Dinosaur Pile-Up are an English
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
band formed in late 2007. Hailing from
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
,
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
. Current members are
lead singer
The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...
and
guitarist
A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...
Matt Bigland,
drummer
A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...
Mike Sheils and
bassist
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...
Jim Cratchley. Their past members include Steve Wilson (2008-2010), Tom Dornford-May (2008-2010), Tommy Davidson (2008), Harry Johns (2010-2011), and James Sacha (2013).
History
Formation and name
Dinosaur Pile-Up formed after guitarist Bigland's band Mother Vulpine dissolved in 2007. Bigland had been creating songs used for Dinosaur Pile-Up whilst he was in Mother Vulpine. Bigland recorded a demo tape consisting of the songs "
My Rock 'n' Roll", "Love Is a Boat and We're Sinking", "Melanin", "Let's Get Up", "What Howard Said" and "I Get My Direction" whilst he was still in Mother Vulpine. A short time later, after Mother Vulpine broke up, Bigland recruited Tom Dornford-May on
bass and Steve Wilson on
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
to complete the line up.
Matt Bigland has said he thought of the name 'Dinosaur Pile-Up' after watching the 2005 film ''
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
''. Matt Bigland has said in an interview; "I watched the remake of King Kong. Which was pretty bad! It was ages ago, before this band, or even the idea of this band ever existed. Anyway, there was this part in it where this stampede of dinosaurs, the front one is shot in the leg or something, and it trips up, and then all these huge dinosaurs trip up, roll down this hill, and it just ends up in this massive pile up, and everything in between them survives. I thought it was ridiculous, and as a joke I said, I have to start a band called Dinosaur Pile-Up."
Early releases and line-up change
Dinosaur Pile-Up then released ''My Rock 'n' Roll EP'' in late 2008 and the ''Traynor 7"'' and ''The Most Powerful EP in the Universe'' in 2009. Also in 2009, they played on the BBC introducing stage at
Leeds Festival
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...
and were invited on tour with
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
group
Pixies
A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...
on their European tour. Then in 2010, Tom Dornford-May and Steve Wilson left the band. Steve Wilson joined the band
Japanese Voyeurs (whom Dinosaur Pile-Up would later tour with on the Rock Sound Exposure Tour alongside
The Xcerts
The Xcerts are a British alternative rock band, originally formed in Aberdeen, Scotland in 2001. They have released four studio albums, with their latest being '' Hold On To Your Heart'' (2018).
Biography
The Xcerts were originally formed ...
), and Tom Dornford-May joined the
punk rock band Fake Death. Matt Bigland then went into the studio alone to record Dinosaur Pile-Up's debut album ''
Growing Pains
''Growing Pains'' is an American television sitcom created by Neal Marlens that aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The show ran for seven seasons, consisting of 166 episodes. The series followed the misadventures of the Se ...
'', and bassist Harry Johns and drummer Mike Sheils were recruited for the rhythm section for live shows.
''Growing Pains''
The recording of ''Growing Pains'' took place between late 2009 and early 2010 in the space of about two and a half months. ''Growing Pains'' was recorded solely by Matt Bigland playing all the parts on the album in a home studio in Bridlington. After the release of ''Growing Pains'' in October 2010, Dinosaur Pile-Up began a full UK tour, also playing in the rock exposure tour and various dates across Mexico, as well as supporting slots with bands such as
Feeder,
Cage the Elephant
Cage the Elephant is an American rock band formed in 2006 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. They moved to England, U.K. and settled in London in 2008, shortly before their self-titled first album was released. The band currently consists of Matt Shul ...
,
Turbowolf
Turbowolf are an English rock band founded in Bristol, whose members include Chris Georgiadis (vocals and synthesisers), Andy Ghosh (guitar), Lianna Lee Davies (bass guitar) and Blake Davies (drums). Their first album, ''Turbowolf'', was releas ...
and
Twin Atlantic
Twin Atlantic are a Scottish alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. The group currently consists of Sam McTrusty (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Ross McNae (bass) and Joe Lazarus (drums). Lead guitarist Barry McKenna departed from the b ...
. By August 2011, the band had finished their tour and are set to record their follow up album due to be released at the beginning of 2012. On 1 December, they uploaded to their
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
accounts demos of two tracks, "In My Room" and "Thread", which were said to be featured on their second album, 'Nature Nurture', but never made it onto the album, they only appeared as B-sides.
In November 2011, Matt Bigland posted on the Dinosaur Pile-Up website that Harry Johns had left the band to concentrate on his solo project and that two people known as Alessio and Scott were filling in on bass and second guitar. Also, On 8 March 2012,
Japanese Voyeurs had announced their breakup and said on their Facebook that their bassist Johnny Seymour had joined Dinosaur Pile-Up. Matt Bigland has also said he was currently in the studio recording the second album and would be recording every instrument on the record as he did on
Growing Pains
''Growing Pains'' is an American television sitcom created by Neal Marlens that aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The show ran for seven seasons, consisting of 166 episodes. The series followed the misadventures of the Se ...
''Nature Nurture''
On 22 January 2013, Dinosaur Pile-Up announced the follow-up to
Growing Pains
''Growing Pains'' is an American television sitcom created by Neal Marlens that aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The show ran for seven seasons, consisting of 166 episodes. The series followed the misadventures of the Se ...
, 'Nature Nurture', with the free-download of 'Lip Hook Kiss' off the band's website. The album was released in the UK in June 2013 and in the U.S. in February 2014 on
So Recordings, the rock imprint of Silva Screen Records. To coincide with the band's debut U.S. tour supporting
You Me At Six
You Me at Six are an English rock band from Weybridge, Surrey. The band consists of lead singer Josh Franceschi, guitarists Max Helyer and Chris Miller, bassist Matt Barnes and drummer Daniel Flint. Formed in 2004, the name for the group origin ...
, they released a video for the song 'Peninsula' as well as the U.S. exclusive Peninsula EP. In late February 2014, the band undertook another U.S. tour supporting
Middle Class Rut
Middle Class Rut, also known as MC Rut, is an American alternative rock band duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist Zack Lopez and vocalist/drummer Sean Stockham. They were formed in Sacramento, California in December 2006. After several EP's, in ...
with additional showcases at
South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
. They also supported
Brand New on a U.S. tour in July 2014. They continued to tour until December 2014, ending their tour in Delhi.
''Eleven Eleven''
On 14 December 2014, Dinosaur Pile-Up announced the
recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, ...
of their third album, 'Eleven Eleven', via an Instagram post. They also revealed to be working with the greatly acknowledged producer
Tom Dalgety
Tom Dalgety is an English record producer and audio engineer. He is most noted for his work with Pixies, Ghost, and Royal Blood. He was nominated for Grammy Awards in 2019 for his production work on the Ghost album ''Prequelle'' (Best Rock Album ...
, who had worked with successful acts like
Royal Blood
A royal descent is a genealogy, genealogical Kinship and descent, line of descent from a past or present monarch.
Both geneticists and genealogists have attempted to estimate the percentage of living people with royal descent. From a genetic ...
and
Turbowolf
Turbowolf are an English rock band founded in Bristol, whose members include Chris Georgiadis (vocals and synthesisers), Andy Ghosh (guitar), Lianna Lee Davies (bass guitar) and Blake Davies (drums). Their first album, ''Turbowolf'', was releas ...
, in
Rockfield Studios
Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was originally founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward.
Facilities
Rockfield is a two- ...
. Throughout the next months, various teasers were released on images and videos of the band in the studio, including a YouTube video on working with the famous producer in Rockfield. In the middle of March 2015, after the constant teasing of something being announced at 11:11 of random days, revealed a brand new song entitled '11:11' via a
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
stream and the album title 'Eleven Eleven'. They revealed a teaser for a brand new music video in April of the same year. In May 2015, they also announced the 2nd EP release limited to Japan to be released on 22 July, entitled '11:11 - EP', consisting of new tracks from the album including bonus track 'Replace Me'. The album was set for release worldwide on 16 October 2015, with album bundles including signed vinyl and exclusive T-shirts.
Due to lack of a
worldwide distributor, the release of ''
Eleven Eleven'' was delayed by almost a year before being finally released to the rest of the world, meaning, in certain parts of the world, the band were touring an album that had already been out for ages in the UK, but were new everywhere else. This outraged the band, with drummer, Mike Sheils stating in a 2017 interview in the US, 'it's really strange, yeah, as it seems like a lifetime ago we recording the whole thing now, but over here it's fresh as a daisy. It is what it is, mind you, and we're just lucky we finally managed to get it out, there, you know? People seem to be enjoyin' it and we love playing it. It's a new direction for us.'
''Celebrity Mansions''
The band's fourth studio album, ''Celebrity Mansions'', was released on 7 June 2019. The lead single from the album, "Thrash Metal Cassette", was released in March 2019. The band released their second single from the album "Back Foot" in May 2019 and third single "Round the Bend" in June 2019. ''
Loudwire
''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...
'' named the album one of the 50 best rock albums of 2019.
Musical style
Dinosaur Pile-Up have
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
influences from bands like
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Foo Fighters was initially formed as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Following the success of the eponymous debut album, Grohl (lead vocals, guitar) re ...
,
Weezer
Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing v ...
,
Nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
,
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...
and
Pavement,
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
acts from the 60s like
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...
and
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, and
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
groups such as
Slayer
Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style ...
and
Deftones
Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by Chino Moreno (vocals, guitar), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Abe Cunningham (drums), and Dominic Garcia (bass). During their first five ...
.
Since Nature Nurture the band usually play in
drop C sharp tuning or
E♭ tuning
Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. B ...
with or without a
capo, tuning down half a step from
standard tuning
In music, standard tuning refers to the typical Musical tuning, tuning of a string instrument. This notion is contrary to that of scordatura, i.e. an alternate tuning designated to modify either the timbre or technical capabilities of the desired i ...
and
drop D tuning
Drop D tuning is an alternative form of guitar tuning in which the lowest (sixth) string is tuned down from the usual E of standard tuning by one whole step to D. So where standard tuning is E2A2D3G3B3E4 (EADGBe), drop D is D2A2D3G3B3E4 (DADGBe ...
as was used on earlier material.
Members
;Current
*Matt Bigland – vocals, guitar
(2007–present)
*Jim Cratchley – bass
(2013–present)
*Mike Sheils – drums
(2010–present)
;Former
*Tom Dornford-May – bass
(2008–2010)
*Steve Wilson – drums
(2008–2010)
*
Harry Johns – bass
(2010–2012)
*Johnny Seymour – bass
(2012)
*James Sacha – bass
(2013)
Timeline
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id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals
id:guitar value:green legend:Guitar
id:bass value:blue legend:Bass
id:drums value:orange legend:Drums
id:Lines value:black legend:Studio_album
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id:bars value:gray(0.95)
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bar:Matt text:"Matt Bigland"
bar:Tom text:"Tom Dornford-May"
bar:Harry text:"Harry Johns"
bar:Johnny text:"Johnny Seymour"
bar:James text:"James Sacha"
bar:Jim text:"Jim Cratchley"
bar:Steve text:"Steve Wilson"
bar:Mike text:"Mike Sheils"
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bar:Matt from:01/08/2007 till:end color:vocals
bar:Matt from:01/08/2007 till:end color:guitar width:3
bar:Tom from:01/01/2008 till:01/02/2010 color:bass
bar:Steve from:01/01/2008 till:01/02/2010 color:drums
bar:Harry from:04/02/2010 till:14/11/2011 color:bass
bar:Mike from:04/02/2010 till:end color:drums
bar:Johnny from:20/11/2011 till:02/02/2013 color:bass
bar:Jim from:02/12/2013 till:end color:bass
bar:James from:01/06/2013 till:01/12/2013 color:bass
LineData =
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at:17/06/2013 color:black layer:back
at:31/10/2015 color:black layer:back
at:22/07/2015 color:lines2 layer:back
at:29/10/2013 color:lines2 layer:back
at:07/06/2019 color:black layer:back
Discography
Studio albums
Extended plays
Singles
Music videos
References
External links
Official websiteMySpace
{{Authority control
Alternative rock groups from Leeds