While you'd be hard-pressed to get them to admit it, Dinosaur Bones have inadvertently become the poster boys for abandoning education in the name of rock n' roll. In 2008, after months of prioritizing writing melodic indie rock songs over Hemingway essays, vocalist/guitarist Ben Fox finally packed up his guitars, leaving behind his undergrad and Montreal apartment for his hometown of Toronto. It was with that, a bold against-your-guidance-counsellor's-best-advice move, that Dinosaur Bones was born.
As soon as he re-planted himself in his home soil, Fox immediately began assembling a mosaic of former bandmates and friends-of-friends to give life to the skeleton of songs captured on his shifty 4-track recorder: Branko Scekic (bass), Dave Wickland (keys), Lucas Fredette (drums) and Joel Clifton (guitar). Raw as they were, the outside input from these fresh minds quickly turned his unpolished tunes into broody pop gems, dripping with haunting synth layers and a throbbing rhythm section.
In less than two years since exchanging a university auditorium for a cramped 12-seater Econoline tour van, Fox and the fellow Bones have been efficient in inflicting enough damage on the Canadian indie music community to justify their namesake. After releasing a self-titled, 4-song demo EP in late 2008, the band has hit the stage with Handsome Furs, the Rural Alberta Advantage, Born Ruffians, The Arkells, Malajube, Hollerado, and Sebastian Grainger, received praise from both college and commercial radio, and been personally invited to play some of the country's largest festivals. They've also outgrown many of the venues in their hometown, packing the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, among others, wall-to-wall with hundreds of rabid fans, often storming the stage for sing-alongs induced by their anthemic blend of hook-laden melancholy and broody charisma.
In late 2009, Dinosaur Bones entered the studio with producer Jon Drew (Fucked Up, Tokyo Police Club, the Arkells) to lay down the foundation for their long-anticipated debut LP. Until then, anxious fans can take solace in a 7”, being released February 1, 2010 - consider it a preview of what is to come.
