(Atom Splitter) Dinosaur Pile-Up today drop their new single, the raucous heart-on-sleeve track "Sick Of Being Down." The single is taken from their first new album in six years, I've Felt Better, which will be released on August 22 via Mascot Records.
The band has also announced a special one-off show at the Leadmill, Sheffield, on June 24 as part of the venue's farewell party, as well as an enormous tour of the U.S. with A Day To Remember and Yellowcard from October 22 to November 22.
The harrowing experience Matt Bigland went through when hospitalized with ulcerative colitis in critical care is one part of his story. Adjusting to life back home came with several challenges, which he channels on their new single. "Sick Of Being Down" is a grungy, mesmerizing treatise on the exhaustion of balancing mental health, taking us back to his lowest point, and finding empowerment in how he made it out.
"'Sick Of Being Down' is essentially a post-traumatic existential breakdown articulated as a 3-minute garage punk rock song," he says. "Trying to readjust myself to life after hospital was a really confusing journey. I felt conflicted about myself. What I liked and what I didn't. What I was, what I wasn't. All my priorities had changed; my 'place' in the world felt different, and that was a jarring feeling to navigate. I was experimenting with weed again to see if I could balance my mental state a little better, and one day, I was wondering if I was in a cycle of kind of self-fulfilling cause and effect; I'm sick of being down when I'm high, cos I'm high when I'm sick of being down."
The video features clips from vintage movies, including a few famous faces, for a wild ride. "I wanted the lyric video to be something surreal," Bigland explains. "The narrative of the song and the footage aren't linked, but somehow create something new when forced together. It took a minute to find a piece of footage that worked, but in the end, I think we ended up with something really cool and kinda weird! It suits the song for me now."
A recurring shining light of DPU in 2025 is the word "empowerment" - for all the difficulties Bigland has faced, he and the band have taken back control of their destiny. Channelling the worst of times into gold nugget after gold nugget, with I've Felt Better providing some of the most powerful songs they have ever written. If you've been at rock bottom and found the strength to pull yourself up into the daylight, you can see hope, and since the release of their comeback single "'Bout to Lose It," fans have rejoiced at their return.
This has propelled them through the singles that have followed. A barnstorming highlight, "My Way," with a hip hop-inflected ode to staying true to oneself and staying angry at a twisted modern music industry that criminally underpays its creatives to the most recent banger, "Big Dogs," a gleeful takedown of ass-backwards celebrity freebie culture where the richest and most successful always 'eat for free' while needy nobodies scrabble for scraps.
Dinosaur Pile-Up have absolutely roared back to life with formidable power - the best album they've made to date, alongside their hotly-selling headline tour of the UK in September and an outrageously exciting tour of the U.S. with A Day To Remember.
DINOSAUR PILE-UP UK TOUR DATES:
6/24 - Sheffield, UK - The Leadmill
9/5 - Birmingham, UK - XOYO
9/6 - Bristol, UK - Electric
9/9 - Glasgow, UK - Garage
9/11 - Manchester, UK - New Century Hall
9/13 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom
U.S. TOUR DATES:
10/22 - Ontario, CA - Toyota Arena*
10/23 - San Diego, CA - Gallagher Square at Petco Park*
10/25 - Phoenix, AZ - Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre*
10/26 - Albuquerque, NM - Isleta Amphitheatre*
10/28 - Colorado Springs, CO - Broadmoor World Arena*
10/29 - Independence, MO - Cable Dahmer Arena*
10/31 - Lincoln, NE - Pinnacle Bank Arena*
11/1 - Bloomington, IL - Grossinger Motors Arena*
11/2 - Minneapolis, MN - The Armory*
11/4 - Grand Rapids, MI - Van Andel Arena*
11/5 - Pittsburgh, PA - PPG Paints Arena*
11/6 - Lexington, KY - Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center*
11/8 - Manchester, NH - SNHU Arena*
11/9 - Bridgeport, CT - Total Mortgage Arena*
11/11 - North Charleston, SC - North Charleston Coliseum*
11/13 - Biloxi, MS - Mississippi Coast Coliseum*
11/14 - Tallahassee, FL - Donald L. Tucker Civic Center*
11/18 - Huntsville, AL - Von Braun Center*
11/20 - Tulsa, OK - BOK Center*
11/21 - Austin, TX - Moody Center*
11/22 - Corpus Christi, TX - American Bank Center*
1/25-1/31 -Miami, FL - Shiprocked Cruise^
*With A Day To Remember + Yellowcard
^ Festival
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