In Baltimore, Double Dagger are heroes: their records are fantastic, their live shows are the stuff of local legend, and their breakup was cause for a kind of misty-eyed mourning and nostalgia in the city’s DIY scene that wasn’t unlike what’s happening in the wake of 285 Kent’s closure here in New York.
Elsewhere, you may not have heard of them unless you’re a nerd for their brand of brainy post-hardcore — or you’re a graphic designer. In addition to the band, singer Nolen Strals and bassist Bruce Willen run the design firm Post Typography, which has done acclaimed work for everyone from Time, New York, and the New York Times, to Dan Deacon, Built to Spill and The White Stripes (they also just made this awesome “Protect Ya Neck” morse code scarf). References to their profession litter the band’s work: “The Psychic” is a screed about a particularly terrible client, for instance, and “Form + Function” is about, well, form and function. Even their name references an obscure typographic symbol.
Filmmakers Gabe DeLoach and Zach Keifer just released If We Shout Loud Enough, a documentary about the band, that, if this interview with Co.Design is any indication, focuses on the design as much as the music. It looks fucking awesome. Watch the trailer above, and several more clips here.
