Following the February 2014 release of their second full-length album, Dialects, as well as a cross country tour with Brooklyn’s Small Black, Brooklyn five-piece Snowmine is gearing up for their very first headlining tour. Starting in September, the band will be bringing Toronto’s Nightbox along for the tour, which begins 9/16 in Allston, MA and ends with a homecoming show 10/12 at Brooklyn‘s Baby’s All Right.  (See below for full list of dates).

Dialects was entirely written and produced on their own, and recorded by Jake Aron (Grizzly Bear), and Yale Yng Wong (Here We Go Magic) in a church in Uptown Manhattan. Growing off of the band’s previous release, Laminate Pet Animal,  Dialects marks a subtle shift in the band’s sound. From the optimistic, tribal undertones of Laminate Pet Animal, to a more ambient, meditative nostalgia.  Recording in a church afforded them the opportunity to record real reverbs, and gather true ambiances one can feel in their headphones. Combine a stronger presence of vintage synthesizers with the beautiful 1960’s cinema-inspired string, woodwind, and choir orchestrations, and you are left with a surreal retrofuturism beckoning you inside for a fireside chat.

The Brooklyn quintet formed out of a longtime friendship between bassist Jay Goodman, drummer Alex Beckmann, and lead singer/composer Grayson Sanders. They soon met guitarist Austin Mendenhall after his then recent move from the DC jazz scene, and finally invited their old friend, guitarist Calvin Pia, to complete the five-piece.

From the band: “To give you some background on the recording, there are no foreign samples on this album.  Every single sound and orchestral moment was written, arranged, and recorded by us.  The goal of the album was to capture a surreal ambiance that married hyper modern ambient synth tones with vintage 60’s sounding cinematic orchestral motifs.  We recorded a choir, strings, woodwinds, and reamped synths in a church to capture truly real stereo reverbs, so in headphones you can feel physical, not artificially created space.”

The album chronicles a disoriented period in singer Grayson Sanders’ life, when after the band’s first record, he spontaneously left his job, and spent the following year wandering with a single bag. The lyrics are pulled entirely from the journal he kept during his travels. Dialects is about communication: with the self, with others, with society. It’s about its breakdown, its triumphs, and its misgivings.

Snowmine
Dialects
Out Now via Mystery Buildings

Tracklist:
To Hold an Ocean
Rome
Columbus
Further Along, Farther Away
You Want Everything
Safety in Your Open Mind
Glide
Plans
Courts
Silver Sieve
Dollar Divided

SNOWMINE 2014 TOUR DATES w/ NIGHTBOX:

Tue 9/16/2014 Allston, MA @ Great Scott
Wed 9/17/2014 State College, PA @ Chronic Town
Thu 9/18/2014 Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Fri 9/19/2014 Grinnell, IA @ Grinnell College
Sat 9/20/2014 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Tue 9/23/2014 Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
Wed 9/24/2014 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
Fri 9/26/2014 San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Sat 9/27/2014 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Sun 9/28/2014 San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Tue 9/30/2014 Scottsdale, AZ @ Pub Rock Live
Wed 10/1/2014 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
Thu 10/2/2014 El Paso, TX @ Lowbrow Palace
Fri 10/3/2014 & Sat 10/4/2014 Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
Sun 10/5/2014 Dallas, TX @ Three Links
Tue 10/7/2014 Nashville, TN @ The High Watt
Wed 10/8/2014 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
Thu 10/9/2014 Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight
Fri 10/10/2014 Raleigh, NC @ Kings
Sat 10/11/2014 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Sun 10/12/2014 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right

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