Mr. misery

DRUGSTORE DEADBOY Dax Riggs, left, and Tessie Brunet sing about despondency.

Many cryptic band names have twisted stories behind them, and Deadboy and the Elephantmen is no exception. At age ten, the Louisiana duo's mastermind, Dax Riggs, saw David Lynch's 1980 film, The Elephant Man, on HBO. "It was so horrifying to me as an innocent child," says Riggs, who was living with his mother, a Jehovah's Witness, in Indiana at the time. "Until then, I believed God was good," he adds, "but this turned my whole world upside down."

The band's name might seem more akin to murky, heavy music than the lo-fi rock on its debut album, We Are Night Sky. Considering the rest of Riggs's back story, though, it fits him quite well. Haunted by dreams in which the Elephant Man chased him, he ditched the religious life at age 12 and moved to Houma, Louisiana, to live with his more liberal father. Riggs dropped out of school in seventh grade, and at age 16 became the singer for sludge-metal band Acid Bath, an influential cog in the Louisiana metal machine that spawned such respected acts as Crowbar, Eyehategod and Down. Legendary for its drug abuse and recklessness, the band split in 1997 after two albums and four tours—having completed only one of them—when bassist Audie Pitre perished in a car accident. According to Ron Peterson, president of Acid Bath's label, Rotten Records, the group might have soared to success had it not been plagued by personal and creative differences: "They could have achieved greatness if Pitre's death hadn't kicked their issues into fast-forward mode."

Riggs, now 29, insists Acid Bath was doomed regardless. "It wouldn't have mattered if someone died or not," he says. "I was done doing that kind of thing." Claiming he never loved heavy metal as much as his bandmates did, he cites songwriters like John Lennon as his main influences. "It was weird making melodic music with these people who were into death metal," he says. After Acid Bath disbanded, Riggs spent years searching for his own vision, including a short-lived stint fronting the hard-glam Agents of Oblivion. "I went through several stages of prog rock," he says, "but then realized I could barely play guitar, so I started laying my stuff out raw." After forming Deadboy and the Elephantmen and experimenting with different formats, he happened upon the perfect partner for his stripped-down sound: his friend's cousin, Tessie Brunet. Now 25, Brunet had been a drummer for less than two months when she joined Deadboy in 2004. "I was amazed that someone so new could play as well as her," Riggs says. "All the other drummers I had played with were hyperactive."

Soon, their sound jelled into the purposely primitive rock realized on We Are Night Sky. Riggs's ad-libbed howls, runs and sputters, often resembling David Bowie's tinny tenor, characterize many of the album's visceral highlights, with Brunet's soft, simple harmonies cushioning them. Riggs's songwriting is also consistently inspired, and a glance at the track listing shows that he retained at least one characteristic from his metal days—dark lyrics. With titles such as "Stop, I'm Already Dead," "Blood Music" and "Misadventures of Dope," the songs carry few pleasant thoughts and many morbid ones. "Baby, I'm pale and still," Riggs sings on "No Rainbow" over forlorn acoustic guitar. "My blood's all run down the drain." Despite the gruesome slant of his words, Riggs's music borrows more from the Velvet Underground's arty bleakness than Black Sabbath's bluesy sludge, and it's imbued with an unmistakable country bent dating back to the songwriter's childhood. "I was always playing hillbilly music with my grandfather," he says. "I think I'm like Townes Van Zandt, Van Morrison or anyone else who just lets it hang out."

Despite its rock influences, Deadboy's organic qualities made it a good fit for Fat Possum Records. The fast-growing Oxford, Mississippi, label—known for blues-revival recordings by artists such as R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough—discovered Deadboy and the Elephantmen through a demo. "It's amazing to me that the same people who like Junior Kimbrough like us," Riggs says, "but we are striving for that same kind of soul, so it makes perfect sense."

Deadboy and the Elephantmen play Northsix Friday 10 and Mercury Lounge Saturday 11. We Are Night Sky is out now on Fat Possum.