Call it a creative evolution.
Psychedelic-pop mash-up act Dinowalrus is releasing its fourth album, “Fairweather” at Williamsburg venue Rough Trade on Sept. 25. The Brooklyn band’s fantastical name reflects its chimerical mix of funky break beats, electronic synth blips, and shreddy guitars, its founder said.
“It came into my head on a long bus ride in 2005 — at that point I was just messing around with some bedroom stoner-metal projects. When this band started in 2008, we mixed up some earlier demos with some of the new jams and blended that together,” said guitarist and singer Pete Feigenbaum. “Plus, you can never go wrong with an animal band name.”
And Dinowalrus hit a sort of punctuated equilibrium in its musical evolution on “Fairweather,” according to Feigenbaum, who says the group’s blend of metal, psychedelia, and dance parentages — reminiscent of ’90s acts such as Stone Roses — has reached its pinnacle.
“It’s the culmination of a sound we’ve been working on for 5–6 years now,” he said.
But the creation was also a departure for the four-piece, which opted to record at the group’s practice space on the Williamsburg–Greenpoint border and at Feigenbaum’s nearby apartment, rather using professional studios as it did on previous efforts.
The move was in line with the band’s professed do-it-yourself attitude — members got to spend time tweaking every detail without spending a fortune on studio time — and the result is greater than the sum of its part, Feigenbaum said.
“The album is almost the result of a production-first approach more than its a live-band-in-a-room approach — it’s also a cost-efficiency thing,” he said. “Even though were trying to make sophisticated music, we’re working in the classic sense of DIY, like Fugazi, where you find a way to make it happen.”
Noise-punk trio Sharkmuffin, the appropriately reverb-drenched Dead Leaf Echo, and indie-rockers Drawing Boards will share the stage with Dinowalrus at Rough Trade.
The record store-cum-concert venue is an apt place for the record release — like Dinowalrus’s mix of bootstrapping and high-production, Rough Trade has street cred but probably won’t close for lack of permits like so many underground venues, Feigenbaum said.
“I really like Rough Trade,” he said. “I was a little upset about Glasslands and DBA [Death By Audio], but I feel like Rough Trade emerged as one of the best small venues in the city. Rough Trade and Baby’s [Alight] almost made up for the fact that we lost some great venues.”
Dinowalrus “Fairweather” record releases at Rough Trade [64 N. Ninth St. between Kent and Wythe avenues in Williamsburg, www.rough
