Breakouts, breakdowns, breakthroughs & Dinowalrus
Their satanic majesties’ third request — the devil’s own denizens of rock Dinowalrus; photographed by Matty Fasano.
Every day and night that we engage with our communities you can feel the world in a state of perpetual motion. While the concept that things are always changing is almost something we take for granted, consigned to the corners of our unconscious, yet if we choose to align our focus on how the still life portraits and landscapes of others and our environments shift we can glean how life is altered and transformed in real time. As these things are inherently gradual, change is more often than not a slow burn sequence of unlimited transitions like the movements of life we witness through the flipbook like captures from time elapsed photography. Just like the dualities of interplay between the sun and the moon, our lives are forever fusions of light and the dark. Yins and yangs. Zigs and zags. Upon a closer look at the places of our familiar we we can witness a realm where there is always more than what immediately meets the naked eye and sleepy mind.
Giving us all of this and more is the new sensational single “Blackout Freakout” from New York’s own beloved DIY believers Dinowalrus. Pete Feigenbaum returns after nearly eight years to deliver us a proper dose of maximum rock & roll with a track that pays homage to the city that never sleeps and is forever in the flux of infinite evolutions, mutations and the like. Dinowalrus specializes in that record shop rock that has all but been lithified by the sedimentary stacks of time. The music that was once worshiped before the infernal internet of things destroyed everything we once loved, cherished and adored. A time when the DIY ethos had a fighting chance before the big developers and financial institutions of predatory lending leveled everything that had cultural cred. An era that existed before every establishment of merit was governed under the international Instagramable interior design aesthetics intended to stoke online engagement and flexes of superficial superiority for the almighty algorithm. The last time where the world wasn’t driven by clout, where scene cred was earned by being present in your boroughs and not in the dubious shadows behind the keyboard trolling others in the name of vacuous and toxic virtue signaling.
“Blackout Freakout” blasts through the the near decade of social decay that has brought us to a world that is largely unlivable and insufferable at best. Dinowalrus contrasts the clamor and cool of NYC’s hustling rhythm and beat with the weirdness that permeates the Big Apple’s asphalt of modern day. Pete cranks up the percussion and volume to a frantic frequency that sends up the states of things that celebrates everything amazing about Brooklyn, everything annoying about Brooklyn in a manic narrative that is overwhelming, exciting, life affirming, addicting and so much more. Dinowalrus documents the beloved turf they call home, a place beset by countless fast paced changes that chases the wild winds that streams through tenement studded corridors of those fabled streets of towering brownstones. “Blackout Freakout” is the ultimate unhinged Brooklyn love song, as Pete remains unflinching in a devotion to what is still one of the most influential hotbeds of trendsetters in the entire world. Through the barrage of rowdy riffs and unrelenting BPM rates — Dinowalrus delivers the ultimate I Love NYC-esque anthem that is bigger, bolder and louder than any swag you will ever find at any tourist trap gift shop in the entire city.
Peter Feigenbaum of Dinowalrus shared some of the following reflections on the past 8 years and the road to “Blackout Freakout”:
This is both the slowest and the fastest song we've ever written! We've been under the radar the past eight years bogged down with lineup changes, mental breakdowns, adulting, a broken music promotion and distro system, and avoiding the plague like the plague. Although we've been playing and recording music continuously, it just hasn't made much sense to put stuff out...until now! Although we've embraced atmospheric, danceable synth textures in the past, we dispensed with most of that in the interest of capturing some of the frenetic, rollicking energy of the 2020s zeitgeist, and also the DIY loft-show psychedelic punk tempos of our debut album %, and my time in Titus Andronicus.
We managed to hit 220 BPM on this one, a new personal best. The initial inspiration was an early Screaming Trees speedster called "Orange Airplane” re-discovered on an old early 90s mixtape in my attic. Overall, “Blackout Freakout” is guitar driven in the vein of my foundational protopunk mainstays The Stooges/MC5/Radio Birdman, but lurking in the background are some Madchester-y swirling organs and even some Boredoms and Black Dice inspired noise squiggles. After a few years of disengaging then re-engaging with NYC, lyrically, the song is about the good, the bad and the ugly of our town.
The new Dinowalrus single “Blackout Freakout” is out now everywhere.