“Dining Dead are so freakin busy. It feels like I see them on bills everywhere, sandwiched in between acts of all sounds and styles. It shows that they, and their music, work well in a lot of contexts. They also aren’t afraid to stretch the boundaries of their sound, if “Wavelength” is any indication.

This song slays, y’all. It’s openly ambitious in a way that I don’t think we’ve heard yet from this band. The tempo changes come frequently, and the strings(!) that slowly emerge behind Sammy Skidmore’s quavering vocals are a surprising but very welcome touch. “Wavelength” isn’t terribly long, but it still feels like an epic — though I haven’t heard the full record yet, I can imagine it functioning like a centerpiece or a closing number.”

“This Seattle band’s debut full-length is a promising set ranging from moody, folk-tinged rock reminiscent of Mazzy Star to crunchy, hook-filled indie-rock.”

“Skidmore tells the melancholy story of desire and wanting, punctuated with echo-y octave slides and twisty riffs on guitar, reminiscent of a guitar technique called a hammer-on more typically used in acoustic playing.

There’s also plenty of Seattle sounds on Stranger Wages, which Skidmore named after a mix-up with Social Security department called “Stranger Wages” forced her to wait more than six months for her unemployment money during the pandemic. Though the mishap gave her more time to write, tracks on the EP like “Gatekeeper” are saturated with the sort of aloof vocals and intense, building guitar you’d hear from MTV-unplugged Nirvana.”

“My impression of Dining Dead, when I heard their first record Medium Rare back in 2021, was that they went out to bars a lot and made for a good modern version of Pavement. Not exactly like Pavement, mind, but a certain casual looseness persisted in their playing that, in my mind, linked them to the rougher older indie rock bands of that era - plus, of course, the dynamic adroitness of Sammy Skidmore’s voice soaring over country- and surf-rock licks. But even in its most raucous moments something felt a little restrained in the material, and the band’s newest single, “Heaven from the Ceiling,” does a lot to push my initial impression to the side.

It’s not evident at first, starting with Bogie Pieper’s ghost note snare hits and Shannon Barberry’s bass leading with a traceable melody. Even when Skidmore’s voice enters, everything’s still at ground level. It’s when the mirage of guitar enters the right channel that the song lifts off the floor, oscillating from a propulsive pre-chorus to a chorus that shoots into the stratosphere. Twinkling arpeggios, backing harmonies, and a supportive scream at its tail end form a firework-like climax that lets the song glide into its distortion-laden aftermath. By its end, it’s hard to remember where the band began, making “Heaven from the Ceiling” an itinerant gem that foretells exciting times for the band.”

“There are a lot of unique production elements to their album (see the intro of the track ‘Hotwire’). This album would sound amazing live (especially at a beach concert.) The poetry and lyricism of this record are immaculate and definitely gives a nod to the punk poets of the 1970s.”