Independent music label from Tokyo,Japan.

Contact:
vls.00.vls [at] gmail.com

Boys Get Hurt

Formed in 2007, Dinosaur Pile-Up are an English alternative rock band who broke out of the thriving Leeds rock scene of the time and instantly drew favourable comparisons to the cream of 90s US college rock. Founded originally as a solo project by songwriter and frontman Matt Bigland, the line up is completed by drummer Mike Sheils and bassist Jim Cratchley. Named after Matt saw the scene in Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong where a stampede of dinosaurs pile up at the foot of a mountain, “DPU” put out their first official release, The Most Powerful E.P In The Universe, in 2009 and have gone on to record two studio albums, 2010’s Growing Pains and 2013’s Nature Nurture. 

The project was initially a handful of demos that Bigland had recorded on an 8-track recorder in his basement and at Leeds' Brudenell Social Club, performing and recording the drums, guitars, bass and vocals himself. These demos were hosted on a Myspace profile named 'Dinosaur Pile-Up' and quickly gained interest from the local scene and soon the UK music press. Due to offers for shows Bigland enlisted the help of friends in a 'revolving door' policy and began touring in late 2007. Since then DPU have toured extensively through the UK, Europe and the USA supporting acts such as Pixies, Cage The Elephant, Feeder, Twin Atlantic, You Me At Six and Middle Class Rut. In 2010 Mike Sheils officially joined DPU on drums, after meeting Matt on tour and famously bonding over Weezer's blue album. In late 2013 long standing friend Jim Cratchley officially joined DPU on bass after his previous band Tribes disbanded.

Speaking of the band’s first EP, which was initially recorded as an experiment, Bigland said "I wanted to go into a studio and see if I could record something that actually sounded like an album, and not just some sh**ty 8-track demo's I'd recorded in my basement. I knew how I worked best and what I wanted to create, but I didn't know if I was competent enough to record an entire album, so I used recording the E.P as kind of an experiment and didn't take it too seriously, thus the stupid name." Upon successful recording and release of the 'Most Powerful E.P...' recorded with local Leeds producer James Kenosha, Bigland went in to the studio again to record DPU's debut full length album "Growing Pains", again performing all instruments and vocals himself and again produced by James Kenosha. Growing Pains was recorded over a period of a month and a half and upon its release in October 2010 received widespread critical acclaim and radio support including UK Radio 1 taste maker Zane Lowe who has continued to support the band ever since. Between 2011 and 2013 DPU toured extensively in the UK and Europe, taking in many festivals including Leeds and Reading Festival, Oxygen Festival and T In The Park. After two years solid touring Bigland went in to studio again, this time with producers Ian Davenport and Tom Dalgety to record DPU's second full length album. Again Bigland recorded all the instruments himself split between Rockfield Studios in Wales and Courtyard Studios in Oxford. The album took two months to record but what he emerged with was one of the brightest, most bruising rock records of 2013 “Nature Nurture” which was described by Zane Lowe on its release as “Nature, nurture, two of the greatest words in existence, now neatly compacted together for an album that could be one of the greatest albums ever in existence”.

Nature Nurture proved to be the band’s first inroad into the American market where their sound proved to be a perfect fit for US radio on its release in early 2014, leading to several tours including their biggest to date supporting Brand New.  With the album set to be released in Japan and the Far-East in 2014, world domination is still on the cards.


Hi we're a band from New Zealand, living in London. We make all our records in our living room DIY styles.

Dalton is the solo-project of indie singer/songwriter Nate Harar.

PRESS:

"Jeffares voice soars above the hauntingly icy bass lines and chilly atmospherics. Bombs and death rays, corporate decay, and failed or failing love are just some of the bleak themes the band explore, and their album's title track might offer the best solution to the hopelessness of it all."
-- SPIN

"The charm of Snowden's debut is its understated authenticity: Underneath all the accoutrements, these are Jeffares's bedroom songs, and it's not hard to extrapolate to their simpler days as anguished acoustic ballads."
-- Village Voice

"The original Snowden taught Yossarian that man is matter-- kill us and we're dead. It's OK for stylish post-punk to matter, too, and Anti-Anti does so without forgetting to be fun."
-- Pitchfork

"[Anti Anti's] balance of gloom and grandeur is brilliantly executed, ultimately leaving the listener with an insatiable thirst for more of the same."
-- Drowned In Sound

"For all the discussion of concept, geography, and songcraft, it's the heart pulsing through the reverb that makes Anti-Anti a must-listen."
-- Stereogum

"It's clear [Snowden] aren't willing to just turn on the cruise control through [their] show; the performance is more like a constant pulse between implosion and explosion with each member able to flail or pull back seamlessly."
-- CMJ

"Such tracks as 'Black Eyes' prove that Snowden can play uneasy funk as well as its peers, but the music is most interesting when the band goes its own way."
-- Washington Post

"Snowden's music sounds like Interpol's dark momentum getting tripped up on the Arcade Fire's treacherous terrain - lacquered bolts of guitar judder over off-kilter percussion, and anomic vocals blear through the densely layered mix."
-- Paste Magazine

"On 'Anti-Anti' Snowden creates plenty more to admire than angry words. To find it, all you have to do is ignore the urge to dance long enough to sit down and listen."
-- MSNBC

"Snowden lace their upbeat, catchy guitar stomps with thoughtful lyrics diametrically opposed to mindless hipsterism."
-- Entertainment Weekly

"Anti-Anti is a cyclonic swirl of guitars approximating jet-engine drones, brackish cascades of water emanating from the bottom of a dank cave and shards of tuned barbed-wire."
-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"The Cure never delivered gloom so buzzy."
-- URB

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