I write about random things a lot. I write a lot about random things. There's very little that's more interesting to me than getting the opportunity to see a band on its rise to popularity, and we have that opportunity in Dinosaur Bones, a fivepiece indie-pop group from Toronto.

Over the past couple of years, Dinosaur Bones — guitarist/vocalist Ben Fox, guitarist Josh Bryne, bassist Branko Scekic, keyboardist Dave Wickland and drummer Lucas Fredette — have developed a rabid following and strong reputation in the Toronto indie scene which, coupled with their self-titled 7” vinyl release in February, got the attention of Dine Alone Records.

Dinosaur Bones celebrated their October signing to Dine Alone with the release of their Birthright EP on November 2 and a tour of the region, including a stop here in London. Fortunately, they're playing another gig here at Cowboys Ranch on December 2, in support of The Reason and Arkells.

“We've had some great shows there, and we're excited to be back,” said Fox. “We've been there a few times, I think all at Call The Office. It's pretty cool to go back and play a bigger room with an awesome band like Arkells.”

The music on Birthright is spatial and fascinating. The opening track, We Use Our Hands, is a brilliant and shadowy, sets the tone perfectly for the title track, which features sharp drums and loosened bass blended with dreamy vocals to create a compelling hypnosis. However, with both of these songs, there is an underlying feeling of anticipation, an almost subliminal feeling that Dinosaur Bones are leading up to something.

A feeling that Fox says may infer the band's own anticipation of the release of their first full-length record, tentatively titled My Divider, early in 2011. “We finished recording it quite a while ago now, and then Dine Alone came into the picture.”

“When that was all said and done, we determined that an early new year release would be ideal,” he continued, referring to the decision to postpone the album. “But we didn't want to leave people waiting that long, didn't want people to forget about us, so we figured we'd put something else out, to kind of remind people we're alive and fill in the gap.”

The band recorded We Use Our Hands and Birthright, paired them up with Royalty and Ice Hotels from their February vinyl release, and released the collection on iTunes earlier in the month. Listening to the Birthright EP, steeped in personality and a nostalgic flavour of the alternative scene of the 1990s, it's a safe wager that the full-length coming in a couple of months will be a fantastic listen.

Dinosaur Bones are keeping very busy through the end of the year, as though they're trying to make up for the wait of their album by playing lots of live shows in Ontario. According to Fox, the band is excited to be returning to London. “We're going to be touring like mad for the next couple of months, so we'll definitely be back after this Arkells show, probably before the album comes out, so keep an eye out for it.”

Tickets for the Dinosaur Bones show at Cowboys with The Reason and Arkells are $25.25, and are available online at Ticketmaster. To hear their Birthright EP, head to their Myspace profile at myspace.com/dinosaurbonesband, and follow them on Twitter @dinosaur_bones.

Find out what Dinosaur Bones have been listening to, and get more music news, views and downloads in the Music Recommendations thread in our FSU social network or by following FSU_Bobbyisms. I'm out of words.