Name: Bite
Brand: A Giant Dog

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

MRG829LP

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: Yes

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-08-25

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0673855082912

Total Cap

Black LP

MRG829LPC1

Green

Opaque Green

Extended format: Yes

0673855082905

Green LP

MRG829CD

Download code: No

With 14 Page Booklet

0673855082929

Artist

A Giant Dog

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Merge Records

Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. Founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan, it started as a platform to release music from their band Superchunk and their friends' creations. Over the years, Merge Records has grown to include talented artists from all over the world, with some of their records even reaching the top of the Billboard music charts.
With its headquarters nestled in Durham, North Carolina, Merge Records has become a renowned name in the music industry. The label was established by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan back in 1989 with a vision to share their own musical endeavors as well as support fellow musicians within their circle.
What began as a humble endeavor quickly flourished into something much greater. Today, Merge Records boasts an impressive roster of artists spanning various genres and backgrounds. From indie rock to experimental pop, *Superchunk* paved the way for other talented musicians to join forces under this esteemed label's umbrella.

Newest Listed Items

The moment the needle drops on&nbsp;Bite, the new A Giant Dog record, one’s conception of what an A Giant Dog record sounds like bends like space and time around a starship running at lightspeed. The biggest point of departure is that&nbsp;Bite&nbsp;is&nbsp;a concept album, concerning characters who find themselves moving in and out of avirtual reality called Avalonia.

A Giant Dog’s first album of original songs since 2017’s&nbsp;Toy,&nbsp;Bite&nbsp;finds the band - Sabrina Ellis, Andrew Cashen, Danny Blanchard, Graham Low, and Andy Bauer - at&nbsp;their peak as musicians, challenging themselves with more complex arrangements and subject matter that forced them out of their heads and into those of the characters&nbsp;who occupy this supposed paradise. “We had to find ourselves within, or project&nbsp;ourselves into, the principal characters. We developed them, got to know their minds, emotions, and motivations, and then expressed those in nine songs,” Ellis explains.

Themes of addiction, gender fluidity, living ethically in a capitalist society, physical&nbsp;autonomy, avarice, grief, and consent bubble beneath the promised happiness of Avalonia. This is evident in songs like “Different Than,” where Ellis sings, “My body can’t explain the things my mind don’t comprehend” as if societal gender pressure is squeezing its protagonist out of their skin.

The songs on&nbsp;Bite&nbsp;are full of bombast, at turns calling to mind the spacefaring operatic&nbsp;rock of Electric Light Orchestra and the high drama of an Ennio Morricone film&nbsp;score. The album’s narrative sweep is epic in scope, its characters facing impossible&nbsp;odds and certain doom, existing as comfortably with the sci-fi grandiosity of Thin&nbsp;Lizzy’s&nbsp;Jailbreak&nbsp;as it does with the high fantasy of Dio and Iron Maiden.

Appropriately, A Giant Dog came to this narrative armed to the teeth with new ideas, unleashing synthesizers and string sections to create what Ellis describes as orchestral, symphonic, futuristic punk. To achieve this, they left their home turf of Austin, Texas, for La Cuve Studio, just outside of Angers, France. Living in the French countryside, A Giant Dog laid down their vision of the future against a decidedly pastoral back- drop. On walks from Angers to La Cuve, Ellis says that they “would see many things, and also nothing at all. Swans on the river. Romani people living in little trailers, with&nbsp;a side hut built for their dog. A juggler on a unicycle—not fucking with you.” “We&nbsp;thought we wouldn’t be allowed back in France after this trip, to be honest,” they continued. “Five loud, stomping, clapping, rowdy Americans who ran through the streets of Angers for three weeks in November 2022.”

The experience capped two years of planning and writing, fleshing out the universe&nbsp;of Avalonia beyond the bounds of most concept albums. The resulting nine songs do not merely occupy this space: They’ve lived in it, and they want out.

Bite

Music GB

Discover Bite by A Giant Dog. Vinyl and CD formats available. A concept album exploring a virtual reality called Avalonia. Released by Merge Records.