PREMIERE | Dinowalrus, "A Day of Doing Nothing"

Resurrecting and re-animating the pop art fossils with NYC legends Dinowalrus, photographed by Silvia Saponaro.

The unspoken measure of success in the modern age is calculated by how busy we are. How overwhelmed with work and projects we are belabored by. How double/triple booked our day to day itineraries are. The degree of unmanageability that besets seven-day work weeks. Only those in the high towers of corporate affluence and power can determine who is the most pious and deserving of all life’s glittering prizes of promised prosperity. These illusions and fallacies that are imbricated into our daily institutions of systemic life imbalances have made overstressed, overworked, and always underpaid the status quo, where compliance for rest breaks only exists on account of labor rights activism, and acts of congress. To rest is to be inefficient, subsisting forever in the fray of a universe that has economically established itself as one big network chain of fulfillment center factories.

To alleviate the burden of always feeling put upon by the speed of life, Dinowalrus makes the following official proclamation with “A Day of Doing Nothing” via Personal Projects. Lead by the visions of Pete Feigenbaum, the prolific psych-pop purveyors and propagators continue to keep the faith in finding higher states of grace through the creative mechanizations of anachronistic exaltations. “Doing Nothing” is a hedonistic trip that finds a state of nirvana in taking a mental health day for oneself, whilst eschewing the pressures of feeling shame for embracing the restorative and loving arms of respite.

Visuals from Dylan Brannigan of New Visions Productions pays tribute to the styles that turned the flowery-eyed jangle dream believers into a rave-gaze pursuing chemically addled echelons. Bathed into swathes of smeary and smoldering neon night brushes of indigo, "Day of Doing Nothing" is a call for a new mindful age interpretation of the tune in, turn on, drop out ethos.

Dinowalrus turns the anxiety imbued atmospheres of the world into a slow boulder rock rolling groove that retreats from the non-stop grind for a more blissful and rejuvenated state of the spirit and mind. "Nothing" dissolves the pressing, immediate demands of the material plane as Dinowalrus sets off into the astral dimensions to find a regenerative moment of undisturbed meditation — even if only for a day.

Pete Feigenbaum offered the following reflections on the development of his awe-inspiring ode to unfettered indolence:

"Dinowalrus operates in three modes, freaking out, rocking out and spacing out. While we've been dabbling in washed-out space-age balladry from the early days of "Haze on the Mobius Strip" from our debut album %, these downtempo songs have often been relegated to the second half of our albums. This time we want to bring this more wistful, orchestral side of the band to the forefront, paying homage to our beloved Spiritualized, Primal Scream, Ride and Slowdive. Infinite reverb, psychedelic soul breakbeats.

As far as "Doing Nothing"—for me, there's tremendous guilt around inaction—fortune favors the bold, and yet I desperately need a break from the constant grind, the information overload. This song is about trying to find the time and space to truly drop out, enter a meditative state, and let the world fly by without accusing myself of being lazy.

“A Day of Doing Nothing” is out now via Personal Projects.