Best of What's Next: Dinosaur Feathers

Hometown: Brooklyn
Album: Fantasy Memorial
Band Members: *Greg Sullo (vocals, drum machine, guitar), Ryan Michael Kiley (bass, vocals), Derek Zimmerman (keyboard, vocals)
For Fans Of: The Beach Boys, Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend

Dinosaur Feathers call themselves “Brooklyn’s only wedding band specializing in elopements,” though they’ve never actually played any sort of knot-tying event. Still, lead singer Greg Sullo says they’re available for nuptials, bar mitzvahs—anything, really. They’re not picky.

The band has hardly turned down an offer since forming in early 2009. “At the time, we didn’t know any people, didn’t know any venues, didn’t have any contacts, and so we were just trying to play every single show we could,” Sullo says. “And we would line up something once or twice a month maybe, and slowly we built up, we made more friends. We never really learned how to say no to playing shows.”

When asked what about those shows has generated a bit of blog-buzz in recent months, Sullos demures: “The more you play, the more people talk about it.” True, but it likely has a bit more to do with the band’s melange of Latin and African-infused drum machine beats—plus the fact that these guys can really sing. Sullo and his bandmates use their voices like instruments, stacking and weaving them into a textured sonic tapestry that drips with 60s nostalgia. Following up a few singles and an EP released last year, the 10 songs on the band’s debut LP, Fantasy Memorial (out March 2) are full of catchy pop choruses that linger like summertime freckles, as richly layered as late-August sunset.

This spring, Dinosaur Feathers will break out of Brooklyn for performances at SXSW and a spring tour that’ll take Sullo back to his Minnesota homeland (and almost everywhere in between). They’ll wrap up the jaunt in early April, just in time to rest up for summer wedding season—but if things keep up, they might get to start being a little pickier about their gigs.