Swan Lakes’s Enemy Mine is now available for pre order here.
From Jagjaguwar:
You can now PRE-ORDER the CD, and you will be provided with a code so you can download a digital copy of the full album almost immediately.
Swan Lake is the musical group featuring celebrated songwriter-mystics Daniel Bejar (of Destroyer and New Pornographers), Spencer Krug (of Sunset Rubdown and Wolf Parade) and Carey Mercer (of Frog Eyes and Blackout Beach). While their debut album was a beautifully-weaved mash-up of their disparate song-writing styles, often with layer upon layer of various melodies and stylistics thrown into a collaborative cauldron to magical, and at times discordant effect, their second album Enemy Mine reflects a more stripped-down, more deliberate approach to collaboration. It’s as if they really tried to just make nice songs together.
I can’t believe I forgot to post this, but I guess it’s better late than never. Carey Mercer recently posted to his blog a rather detailed (and hysterical) description of what went on during the recording process of Enemy Mine. Here’s just a small taste, you can read the full post here.
We did a second round of singing and plinking in Vancouver, at JC/DC studio, in April 2008. I felt comfortable there. I had one great experience at JC/DC. Let me write it down if I can. Dan was off reading Paul Reiser’s Fatherhood, or grabbing a pizza, and Spencer was in the singing room. JC and DC were out of town. So, on this day, I was without qualification the master of the control room.
I was rolling around the floor, rolling in freedom, rolling because the control chair has wheels. I had my feet up on the computer like Spider-man’s boss. I was in charge. We were working on one of Dan’s songs—I think it’s called “Ballad of a Swan Lake”. The last two minutes of the song is chiefly Spencer and I wailing “I sat down / and took a number / at the table where / death resides”
What a beautiful line. It’s courageous, and noir, and of course very funny. I walked around for months softly singing this song this one line: it puts a lilt in my step. I felt lucky.
 
Photo cred: Nicolas Brunet
Handsome Furs just finished a 2 week tour of Europe and recently did an interview with French site Discordance. You can read the translated interview here. Check out some videos from their recent appearance at la Route du Rock festival here and here. Lawrence, Kansas native Dri will be opening for the furs at a few of their upcoming US shows, check their tour page for a full list of upcoming tour dates.
Sunset Rubdown now have some official European tour dates, check their tour page for more info.
photo cred: Jody Rogac
A few sites have tracks from Enemy Mine up for download/stream.
Pitchfork has ‘A Hand at Dusk’ up here.
Spin has ‘Spider’ up here.
Stereogum has ‘Spanish Gold, 2044′ up here. They spoke to Carey Mercer about the track:
After listening a few times, the “bullwhip by the nightstand” really stands out lyrically.
I’ve had that lyric floating around in my mind for a few years. I think it addresses zones of violence and non-violence. One of my students is from Rio de Janiero. She told our class that when she goes home she has to force herself to remember that she is not in a place where she can, for example, walk around with her iPod, because it is an open invitation for someone to rob her. This reality, in a zone of violence, is simply not a reality in my city, which is a relative zone of non-violence. So the lyric kind of addresses this zonal dichotomy, but to the extreme right? I mean, what could be more peaceful and fucking representative of peace then Juilliard, a zone solely devoted to churning out/refining young genuises of art? And kids, young genuises, come from around the world right? So what is it like when you get home, if you live in a zone of violence? If your home is Mexico City or Rio or Baghdad but you’ve been living in this bubble of a dorm room for three years refining your violin genius, how does it feel to return to “reality” after this experience? It must be incredibly hard!
What’s the significance of the title “Spanish Gold, 2044″?
Spanish Gold 2044 is both a reference to the “Kokomo”-like Matthew McConaughey-style back-ups that I begged Dan and Spencer to do, which they loved to do, given our collective love of old “NO SHIRT NO PROBLEM,” and it is a reference to that aforementioned “Adventure-weapon” bullwhip lyric. I am making fun of myself. All of my songs are a balance between serious, heavy-handed statements about “society,” and then making fun of myself for making these statements in song.
Enemy Mine is not yet available for pre-order and is due out March 24th on Jagjaguwar.
We’ve teamed up with Insound to help promote the new Handsome Furs record, Face Control. You can win a free download of the record as well as the t-shirt designed above by Andy Dixon of The Chemistry Designs. To enter the contest head over to the Wolf Parade Faniste page at Insound.com. The contest ends February 27th and we will announce the winner here the following day. Thanks to Meredith at Insound for everything.
Photo Cred: David Blake Hutchinson
Handsome Furs played the Bang Bang Club in Berlin last week. The show was filmed and will be streamed live February 18th on Offener Kanal Berlin at 5pm (EST). Thanks to Jaan for posting the info.
For those of you planning to see the band in Rome, the venue has been changed. The show will now take place at Sinister Noise.
If you haven’t heard, Handsome Furs love Eastern Europe.
04-19 Rock Cafe Prague, Czech Republic
04-20 Stanica Zilina, Slovakia
04-21 Kset Club Zagreb, Croatia
04-22 Rex Belgrade, Serbia
04-23 Klub Re Krakow, Poland
04-24 Hydrozagadka Warsaw, Poland
04-25 Roxy Klaipeda, Lithuania
04-26 Fontaine Palace Liepaja, Latvia
04-27 Club Depo Riga, Latvia
04-28 Juuksur Tallinn, Estonia
04-29 Kuudes Linja Helsinki, Finland
05-01 Hornstull Strand Stockholm, Sweden
05-02 Garage Bergen, Norway
05-06 Garage Oslo, Norway
05-07 Ryds Herrgård Linkoping, Sweden
05-08 Debaser Malmo, Sweden
05-09 Vega Copenhagen, Denmark
I’m so jealous!
Handsome Furs have launched their own online store. Currently you can purchase/pre-order their forthcoming release Face Control. Along with pre-ordering the record, you can also purchase 2 brand new t shirts (one of which is above). Browse around and enjoy.
It goes without saying that 2009 is going to be an incredible year filled with tons of new music. Every band that is discussed on this site is either working on new music or will have a new release (or two) out this year. Sunset Rubdown is set to drop their next record some time in early summer, and it looks like they’ll be previewing their new stuff across the pond. We already posted about their upcoming festival date in Moscow. Here’s a short list of unconfirmed European dates we found so far. Hopefully a complete list of dates will surface soon.
04-22 Donaufestival 2009 Krems, Austria
04-23 007 Prague, Czech Republic
04-24 Avant Fest Moscow
04-27 KSET Zagreb, Croatia
Wolf Parade will be releasing a 2×12″ picture disc of their latest record At Mount Zoomer. I was told by a reliable source that the record was re-cut, so it should sound better than the Sub Pop 12″. The disc will use the original album artwork created by Matt Moroz and Elizabeth Huey. The disc will have a very limited pressing of only 1500 copies. To see more pictures go here.
The side breaks are:
1A: Soldiers Grin, Call it a Ritual, Language City
1B: Bang Your Drum, California Dreamer
2A: The Grey Estates, Fine Young Cannibals, An Animal in Your Care
2B: Kissing the Beehive
Right now there is no scheduled release date or price. When we get more info we will of course post it here.
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