I'm just an animal looking for a home

“Dave” by Will Rigby

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Hello CD of the Month, April 1996

“Dave” by Will Rigby

I’ve never understood why Will Rigby isn’t more popular.  I don’t mean mainstream or anything — I’ve long since learned that no matter how much I love something, that doesn’t mean it will have mainstream appeal.  But his songs are lyrically and musically catchy, and fairly original in my experience.  As original as any music is  (barring really experimental stuff).  I first became aware of him from the CD pictured above.  I was fortunate enough to be a member of the Hello CD of the Month Club for its 4 year run back in the mid 90’s.  Run by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants, Hello put out monthly CDs from a lot of great artists, and introduced me to Will Rigby.  After falling in love with his Hello CD, I was happy when in 2002 he came out with an album, Paradoxaholic (CD).  Sadly, apart from some releases in the 80’s which are only available on vinyl or cassette, this is the sum total of Will Rigby’s commercially available work.  His primary musical pursuit was as a drummer for various bands, and I guess that made more money than his other efforts.  I still hold out hope that maybe he’ll release another album.  After all, it was something like 17 years between his previous album and the 2002 album (not counting the Hello CD), so maybe 2019 will be my lucky year.  Anyway, Paradoxaholic is the only easily purchasable music of his these days, and I highly recommend you track it down.

UPDATE: Another great track from this CD, Paper Hat, is also available for download.

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Author: mitcharf

vegan, curmudgeon, animal lover, feminist, agnostic, cat whisperer, bookworm, hermit, Red Sox fan, Cthulhu enthusiast, softball player, man-about-town

5 Comments

  1. avatar

    Hey Mitch – you’ll be happy to know all the above and some stuff by Will that you don’t mention is all available at his BandCamp site (any format you prefer) here:

    http://willrigby.bandcamp.com/

    Enjoy!

  2. avatar

    Glad to help a fellow fan.

    BTW, I am featuring lots of info and music by Will at my blog this month:

    http://dbs-repercussion.blogspot.com/

  3. avatar

    I know I am late to respond to this post. So interesting to see this song posted so many years later. I was promoting shows while going to college in 1985 in Charleston, IL when this all unfolded. I actually partnered with “Dave” on setting up this show. I mostly did punk shows. The Meat Puppets played one of my shows about a week later. dbs were on hiatus and Will was touring as Wipe Me Mommy. Peter Holsapple and his girlfriend were playing sets on this tour as well. They played on Saturday night and had Sunday off. So they stuck around and we hung out at a friend’s lake house rental for a barbeque and music. A great weekend that all ended sadly when Dave literally lost his mind.

  4. avatar

    Hey Bob- where was that 1985 show. I know i heard Will Rigby in Charleston but i wss from out of town & don’t remember the club name. – i thought it was ’84… Anyhow, the girl i was with is no longer speaking with me but i still remember some great rocking energy that night.

    Thanks!

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