To celebrate our 30th year as a label, we launched the now sold-out MRG30 vinyl subscription series Born Under a Good Sign featuring four surprise full-length LPs on exclusive color vinyl, shipped periodically throughout the year to subscribers ahead of a wider release.

The third of these LPs is a full-album rendition of Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible (released on Merge in 2007) by our favorite Texas glam punks, A Giant Dog. It will be available in full at midnight local time on all digital platforms, and on black vinyl at select independent record stores next month.

A Giant Dog’s Sabrina Ellis:

This year, Merge invited us to be part of their subscription series. They granted us a budget and said we could cover the entirety of any album we want, since the beginning of time. We debated which album to cover; we were full of ideas. Sheer Heart Attack, Tapestry, Captain Fantastic, Off the Wall, Purple Rain, such classics. 

Andrew insisted we take on Neon Bible because he believed we could do something cool and unique with it. Throughout the process, we learned that Neon Bible is a great album, that Arcade Fire made it with thematic focus and a cohesive sound. These discoveries will certainly influence our next AGD record. 

We found our own groove on each song during two five-hour rehearsals in my living room, then went to studio with Stuart Sikes. 

The themes in the album, of outrage at U.S. leadership in the early 2000s, and a need to escape our social climate, sadly, remain pertinent today. 

Recording a cover album, we felt like actors in a movie. Taking someone else’s lines and embodying those emotions, and expressing those ideas through our own selves, made us portals of human expression… and that’s why the album artwork is an open butthole.*

*The awesome butthole artwork was conceived by our drummer Danny and made possible by our friend Jennine Turow.

Listen to & share A Giant Dog’s version of Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible album beginning at midnight

Prior to Neon Bible, A Giant Dog released two excellent albums on Merge: 2017’s Toy and 2016’s Pile. The quintet is staying local in Austin after a summer tour that brought them to North Carolina for our MRG30 music festival, but follow AGD on Facebook and Instagram to find out what excitement they have in store for the future!

A Giant Dog on tour:
Sep 27 Austin, TX – The ABGB
Dec 14 Austin, TX – Barracuda

[photo: Loïc Warin]