Alt-rock heroes Dinosaur Pile-Up today drop their new single, the raucous heart-on-sleeve, 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 22 August via Mascot Records.
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 Matt’s 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,” Matt 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.”
The band has also announced a special one-off show at the Leadmill, Sheffield, on 24 June as part of the venue’s farewell party, as well as an enormous tour of the US with A Day To Remember and Yellowcard from 22 October to 22 November.
Tour Dates
24 Jun – The Leadmill, Sheffield – UK
05 Sep – XOYO, Birmingham – UK
06 Sep – Electric, Bristol – UK
09 Sep – Garage, Glasgow – UK
11 Sep – New Century Hall, Manchester – UK
13 Sep – Electric Ballroom, London – UK
22 Oct – Toyota Arena, Ontario, CA – US*
23 Oct – Gallagher Square at Petco Park, San Diego, CA – US*
25 Oct – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, Phoenix, AZ – US*
26 Oct – Isleta Amphitheatre, Albuquerque, NM – US*
28 Oct – Broadmoor World Arena, Colorado Springs, CO – US*
29 Oct – Cable Dahmer Arena, Independence, MO – US*
31 Oct – Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln, NE – US*
01 Nov – Grossinger Motors Arena, Bloomington, IL – US*
02 Nov – The Armory, Minneapolis, MN – US*
04 Nov – Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI – US*
05 Nov – PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, PA – US*
06 Nov – Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center, Lexington, KY – US*
08 Nov – SNHU Arena, Manchester, NH – US*
09 Nov – Total Mortgage Arena, Bridgeport, CT – US*
11 Nov – North Charleston Coliseum, North Charleston, SC – US*
13 Nov – Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, MS – US*
14 Nov – Donald L. Tucker Civic Center – Tallahassee, FL – US*
18 Nov – Von Braun Center, Huntsville, AL – US*
20 Nov – BOK Center, Tulsa, OK – US*
21 Nov – Moody Center, Austin, TX – US*
22 Nov – American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, TX – US*
Jan 25 – 31, 2026 – Shiprocked Cruise, Miami, FL – US^
* w/A Day To Remember & Yellowcard
^ Festival