It’s that time of year again – the 2021 Summer Sampler is here! 

We’ve launched a 26 track playlist compilation for you to discover your new favourite song and artist.

Find the perfect mix to complete your Summer 2021 HERE 

Summer is officially here and we’re celebrating with our new 2021 Summer Merch line! Head to dinealonestore.com to check out the fresh range that also includes a branded koozie & cooler!

Dine Alone Records is excited to announce the signing of Toronto-based 15 year-old singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist AVIV, the latest remarkable talent to emerge in ‘bedroom pop’ and poised to become the next big thing in the lo-fi pop scene.

Joined by OCTAVIO the Dweeb, she debuts the official remix today for double single “Black Coffee” with glassy synths, simmering guitar, cinematic hum, and candid lyrics. Produced by Rian Lewis [Kiiara, D.R.A.M.], the original emerged on Spotify’s “New Music Friday” and attracted widespread critical acclaim, illuminating her keen melodic instincts and vivid storytelling. With over one million Spotify streams and approaching 50k listeners, she continues to effortlessly lead her youthful fanbase, building a purely art and expression driven brand.

NEW SINGLE “BLACK COFFEE (FEAT. OCTAVIO THE DWEEB)” OUT NOW

STREAM & PURCHASE THE DOUBLE SINGLE HERE

On the heels of announcing his new album, Toronto-based musician Homeshake, born Peter Sagar, returns to share a new offering from Under The Weather. Designed and directed by Pete Sharp, “Passenger Seat” is an animated, intergalactic highway short that perfectly captures the track’s intimate and meticulously crafted soundscape. “The details in each scene are amazing,” Sagar says. “They compliment the minimalist production of the song so well.” Of the collaboration, Pete Sharp says, “I love the music of Homeshake! When I heard the title ‘Passenger seat’ I thought ‘passenger seat—cars—traffic jam—in space?’ I think the slow moving interstellar pile up really reflects the pace and mood of the track. I hope the general public does too!” The song is the second track from the album following “Vacuum”, which arrived alongside an animated video directed by Jordan Speer and produced by Brain Dead Studios.

Listen to “Passenger Seat” HERE

Watch the Video Premiere HERE

Written in 2019, Under The Weather, is out via Dine Alone Records and is Sagar’s fifth studio album under the Homeshake moniker. The album is an atmospheric, 12-track reflection on the artist’s life and depression, and documents a long, unrelenting period of sadness for the artist. 

Under The Weather also arrives ahead of Homeshake’s 2022 North American tour. Beginning April 2nd in Edmonton, he’ll play 33 dates across North America including stops in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and more. He’ll be joined by Bay Area artist Salami Rose Joe Louis from April 28th through May 26th. Tickets are available here.

Vinyl for the record, which includes a limited edition Dine Alone Orange Crush variant, is available for pre-order now.

PRE-ORDER UNDER THE WEATHER DINE ALONE EXCLUSIVE VINYL HERE

PRE-SAVE UNDER THE WEATHER HERE

BROS – Ewan and Shamus Currie of the platinum-selling Canadian band The Sheepdogs – release their sophomore full-length album Vol. 2, available now via Dine Alone Records. Produced with Thomas D’Arcy at his Toronto studio Taurus Recording, Vol. 2 features 13 new tracks that run the gamut from Tropicalia and smooth jazz to funky, cop drama-inspired jams and vintage AM radio pop. In celebration, BROS cordially invites listeners to attend the virtual BROS Cocktail Hour featuring performances of new songs and old favourites, via YouTube

Since the release of their debut, Vol. 1, BROS have developed a reputation for crafting songs that deliciously combine vintage funk and power pop in the spirit of what Sly & The Family Stone once called a whole new thing. The eclectic flavours of Vol. 1 are taken to new heights; the musical scope is wider, and the worldly sonics more exotic. The power pop refrains sink their hooks deeper, the sly musical jokes sell out harder and the hard charging grooves really pack a wallop. In short, BROS makes music that is fun and colourful, the way it’s supposed to be. 

BROS even got their father Neil Currie, an accomplished musician in his own right, to play some piano, marking the first time they’d ever recorded together. They found his style perfectly suited to the Henry Mancini-esque instrumental “Clams Casino,” just one of several examples on Vol. 2—along with “King Of Kings,” “Snake Dance” and “Theme From BROS”—of the Curries’ skill at writing music that immediately conjures strong visuals. As Ewan says, “I think if I had a chance early in life to be a filmmaker, I might have followed that path, but I realized pretty quickly how hard that is. So making music that sort of evokes the spirit of our favourite movies is something more in our wheelhouse, and certainly more affordable.”

With Vol. 2, the Curries chose to take their time in order to give each song a unique quality, leading to a host of musicians being called in to put down specific parts. Shamus explains, “Since Ewan and I have lived in Toronto, we’ve met a lot of great musicians who we’ve thought would be great to collaborate with. So we were able to bring in some horn players, a tabla player, and anyone able to do what we couldn’t do ourselves. We also called on [Sheepdogs guitarist] Jimmy Bowskill, but only had him play instruments he wouldn’t normally pick up, like fiddle and sitar. Exploration was really the name of the game.”

Of course, there’s more to Vol. 2 than just stunning instrumentals. Ewan’s voice shines on the horn-driven vintage funk of “Never Gonna Stop,” while “It Won’t Be Long” leans heavily on gospel music influences. But for power pop fans, the album’s best moments are to be found on the sugary anthems “Crazy Schemes” and “You Love This Song,” with the latter not making any attempt to hide its earworm aspirations. “That one actually was inspired by a Simpsons episode,” Shamus reveals, “the one where the Navy was using subliminal messaging to appeal to kids. We thought it would be funny to do the opposite—write a song that was just so over-the-top obvious in trying to be catchy. Once we came up with the title, it all kind of grew from there.”

In 2014, when Ewan and Shamus Currie decided to take some time away from their main gig, The Sheepdogs, and indulge in a little musical experimentation under the banner BROS, drawing from influences ranging from Badfinger to Latin music legends such as Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes. Little did they know that the ensuing Vol. 1 album would establish an entirely new identity for them. What began as a pure studio creation with Vol. 1, BROS not only displays the Curries’ dynamic creative bond, but also their playful sense of humour and easy-going relationship, something that can’t often be said of fraternal musical partnerships. As Ewan says, “The point of BROS isn’t about anything other than Shamus and I—two guys with very diverse record collections—writing and playing the sort of music we wouldn’t get to do in any other situation.”

The combination of visually evocative instrumentals and finely crafted Pop and Soul nuggets has undeniably become BROS’ trademark sound. The brothers received glowing feedback from fans and critics alike, while gaining further attention through the track “Tell Me,” which was adopted as the theme song for CBC Radio’s daily arts program ‘q’. “Tell Me” also peaked at #17 on the Canadian Alternative Rock chart, and to date has racked up a combined 11 million streams. The track has been synced by ESPN US, SportsNet, Hockey Night in Canada, Toronto Blue Jays, and enjoyed in-arena syncs with the Denver Broncos, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Minnesota Wild, Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Twins. 

Vol. 2 Tracklist:
01. It’s Killing Me
02. Garbanzo Man
03. It Won’t Be Long
04. Never Gonna Stop
05. Hesitating
06. Crazy Schemes
07. Theme From BROS
08. Sunflower
09. You Love This Song
10. Clams Casino
11. Two For Tea
12. Snake Dance
13. King Of Kings

Stream and purchase Vol. 2 HERE

Watch and share the videos:
“Garbanzo Man” directed by BROS and Amanda Burt
“Never Gonna Stop” directed by Justin Broadbent and Josh Raskin
“Theme From BROS” directed by Rob Fidel

Unlike most of us, Peter Sagar — also known as Homeshake — was staying at home a lot, long before the pandemic. Sagar wrote the majority of his fifth studio album, Under the Weather, in 2019, when he was going through a long, unrelenting period of sadness. “I was in a deep, deep depression,” he recalls of that time period now. “Tours were breaking me. It was awful.” Sagar and his partner were living in Montreal and while everyone was out being social, he was inside listening to ambient music, binging Star Trek, and writing songs. (Sound familiar?) “It was a bit of a dark pit,” he says. “That’s kind of what the whole album is about.”

Under the Weather follows Sagar’s life and the depression that consumed him in 2019 — after a brief album intro, it jumps right into “Feel Better,” a reflection on attempting to buck up when the weather outside is grim. The album is hazy and moody, the pace slow as syrup, and from beginning to end, a fog falls over every synth and guitar line. In “Inaminit,” Sagar cancels plans when he’s feeling low; the closing track, “Tenterhooks,” sees Sagar’s deliverance into the depths of despair: “Feel myself drying up / feel myself turn into dust,” he sings over a funhouse mirror synth. “Oftentimes when you’re in a dark place, you’re supposed to journal and that helps release the pressure,” Sagar says. “For me, it always found its way into the music.”

Capturing the cloudy sound of a depressive funk was no simple feat, especially in the headspace Sagar was in for over a year. For that reason, he decided to enlist his friend, Jerry Paper’s Lucas Nathan, to help with production on the record. Having Nathan contribute helped Sagar dial back some of “dry, pristine digital sound” that defined his fourth studio album, Helium, and add back personal analog touches that drew people to the Homeshake project in the first place.

“I didn’t realize how much I missed having a second set of ears. It’s pretty invaluable,” Sagar says. He would send all the of tracks back and forth with Nathan over the course of 2019, which made the process a longer one than he was used to. “There are a lot of things that I probably wouldn’t have done that Lucas did do. I would tend to do a lot of softening of things, a lot of making everything super bassy and gentle. Lucas was aware that sometimes you needed some punch and grit.” To Sagar, those additions made the record what it is — a melodic, honest look at personal emotional struggle.

As Sagar readies it for release this September, the record he wrote about feeling isolated, alone, and despondent has begun to seem eerily prescient. “People will probably think that I made Under the Weather during or about Covid,” Sagar reflects now. “I was just already living my life that way.” For Sagar, the feelings he experienced over the course of that year are far from over — “I’ve been writing about feeling isolated my whole life,” he says — but with age, he has come to understand them better. “I had a fairly clear idea what the album was going to be like based on where I was emotionally at the time,” he says about Under the Weather. “I just try to make music that is honest about how I’m feeling.”

Connect with Homeshake:

Twitter | Instagram | Bandcamp

Listen to “Vacuum” here.

Pre-Order here.

BROS Ewan and Shamus Currie of the platinum-selling Canadian band The Sheepdogs – have announced their sophomore full-length LP Vol. 2 will be released on July 16, 2021 via Dine Alone Records. Alongside the LP announcement, today the brothers release new single and video, “Never Gonna
Stop”, which showcases the BROS at their hook-laden best, with an entire palette of 70’s inspired sounds coming
together to create a tasty retro jam: clavinet, horns, electric piano, and more percussion than you can shake a stick
at.

The video was directed by Justin Broadbent and Josh Raskin from Don’t Die who have created videos for Shad,
Dragonette, Metric, and Corey Hart. About the video, Shamus says, “We met up with the ‘Don’t Die’ boys and spent
the day hanging out in Toronto’s finest and most urbane neighbourhoods. We walked the streets and they captured
the everyday magic that just kinda follows us around.”

Stream “Never Gonna Stop” HERE
Pre-order / Pre-save BROS Vol. 2 HERE

Wade MacNeil (Alexisonfire, Gallows) has released the first track from his new psych-rock project Dooms Children on Dine Alone Records. “Flower Moon” premiered on the popular BBC Radio 1 Rock Show with Daniel P Carter on May 23 and is available to stream now here. The swirling, slow burn of the song with its intensely cathartic coda, embodies the hope of renewal and rebirth that the full Moon of May, known as the Flower Moon, represents in cultures the world over. The release also coincides with one of the astronomical highlights of 2021, a combination of a May’s full Flower Moon, a ‘supermoon’ and a total lunar eclipse.

Watch the video for “Flower Moon” HERE

Stream “Flower Moon” everywhere HERE

JIM WARD’S NEW SOLO LP DAGGERS ARRIVES JUNE 11 

VIA DINE ALONE RECORDS

PRE-SAVE/PRE-ORDER HERE

LEAD SINGLE “PAPER FISH” PREMIERES VIA THE STROMBO SHOW ON CBC MUSIC IN CANADA

LISTEN + SHARE THE LYRIC VIDEO PREMIERING TODAY VIA FLOOD MAGAZINE HERE

Photo by Christ Chavez.