out of it. Shut up, it was funny, you weren't there, I hate you!)
Anyways, you can find the song and the original music video on YouTube here. You'll definitely have 90s era flashbacks. (There is a version of them here playing it live on Jon Stewart's old show on MTV, which is pretty cool.)
