Ural Thomas & The Pain have released two full length albums, 2016’s self-titled release and 2018’s The Right Time. Now they return with their third record together. Despite the usual COVID-19 obstacles, the group finally completed their much-anticipated new album Dancing Dimensions. While exploring everything from sweet Chicago soul to airy West Coast psychedelia to Sly funk, their latest collection retains the distinctive sound they have organically developed over years of relentless work. Classic yet unmistakably contemporary at the same time, Dancing Dimensions is the most accurate representation of The Pain's unique flavor, power, and musical breadth.

Though Ural Thomas is universally recognized as one of the most exciting singers remaining from the original soul era, and an active musical institution for over sixty years, his band members, all decades younger, are treated as equals. The Pain are no backing band, but rather a well-oiled tightly-knit musical aggregation that's spent the last eight years with Thomas developing a unique sound of its own. The relationship extends beyond the stage and the studio and the practice room. On a given night you may witness the octogenarian soul journeyman turning up at the club with a crew one-third his age at midnight. If you don't recognize him, he's the sharp-dressed man with the charismatic grin out on the floor cutting a rug long after the young folks went home. This love of life and cross-generational relationship is the essence of Ural Thomas & The Pain.

Leader of the rhythm and blues vocal group the Monterays, his success brought him to Los Angeles where he caught the ear of industry bigwig Jerry Goldstein, best remembered for managing Sly and The Family Stone and producing dozens of iconic records by the likes of War, the McCoys, and the Angels (co-writing “My Boyfriend’s Back”). Goldstein brought him into the studio with arranger Gene Page, known for thousands of recordings with everyone from Aretha Franklin to Elton John to a veritable who’s who of Motown stars, to record two landmark 1967 singles, “Pain Is The Name Of Your Game” and “Can You Dig It.”