Let me tell you what: take two bands, one whose name is a common verb, and the other whose name is two proper names and the word “people”, and you have two bands that are not the easiest to Google. Try to find information on Brooklyn’s power-techno-pop quartet the Dig, and what you get is lots of people complaining about Boston’s Big Dig, hits for 90s rock band Dig (no “the”), and totally unrelated archeological websites. (To be fair: I Googled badly on purpose; I am a librarian, and so generally I Google well because I have an expensive Master’s degree in Googling, but the general population does not Google well, as evidenced by the search strings regularly hitting this blog. No, persistent searcher, I do not know what Dustin Ackley was doing on April 6, 2010. Playing baseball, I’d guess.)

And that’s a damn shame, because the Dig’s first full-length, Electric Toys, is a well-named, interesting (if slightly uneven) little techno-pop album. I’ve always been a lyrics person, but this year, I’m finding myself moving more towards being a sonic person — I don’t care what a singer’s saying (although if it’s clever, all the better), as long as the sound of the music moves me. The Dig does that — indie rock backbeat drumming and fuzzed out guitars, New Wave-style flaring keyboards, and a bass line that almost disappears in their quieter moments. They wouldn’t be a band I would pick out for myself — comfort zones! — but they’re a band I’m rather curious about, for sure.

There’s something in the album that reminds me of the Morning Benders, although the Dig are more driving less California surfer cool than the San Francisco quartet, in the best songs on the album, the catchy retro “You’re Already Gone” and the backbeating guitar pop of “Penitentiary” — the shine and sunshine feeling of Big Echo, I guess. It’s where I like the Dig most, power pop and hand claps and tambourines and background “woos”. The guitar barrage is interesting, but they’re at their best when the songwriting is on display, too.

The album feels very measured and well-considered; I get the feeling that the recording and release of it have been a long time coming, so probably all the excess energy of tracks like “She’s Gonna Kill That Boy” has had time to be harnessed, but it all feels carefully edged, as though they might just totally lose it any minute but they’re not going to do that in the studio … at least not yet. It can be a very fierce and furious sort of energy that never loses control, and I honestly hope their live show is not packaged nearly so well. I would genuinely like to see them go off the tracks at least a little, because I think there’s something interesting right under the surface of their well-produced and polished sound.

Also, I like taking photos of bands who lose it a little on stage. They’re interesting that way.

Los Angeles’s Henry Clay People have long been one of those bands that people I trust rave about, which is why I was so frustrated by not liking their newest offering, Somewhere On The Golden Coast, more earlier this year. It’s grown on me some since then — “Your Famous Friends” if nothing else is an amazing track — and I’ve been told that their power hangs on their live show. They played second on a three band bill at the Lincoln a few weeks ago, sandwiched between my beloved American Aquarium and the Drive-By Truckers, and I heard more great things. I’m looking forward to having my mind changed. I do like enjoying a band that I keep hearing I should enjoy.

The Dig open for the Henry Clay People at the Local 506 next Wednesday. Doors 9, show 9:30, tickets $8 in advance and at the door. Come out. Buy me a beer.

I’ve got a copy of Electric Toys to give away, so leave me a comment: what’s your favorite song with the word “dig” in the title? I’ll pick a winner next Monday.