Posts Tagged ‘Dine Alone Records’

LITTLE SCREAM – ” Love as a Weapon “

Posted: March 28, 2016 in MUSIC
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From the album Cult Following, out May 6th, 2016 on Merge Records.

Thrilled to announce Little Scream’s sophomore album Cult Following – set for release on May 6th via Dine Alone in Canada and Merge Records in the US. Watch the trippy new video for the album’s first single, “Love as a Weapon”. Directed by Dan Huiting, the video is appropriately vivid for a song that features emotional directives via dance call. The clip effectively captures the essence of the song  “scorchingly optimistic venture of blissful enthusiasm that’s impossible to not be elated by.”

Little Scream, a.k.a. Laurel Sprengelmeyer, says she began conceiving of Cult Following while visiting a friend in a small intentional community in northern Brazil that was on the verge of becoming a cult. “People were running around reading auras, interpreting each other’s dreams, and ‘living on light’ instead of eating—which was as compelling as it was absurd. I became very aware of the entropy of belief. You could feel the magnetism of ideas take shape and pull people into their center like a black hole… a thing so filled with light that its own gravity means that none of it can escape.” That experience laid the groundwork for Cult Following, a lush, expansive, retro-leaning gem.

With nods to Tina Turner, Tracey Thorn, and White Album-era Beatles, Cult Following ambitiously straddles intimate fragility with bombastic dancefloor-ready songs. It stuffs glorious eras of art pop into a weird modern package—a far more extroverted expansion of the cinematic landscapes and themes from Little Scream’s previous album. Sprengelmeyer elaborates: “The first record was a ‘bedroom adventure,’ as in, songs you write in your bedroom without a real consciousness of them ever being public. With this record, I was really engaged with what it meant to be a ‘songwriter’ and performer, and pushed myself to go further on all fronts.”

Mary Margaret O’Hara, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Van Etten, Aaron and Bryce Dessner from the National, Owen Pallett and Kyp Malone all make guest appearances on this album, but the world they inhabit is entirely Little Scream’s. Her voice acts as a tour guide through lush sonic landscapes carefully constructed with her creative partner, Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry.

Cult Following is available for pre-order now on CD and limited-edition translucent blue vinyl from the Dine Alone Record store. Digital pre-order will launch this Friday. Little Scream will tour with Thao & The Get Down Stay Down in April and Land of Talk in May, followed by a run of festival dates.

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WINTERSLEEP – ” Amerika, Santa Fe , Territory “

Posted: February 26, 2016 in MUSIC
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One of the ways I find new music is to go to the Soundcloud pages of labels of bands I like and see who else they have on their roster. And thus I have stumbled over a fair few bands that I have become a fan of Wintersleep, who, like The Dirty Nil (scrappy little band of my heart, Frozen North division), are Canadian and signed to Dine Alone Records. Wintersleep have been a band since 2001 and have won a Juno award! 

Their next record, The Great Detachment, will be released March 4th, and they’re stopping through SXSW later in the month. Here’s a three song sampler, featuring Amerika, Santa Fe and Territory.

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All three songs are solid; I’m particularly partial to Amerika because . . . because I feel like it’s been a really long time since I’ve heard song like this, a little bit anthemic, a little bit of sledgehammer running through the bottom. All I can tell you is I think I’ve listened to it five times in a row. I’m also especially fond of Territory, which is a little bit lighter, tonally, than Amerika, and is mostly a reminder to assert one’s authentic self: You’re not a factory. You’re not supposed to be, you’ve been told, the territory of anyone.

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