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Crash Test Dummies Return With Brand New Single “Sacred Alphabet”

With one of the most distinctly recognizable lead voices in Canadian music, Alternative-Rock band Crash Test Dummies are a three-time Grammy Award-nominated and JUNO Award-winning group, who soared to the top of the worldwide charts in the early ’90s with hits “Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm” and “Superman’s Song.”

Their cover of “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” was selected as the soundtrack to the blockbuster comedy film, “Dumb and Dumber,” reaching the Top 5 on both Canada’s Top Singles and Adult Contemporary charts. Their subsequent releases kept the same Folk-hued, Alternative spirit of their early sound, featuring the distinct baritone vocals of frontman Brad Roberts and Ellen Reid’s Folk-Rock fusion.

Following their successful 25th anniversary tour across North America for “God Shuffled His Feet,” their 3x Grammy Award-nominated album that reached #4 on the US Top 100 Charts, the band has continued to perform worldwide are currently on tour in the US. With original members Brad Roberts, Ellen Reid, Dan Roberts and Mitch Dorge, their current line-up includes celebrated Canadian artists Stuart Cameron and Leith Fleming-Smith.

The band has a whopping 1.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone and is gearing up to release a brand new, awe-inspiring, philosophy-filled ballad that exudes the classic Crash Test Dummies sound, “Sacred Alphabet”, on Friday, March 10, 2023.

Produced and mixed by industry veteran Scott Harding (De La Soul, Antibalas), the recording of “Sacred Alphabet” marks the first time the Crash Test Dummies recorded a song remotely, having each band member record their part separately from Toronto, Winnipeg, Halifax, and New York.

The single cover and video artwork were designed by someone who Roberts half-jokingly describes as his dream collaborator, his wife, Michele Varian.

“Making Sacred Alphabet was a great experience – integrating the counterpoint style I’ve been studying into the classic Crash Test Dummies sound gave us something that felt both familiar and fresh.” – Brad Roberts.

In 2018, 25 years after the release of their multi-Grammy nominated hit album “God Shuffled His Feet,” The Crash Test Dummies hit the road for the first time in 20 years with an Anniversary Tour that spanned North America. The overwhelming reception led to a 30th Anniversary Tour in 2022 for their debut release, “The Ghosts That Haunt Me,” which touched down in the US, UK, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Canada. And the band is showing no signs of slowing down…

“Touring again was not something we’d planned on, but surprisingly – at least to me – there are lots of people who, many years later, still want to come and hear us. The folks that are coming out to see these shows tell us their stories, some of them very funny, some very dark and all very personal. It’s very humbling, being in the confidence of so many people,” says lead singer-songwriter Brad Roberts, “and it has inspired us to continue to tour and make music.” 

Early 2023 will see the release of a new, original Crash Test Dummies single, “Sacred Alphabet, “ as they again hit the road in North America and Europe.

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