Hi, all.. just a few words of news regarding musical stuff Anton Sword-related...
The first mix of our new single 'Here in the Hurricane' which we've dubbed the 'Irene Mix' (because it was finished as Irene lashed the NYC balconies and gutters and we cowered indoors waiting for the catastrophe that didn't really happen.. as usual), is now available for free download for a limited time here:
listen & free download of 'Here in the Hurricane (Irene Mix)'
And because you may feel, after listening to it, that the song is worth .99, the single is also for sale on iTunes for .99 (same price a physical single cost 40 years ago -- imagine that):
go to & buy 'Here in the Hurricane (Irene Mix)' in the iTunes store
Also, a lo-resolution homemade fan video of the tune has been posted by our fan Hitchcock Roach here (All footage from Berlin parties.. no, that's not you in the hallway): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNAFg1fADtA
Shows:
Tomorrow (Monday Sept 26) Anton Sword & The We Ours play our first band show in two months, sans guitar, for FREE at the Delancey, 168 Delancey St, between Clinton and Attorney at, yes, another Small Beast. Anton, Kristin & Gina do the trio thing around 11 pm. We'll be followed by the dance-inducing dictator Marmon and hanging and dancing til two or so. We're preceded by Valerie Kuehne, Hannah Elka Meyers, Rice Cultivation Society, and Kristin Mueller. Set times are farther down in this post.
Other upcoming shows:
Oct 7 : Anton plays solo at Papacookie, 201 W.86th #806 on the Upper West Side
Oct 19: Sword & Slave play Schokoladen in Berlin
Oct 22: Sword & Slave play L'Appartement in Longwy, France
Oct 27: Anton Sword & The We Ours play Helsinki Klub in Zurich, Switzerland
Oct 28: Anton Sword & The We Ours play Cargo Bar in Basel, Switzerland
Oct 29: Anton Sword & The We Ours play Cafe Kairo in Bern, Switzerland
In other news, Anton recently had the honor of playing a solo piano double set at Jan Haux & Verena Von Holtum's wedding in Potsdam, Germany, accompanied only by the pleasant tinkle of cocktail glasses and clicking of high heels on the ballroom floor and the patio flagstones. It was so much fun that he'll be available for cocktail lounge solo sets in the future, playing a mix of originals and covers -- for the appropriate price, of course.
Details of Monday's Delancey show:
Small Beast #124 Monday Sept 26
The Delancey - 168 Delancey St. between Clinton and Attorney
8:45 Valerie Kuehne cello/voice
http://www.myspace.com/valeriekuehne
9:15 Hannah Elka Meyers guitar/voice
http://www.myspace.com/hannahelkameyers
9:45 Rice Cultivation Society
10:15 Kristin Mueller guitar/voice
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kristinmueller
11:00 Anton Sword & The We Ours (keys/bass/drums/voice)
11:45 onwards MARMON (DJ)
http://soundcloud.com/djmarmon
thanks all for reading.
Sword & Slave:
feelings are overrated.
people are less important to other people than they imagine.
celebrity is fleeting and of little use except for getting sex and gifts.
thinking is too hard for most people.
older is usually wiser.
no one can live without living in a story.
the influence of parents and the unconscious desire for children -- i.e. reproduction of the self -- motivate most human activity.
friendship and music are still pleasurable mysteries.
it feels better to give than to receive.
listening is usually more rewarding than talking.
Forty years ago, a 'single' was available as a vinyl object, to be played and gradually worn out on a turntable. It cost one dollar. True, you got two tunes, one on each side. But note: today a single, available as a digital file that never wears out and can be played anywhere, forever, also costs one dollar. Almost everything else costs much, much more than it did 40 years ago.
'Here in the Hurricane (Irene Mix)' - one possible mix of this song among an infinite number, some of which will continue to appear - is now up on iTunes. For one dollar. Buy the song and listen to it wherever and whenever you want, with anyone, forever. And be a tiny part of the cosmic exchange that returns to the artist fractions of what it cost to make the song. Money is, of course, not the point.
Click the gray button.
We've started playing with a new bass player, Gina Rodriguez. She's played with The Detroit Cobras, Les Sans Culottes, and Moisturizer, and currently plays with Madame Robot, and she's great. We're playing our first full show with her, along with Anton on keys, Julian Maile on guitar, and Kristin Mueller on drums, this Saturday March 12 at the Delancey, 168 Delancey St, NYC. So We feel lucky, punk. No excuses for you this time. The basement at the Delancey will start filling with sound at 8:30 sharp and we need you to come lick it up with your ear-tongues to keep us from drowning.
Fulton Lights * "Imagine if Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock produced a few songs on Beck’s Sea Change and then Tom Waits and Brian Eno stepped in to add some texture—and it all worked." -- The Onion AV Club
8:30 sharp
http://www.myspace.com/andrewspencermusic
http://www.fultonlights.com/
Kristin Mueller * is known around NYC as the Most Excellent Drummer for several great bands, including (but not limited to) Anton Sword, Lucinda Black Bear, and Clare Burson. In addition to her fantastic drumming, Mueller is a unique singer-songwriter and guitarist, with a fascinating fingerpicking style and a mesmerizing voice. Those of you who’ve seen her know what she’s about, and those of you who haven’t should check out her beautiful, intimate, and original tunes and presentation. 9:15 sharp
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kristinmueller
Nathan Halpern & The Lusty Men * 'Halpern sings in the rough, urgent, powerful baritone of a 1950s crooner, a voice at once vulnerable and masculine…his hooks and melodies and climaxes evoke the popular songs of forty and fifty years ago and yet amount to something unmistakably new.' (MTV.com). He's also the splendidly dark sonic signature of Ghostwise, the Kerry Kennedy-led band (that Anton also plays piano with). 10 sharp
http://www.myspace.com/nathanhalpern
Anton Sword * is still doing something that people like to compare to Brits like Lennon, Bowie, & Morrissey, or NYCers like Lou Reed & LCD Soundsystem, depending on the song, but he's not always sure what it is. Anyway, never mind him: with Kristin Mueller on drums, Julian Maile on guitar, and Gina Rodriguez on bass, it's an actual band you don't want to miss. And they'll be playing some new songs from the upcoming new EP - 11 sharp
Roman Games * is perhaps known to you all as a gadfly, a bard of special occasions, a master of the night ceremonies, or a punk rocker from another continent. We don't need to know what form he'll take to know it will be very stimulating, and probably involve a good mixture of whiskey and bardic poetry in a cute swiss accent. 12 sharp
http://www.myspace.com/theromangames
Finally got around to posting a few tracks recorded raw (a handheld WAV recorder sitting on a table stageside) at the Cafe Kairo in Bern, Switzerland last autumn (October 21, 2010, to be exact). Ah, seems so long ago already... Anton Sword, keys & vox; Kristin Mueller, drums; Julian Maile, guitar & second vox; Chris Wilson, bass.
It's like you're there at the Cafe Kairo (with a few beers in you)
Now I've totally rewritten the second half of this little dog poem and I'm happier with it.
My Black Dog
My black dog grips
A lamb shank-bone
Between white-tufted paws.
With his back fangs,
Tongue dangling down
Narcotically, he gnaws,
And watches me
Without seeing,
His condensed feeling
In those working jaws.
With frightful cracks
And crunching, splintered
Shards he swallows
To my slight alarm,
And yet I watch him
With satisfaction.
He suffers no harm.
I don’t intrude
My knuckled thumbs;
Interrupting
Would be rude.
When I wake mid-night,
Walk into my childless rooms
Alone, stung with pangs
Of worry on my sofa
For the world,
He stirs himself
And follows like
A good-luck charm.
He plops down
Near my bare feet
On the cold floor
And begins snoring like a saw.
My black dog grips
A lamb shank-bone
Between white-tufted paws.
With his back fangs,
Tongue dangling down
Narcotically, he gnaws.
He watches me
Without seeing,
His condensed feeling
In those working jaws.
With frightful cracks
And crunching, splintered
Shards he swallows
To my slight alarm,
And yet I watch him
With satisfaction.
Childless as I am,
Exiled from animal
And god, alone;
Belonging to no party,
Tribe or guild,
I envy him his bone.
