From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dear Leader
Origin	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genre(s)	Rock
Years active	2003 - Present
Label(s)	Lunch Records
Associated acts	The Sheila Divine
Members
Aaron Perrino Will Claflin Jon Sulkow Paul Buckley

Dear Leader are a Boston based rock group formed in 2003. The band takes its name from the communist dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-il. Originally, Dear Leader was a solo project by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Aaron Perrino with the intention of it having a revolving lineup for each album. For live performances, Perrino recruited his friends guitarist Will Claflin, bassist Jon Sulkow (formerly of Tugboat Annie), and drummer Paul Buckley (formerly of Orbit) - all of whom now form the permanent lineup for the band.

Dear Leader formed after Aaron Perrino's former band, The Sheila Divine, broke up. He spent the early months of 2003 at Moontower Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts recording new songs. Perrino officially announced his new project in April of 2003. Dear Leader played its first live show on July 1, 2003 at The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts - playing a residency every Tuesday of that month premiering new songs at each show. That same day saw the release of the "My Life As A Wrestler" 7" vinyl single, which featured the song "Slow Death Shadows" as the b-side. The next week, the War Chords EP was released featuring "Wrestler" and five additional songs recorded by Darren Ottaviani with additional production and mixing by John Dragonetti. It marked quite a change from Perrino's previous band, with softer acoustic songs and a new vocal style.

October of 2003 saw the release of The Good Times Are Killing Me, a ten track album consisting of Perrino on vocals and guitar, Blake Hazzard on backup vocals, and John Dragonetti producing the release and providing all of the other instrumentation. Another departure in his sound, the album has no live drums and consists of drum loops, keyboards, synths, and abstract sonic atmosphere. This release saw more in common with Echo & The Bunnymen, New Order or Depeche Mode, than anything The Sheila Divine ever released. While polarizing fans, it featured some of Perrino's strongest songwriting and was a welcome breath of experimentation.

Around this time, the live band began forming the basis for new songs being written. These compositions saw a more political stance lyrically and the return to Perrino's loud distorted anthemic rock with the signature aggressive vocal style. This resulted in the album All I Ever Wanted Was Tonight, produced by Paul Kolderie, being released in November 2004, which included the local radio hit "Raging Red."

As they continued to work on new songs for their third full length studio album, Dear Leader released both a live album of their performance on March 5, 2005 at The Paradise in Boston, Massachusetts and a digital only EP downloadable from the iTunes Music Store featuring the new song "Radar" and outtakes from the All I Ever Wanted Was Tonight sessions.

A third studio album, The Alarmist, was released in November 2006.

• The Good Times Are Killing Me (CD) - Lunch Records - 2003
• All I Ever Wanted Was Tonight (CD) - Lunch Records - 2004
• Live at The Paradise: Boston, MA (CD) - Lunch Records & Instant Live Recordings - 2005
• The Alarmist (CD) - Lunch Records - 2006

• 'My Life As A Wrestler single (vinyl) - Lunch Records - 2003
• War Chords EP (CD) - Lunch Records - 2003
• Radar EP (online only) - Lunch Records - 2006
• Nightmare Alleys EP (online only) - Lunch Records - 2007
• Dear Leader + Taxpayer EP (CD & vinyl) - Lunch Records - 2007

• Dear Leader The band's official website.
• Lunch Records The band's label.
• Dear Leader collection on the Internet Archive's live music archive
• Fansite Dear Leader Fansite