Dinowalrus play the Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight with Future of the Left in Brooklyn.

Words by Webb Allen
Photos by Leia Jospe

Dinowalrus play music best described by a series of genre names centering around “rock n roll” and “experimental,” hopefully with “weird synth textures” and “sweet drumming” in there too.  Frontman Peter Feigenbaum has been making music as Dinowalrus since in 2003 and since 2006 as a trio.  I first met bassist Kyle Warren when he made room on a couch for a game of Magic cards at Less Artists More Condos.  This time I met with them as Pete just got back into town before getting ready for a slew of CMJ shows.  In a practice space near McCarren Park and across the hall from a band called Tony Castles we sat on guitar amps and drum stools, talked about San Francisco a lot, a band called Chrome, Ryan Schreiber and puns on LA and Bon Jovi.

Pete Feigenbaum: Is that background drumming going to get in the way?
No it’s all good.
Pete: We can tell Gabby to shut the fuck up.
Josh Da Costa: Gabby is in Tony Castles, another band that we all appreciate.
Pete: Tony Castles is on the up and up.
Josh: They are working with Damon Dash’s people.

Who is Damon Dash?
Josh: Rocafella records.
Pete: Wow that’s crazy, I didn’t know that
Kyle Warren: like Jay Z?

Are they picking up more indie artists?
Josh: I think they are trying to make a foray into rock which I have been told is a bad move.
Pete: That usually is a bad move. Like Kid Rock.
Josh: I mean it’s not like rock over music.
Kyle: Warp Records is picking up a lot of bands.
Pete: Warp Records is not a hip hop label, I feel like electronic into indie-experimental rock is not that much of a stretch.

Do you guys identify as pure rock? How much electronic?
Pete: no, I think increasingly more and more toward that…
Kyle: no hip hop but definitely electronic
Josh: One of the coolest things about joining Dinowalrus was having Pete introduce me to this group called Chrome about a few months into my tenure. They are kind of like progenitors of acid punk… Really great. Kind of like a bit rock, chugging, like rock and roll, weird synth textures, sweet drumming.

Would people hear you guys and think you sound exactly like Chrome?
Pete: no, I think derivativeness is a virtue in the last year which is shocking and appalling but kind of nice in a way.
Josh: I thought the way you meant it was do we concern ourselves with making sure people hear that sound in our music. I don’t think we sound enough like Chrome, I want to sound more like Chrome.
Pete: Yeah I want to sound more like Chrome. They are conceptually a precursor to what we are doing, having this rock and roll spirit but maybe a more experimental mindset pervading through everything else we do.

Last time I saw you guys only played four songs, all sounded similar. Kind of Jesus Lizard.
Pete: Oh wow, I’m seeing them in a month at Irving Plaza. Noveller is somehow opening for Jesus Lizard. That’s pretty cool. Sarah formerly of Parts and Labor.
Kyle: Lipstate.
Josh: Got that Lipstate magic.
Pete: I wish we got that gig. That would have been sweet. But either way I’m seeing The Jesus Lizard. You should come.

Yeah I’ll be there. The new songs online sound a little more shoegaze or ambient, which one is Chrome like, where does their sound show up in your songs?
Pete: Probably “Electric Car, Gas Guitar” is the epitome of biker rock with high tech synths, biker tech synth punk.
Josh: No one ever really caught on to what Chrome was doing in a sense, in that no one rips them off.
Pete: I guess Andrew from MGMT name drops them occasionally
Josh: So does Creed, the guitarist.

Where is Chrome from?
Pete: San Francisco, home of a number of great bands.
Josh: Ralph Records is one of my favorite discoveries of the past year. This is the Residents, who are at the bottom of everything. They are the ones who started this record label and had this guy Snakefinger recording, Renaldo and the Loaf, the two British guys.
Pete: San Francisco is always an interesting place for psychedelic music and punk music to cross. Look at Flipper, I wouldn’t say they are psychedelic but they certainly are sludgy or heavy.
Josh: No, they are totally not San Francisco. Lemonade come from San Francisco, we just played with them, and they are one of my favorite bands in the city because they relocated over here.
Kyle: Did they?
Josh: Yeah, well one of them works at Academy so I think he’s living here.

Where have you guys all lived and played music?
Josh: Well, speaking of Ralph Records one of the groups on that label, Tuxedomoon, moved to Brussels in the early 80s and lived around the corner from where I would live 20 years later in the early 2000s. I grew up in Brussels, from 2000 to 2007 when I moved here and joined Dinowalrus.

What was Brussels like?
Josh: It’s funny because they are into really great music they are just not very expressive about it and there is no communication between cities in Belgium.
Pete: Is Plastic Bertrand the most famous Brussels..?
Josh: (laughs) Probably. Jacques Brel and Plastic Bertrand. Basically there were amazing things going on in Antwerp which had more of a post rock vibe and then great stuff happening-
Pete: Don’t be An Twerp (pause for laughter)
Kyle: Ah, huh huh huh
Josh: And then there was like, a bunch of cities having amazing things going on yet they don’t really communicate and I had no access to the Belgium underground cause I was a foreigner. But my last summer there, there was this great place in downtown Brussels, a converted train station that was an art space and performance space. I saw great shows, like Animal Collective did a free show and then the whole Smell scene came over for a bit cause Mika Miko and No Age, USAISAMONSTER did a free show.
Pete: I’ve never paid for an Animal Collective show. I saw them for free in New Haven in 2005 and saw them for free at the Seaport two years ago.

You used to live in New Haven right?
Pete: Yeah, that’s where I went to school.

How was living there then moving to New York to play music?
Pete: I don’t know, I wasn’t really involved in any local scene there I was just making music with some people. When I moved to New York, around 2006, there was still the tail end of the Social Registry scene. I don’t know if scene is the right word but certainly that future dub psych sound like Excepter and -
Kyle: Gang Gang Dance.
Pete: Gang Gang Dance, and Telepathe all that shit was hot. I think it sort of blew my mind and told me that that post-punky garage-rock stuff I was doing was not going to cut it. Ironically people seem to be eating that shit up right now.
Josh: I think you’re ahead of the curve, Pete.

What would you want to see them eat up?
Josh: Let them eat cake, Eat shit and die, Eat my shorts. Those are the three. Eat records probably.
Pete: Fish tacos probably.
Kyle: No idea what you guys are talking about.

Kyle, where were you playing music before New York?
Kyle: The bay area. I had a band in college, before I came here.
Pete: Straight out of Santa Cruz.
Kyle: We were very experimental, kind of more pop than rock.
Josh: Pretty much in line with the whole nor cal experimentation.
Kyle: Yeah.
Josh: I hear all these great things about UC Santa Cruz, very pacified, near the beach.

Would you guys want to go to the bay area to play music or do you feel better in Brooklyn?
Josh: Yeah.
Pete: That would be great.
Josh: I went as far as Big Sur this summer; I started out in LA then went up to Big Sur.
Pete: San Francisco seems like a good town. I guess Titus who played The Bottom of the Hill which was a really good show. We are friends with this band French Miami who are from San Fran. My computer got some sort of virus or affliction in San Francisco.
Kyle: Hahaha.

As Dinowalrus have you played out there?
Kyle: No we haven’t been to the west coast at all.
Pete: We haven’t been west of the Rockies. It would be nice to head out to LA, I think because there is a certain LA-ness to our music in a number of different ways whether it’s-
Josh: L-anus.
Pete: L-anus ha ha ha ha ha. Your anus L-anus!
Josh: Al-anus Morisette.
Pete: I think, whether it’s Ariel Pink, or HEALTH, or The Mae Shi a lot of that stuff has rubbed off on what we do.
Josh:   Yeah I think Haunted Graffiti are the best band around these days.

When is your album coming out?
Pete: It’s been pushed back to January. Basically we were trying to get it out this week unfortunately I’m told the November to December period is very difficult to put out debut albums as far as hooking up distribution, press, getting the train moving, I guess we missed the boat by a little bit. Mainly because of finding the right PR person to work with. The whole PR thing is a real racket but it’s the only way to go. Seems like you can’t be your own publicist in this day and age since people will just ignore you.
Josh: It’s about the connections.
Pete: Right, fire off an email to their old friend Ryan Schreiber. Get the industry.
Leia: I met him at a show last night.
Josh: Kevin Smith of the indie world.
Pete: Yeah, he kind of does look like Kevin Smith.
Leia: So awkward.
Pete: Was he at the Small Black show?
Leia: No, he was at No Age.
Pete: Oh, right. Yeah he introduced himself to me once. Just like, “Hey, I’m Ryan.” And I’m like “What.”
Josh: (laughs)
Leia: He was talking about putting on the show, I was like “Oh you work for Pitchfork?” He’s like, “Pitchfork? Work for it? I own it.”
All: (laugh)
Leia: Well, that’s embarrassing.
Josh: Was he fronting a bit?
Leia: More like touting himself I guess.
Pete: I guess he should be.
Josh: Hey when did he approach you?
Pete: I was at South by Southwest. I was talking to somebody, had my eagle shirt on. Some guy was like “hey, you’re in Dinowalrus I saw you at the Music Hall at After the Jump last year.” I’m like “Oh cool” so I was talking to this guy for a little bit. Then this fellow Ryan comes up to me. I talked to him like 20 seconds before he got distracted. I didn’t realize who it was until the last five seconds.
Kyle: So you didn’t name drop the band?
Pete: No I’m not that fast on my feet.

Do you think bands these days need a publicist more or to just get straight on to websites like Pitchfork?
Josh: It varies, it totally varies. You have groups like Washed Out which is a recent contender, and then my friend Piper who is in this great band called Pearl Harbor who is just making music out of her house with her sister who is 14 years old. Our friend mixed it and then it got the attention of Mexican Summer who are a pretty good label from here and all it takes is them wanting to pick up this band and Pitchfork being in tune with Mexican Summer for them to review their track.
Pete: Good for them. I guess our band isn’t really on the fast track cause we are too weird or whatever.
Josh: Yeah, it’s not pop. I think Pitchfork is all about pop.
Pete: We are capable of pop, I guess we could go in that direction.
Kyle: Our songs are still catchy though.
Pete: Yeah I think our songs are certainly memorable.  They just don’t necessarily reference the things which are immediately on the tip of these people’s mind.

You were talking about the eagle shirt, do you wear that at every show?
Pete: Yeah, that’s a good point.
Kyle: Not every show.
Pete: I would say like 90 percent of the shows.
Josh: Sometimes you wear this like, checkered soccer jersey.
Pete: Oh yeah, the Manchester united! Just Winchester, my boyhood soccer jersey.
Kyle: From Winchester, Massachusetts.
Pete: Damn straight. Nobody notable in music has ever come from that town. Yo Yo Ma lived there for a bit. Supposedly Gary Cherone of Van Halen and Extreme may have lived there or worked there.
Kyle: A lot of Bon Jovi.
Josh: Bon Jovial. That’s the new play on words there.
Pete: Anyway, hopefully this publicist Tim Jones at Terrorbird Media is going to be able to say the right things about us to get some good press.  We have this sweet Mae Shi remix that will be dropping in a month hopefully that maybe will get some attention.  Keeping it under very tight wraps.