Dax Riggs

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Dax Riggs (born 15 October 1973 in Evansville, Indiana, United States), is a musician from Houma, Louisiana often remembered for fronting the sludge band Acid Bath in the 1990s. Dax has been a part of many projects since then, including Agents of Oblivion and Deadboy & the Elephantmen. In 2007 he began releasing material under his own name. He currently resides in Austin, Texas.

Contents

[edit] Bands

[edit] Dry Pussy

Dry Pussy was the name of a demo tape of acoustic songs, recorded at home by Dax, during the Acid Bath era.

[edit] Corruption

Corruption was Dax in his teens fronting a thrash metal band that played cover songs, though they never played a real gig.

[edit] Golgotha

Golgotha was the sludge/thrash metal foundation of what would later become Acid Bath. The band released one demo under that name before changing it. It featured Dax Riggs as the lead vocalist, Mike Sanchez and Jerry "Boon" Businelli on guitar, Tommy Viator on drums, and Chad Pierce on bass.

[edit] Acid Bath

Acid Bath was a seminal heavy metal band from southern Louisiana. What made Acid Bath unique was their mix of death metal and psychedelia. This was primarily accomplished by the vocal stylings of Dax Riggs which could range from a guttural growl to a Roy Orbison-esque wail in mid-song. Indeed, on their second album, Paegan Terrorism Tactics, the band thanked the ghost of Roy Orbison for his help in creating their sound. The band was also noted for Dax's imaginative and distinctive lyrics which often featured themes of death and drugs.

[edit] Daisyhead & The Mooncrickets

Daisyhead & The Mooncrickets was a project of Dax Riggs in 1997 that never took off. Only two recordings are known to exist. One is a self-titled 14 track recording, where most of the songs are cut off before they end. A few covers are included, such as David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust". Most of the song titles are unknown. It is also the earliest recording of the "Deadboy & the Elephantmen Theme Song," which Riggs would sometimes play when he formed a band by that name in late 2000.

The other album is Skeletal Circus Derails which later inspired the name of the Dax Riggs fan site SkeletalCircus.com.

Daisyhead & the Mooncrickets is akin to an urban legend for fans of underground bluesy rock. But the two works, especially Skeletal Circus Derails are an important chapter in Riggs' history. Fans to this day regularly ask him to play certain songs from that album when they see him on tour.

They also detail a point in Riggs' career when he's struggling for life after Acid Bath disbanded in 1997. Toward the end of that metal group, Riggs was pushing for a more melodic sound, which materializes in his subsequent bands Agents of Oblivion and Deadboy & the Elephantmen. This sound was first born on the Daisyhead & The Mooncrickets recordings.

[edit] Agents of Oblivion

Agents of Oblivion was the first post Acid Bath band to release material officially. It first emerged with a five song demo and featured former Acid Bath guitarist Mike Sanchez on lead guitar. The demo includes Big Black Backwards, Ash of the Mind and other songs which would later appear on the band's self-titled debut, along with 2 other songs: Riding the Wormhole and a new version of The Skeletal Circus Derails. The band's debut album is a masterful blend of haunting ballads with interspersed metallic fury (though never reverting to the superheavy stylings of Acid Bath). The band only lasted a short tour in support of the album, before splitting.

[edit] Deadboy and the Elephantmen

Deadboy & the Elephantmen has toured on many festivals with many bands, including Fiery Furnaces, Peaches, Eagles of Death Metal, WolfMother, and Heartless Bastards, and has also released albums on semi major record labels.

[edit] T-Daks & His White Plastic Soul and Dax Riggs

Dax's solo project started out under the name T-Daks & His White Plastic Soul. He performed a few times live under that name, mostly doing acoustic shows.

After the breakup of Deadboy & The Elephantmen in September 2006, Dax has stated that he would release the future albums under his own name. The first album under his solo name We Sing of Only Blood or Love was released in August 2007.

[edit] Discography

[edit] See also

[edit] Interviews

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Riggs, Dax David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American singer-songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 1973-10-15
PLACE OF BIRTH Evansville, Indiana
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH