smittens news!

UK Tour Part One

2008-07-25T12:52:00.003-04:00

Allo Luvs!
So it is Thursday and we just finished our gig in Leeds with Ballboy and the Manhattan Love Suicides I thought I would take this time to update you all on our adventures so far. So Colin and Dana arrived a week ago and played a Let’s Whisper gig in London. They were celebrating the release of their new EP on Wee Pop Records. They played with Allo Darlin and they had a blast. The next night they headed to Oxford for a solo gig that Colin had. Colin said the gig was fun even though the sound guy kicked over his whiskey.

Holly and I arrived on Saturday. We all met up in Leeds for some practice sessions. Later that night we made dinner and then we went to a local pub for our first tastes of English beer. It is better here. Our first gig was on Monday night in Sheffield. The Pete Green set up the gig. We played with the Parallelograms and the Seven Inches. Both bands were great and super sweet. After the gig we headed back to Leeds and Dana, Holly and I attempted (unsuccessfully) to watch Project Runway on the internet.

On Tuesday we headed to Birmingham (pronounced BUR-ming-GUMM, rather than Birming-HAM.) Our new friend Duncan from the Autumn Store set up a fantastic line up of international music. He and Debbie were super great hosts--they even cooked us pasta and brought it to the club! The Zebras and our label mates Red Pony Clock both shared the stage with us. After the gig a crazy guy told Max and I that Americans were “Doo Doo” then called me “Grandchild”. He was nice I think.

We woke up in Birmingham and headed to Glasgow. We drove through the Lake District which was breathtakingly beautiful. We arrived in Glasgow around four pm. Colin got his first fish and chips of the tour and I had veggie haggis. I am not going to lie to you, the gig that night was pretty amazing. Music Is My Girlfriend set up a fantastic night of music. The Just Joans opened and they are a charming little sextet that make Colin cry. Zoey Van Goey were really really impressive. If you get a chance to see them don’t wear socks, because they will knock them off. Then we crashed in Glasgow. Oh Oh Oh! On the way home we stopped in Appleby and had our first pub lunch. I got the ploughman’s lunch.

So we just played with Ballboy and the Manhattan Love Suicides and the gig was great. It's was Max's friend Neil's birthday and the show felt like a party. We have three more gigs with Ballboy. We are truly lucky.

Here are some pics from the first leg of the tour.

Xoxo

David

New Smittens Video for Gumdrops!

2008-07-13T11:17:00.001-04:00

We have a new video for our song Gumdrops! The lovely Eva Sollberger shot and edited our video. Thanks Eva, we love it! Thanks goes out to Esse Luna who plays the librarian and did an amazing job. Goma started as the Maltese Falcon and was a superstar. This video was shot at Lawrence Barnes School and the kids that participated were amazing. Thanks Lawrence Barnes! Tonight The Smittens are celebrating our new album "The Coolest Thing About Love" with a listening party at 7pm sharp at Parima and we will be debuting the new video as well as having a slideshow of Smittens artwork and photos. Live music will follow the listening portion of the evening with Missy Bly, The 500's and The Specific Heats. Come on down to Parmia for a fun night of music!

The Coolest Month of All!

2008-07-01T16:03:00.002-04:00

The Coolest Thing About Love – Our new album comes out at the end of the month!!!!!! Sometimes it feels like all we can think about, and yet there is a lot of other stuff going on for us this month, too! Places to go, people to see and songs to sing! Hopefully we can share some of our summer with you!

Thank you so much to all of you who came out last month for our split 7” release shows with Tullycraft! It was a wonderful double shot for us as we had our dynamic pals the 500s show up from Portland, Maine to play a few songs with us at the Monkey House and then we got to be rocked by Pants Yell in Somerville the following night! We were so glad the East Coast kids came with their dancing shoes!

July seems to be a month that keeps on getting awesomer and awesomer – we have so much going on that it’s hard to know where to begin – how’s about we start with our Battery Park show next week? Well, we are playing on Thursday, July 10th at Battery park – it’s a free show sponsored by Burlington City Arts and local radio station The Point – bring a blanket and a snack and enjoy the lovely outdoors and some fun tunes – we should be playing around 6:30 and after us there’s a band called Need to Breathe that will be kicking it souther rock style! Should be fun!

After that we are having an official listening party for our brand-new album, The Coolest Thing About Love on Sunday, July 13th at Parima Thai restaurant – come for cocktails and wrap your ears around our latest and best album in a comfortable setting with a sweet sound system! Stick around afterwards and we have some friends coming to celebrate with us – Missy Bly, The 500s and The Specific Heats will all be playing to help us celebrate our new album – and it’s David’s birthday-eve that night, too, so it will definitely be a super fun party!

After that, we’re heading off on our craziest summer trip ever – The Smittens are touring the UK! We are so excited to be able to play for the kids in Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds (twice), Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol, London and Nottingham – and to be spending a couple days at an amazing festival called Indietracks! (www.indietracks.co.uk). If you want to live vicariously, well, let us recommend the brand new indietracks sampler comp from our new friends at make do and mend records (www.makedoandmendrecords.co.uk) – it just came out on Monday!

While we’re in the UK singing and dancing and running about we will be out of out heads happy to know that our new and long-awaited and third album is finally released! Yes, that’s right! According to the fine folks at our Athens, Georgia label, Happy Happy Birthday to Me (www.hhbtm.com) – The Coolest Thing About Love comes out on July 29th! I guess all the awesome albums come out on Tuesdays, but soon you will be able to pre-order the album direct from the label and you may even get some goodies for showing your support so early!

Please feel free to check out our Myspace page (www.myspace.com/thesmittens or our facebook page ( www.facebook.com/pages/The-Smittens/17313842955) to hear a couple songs from the new album!

Things are starting to happen incredibly fast here, so we’ll try to update again soon with more details! Our tour dates are up on our Myspace page as well, and we'll keep them updated with the latest info!

After we get back from Europe, we are going to have an album release show in our hometown (location tbd) and we’re also heading back down to Athens for the HHBTM Popfest 2008 – playing an official Athens release on Saturday, August 16 at the famous 40 Watt club as part of that fantastic fest! We’re also gonna pop in and play a show in Atlanta on Thursday, the 14th – with our pals One Happy Island!

Hope to see many of you very soon! Have a fabulous summer!

Xoxo,
The Smittens

Phoebe Magazine Interviews The Smittens

2008-05-27T20:33:00.003-04:00

Hey Kids! We've been meaning to post for sometime about our interview and photo shoot with amazing new local online magazine Phoebe. The magazine is part of the University of Vermont. We were delighted when Connor Boals the editorial director contacted us to set up an interview. Phoebe magazine covers the life, culture and arts of Burlington, VT. Katherine Robinson did an excellent job with the interview and made it fun and easy. Our photo shoot took place later at Battery Street Jeans where we got dressed in their vintage clothes and pose for photographer Jason Gold. Our lovely stylist was Magdalena Jensen who was fun and comfortable to work with. When the final issue came out online we were so impressed with the slickness and scope of the interviews this first issue was able to capture. Interviews included our friends at Tick, Tick, our favorite sandwich deli Four Corners of the Earth Deli and many more cool people, places and events. David and I stopped by the launch party for Phoebe Magazine at Halverson's Upstreet Cafe where the party took place in their amazing back patio. The party consisted of appetizers, an open bar, live music and deejays. Party goers also got to see the magazine projected on large screens for their viewing pleasure. It was a great party! Check out the party pictures online, that is after you check out our interview on page 28 and 29. Thanks Phoebe Magazine! We love you and look forward to the next issue!

2008-04-07T09:34:00.000-04:00

April, 11 2008 at The Skinny Pancake
Corner of Lake and College Street - at the waterfront, Burlington, Vermont 05401
Cost : Pass the Hat

Our debut at the Skinny... come enjoy the quieter acoustics, and get all the Max you can!

April, 18 2008 at Toad
1920 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140
Cost : FREE!

With One Happy Island! And Max Smitten too

The Coolest Thing About Love (and other delights)!

2008-03-06T14:23:00.000-05:00

Hey Kids! We have a new title for our new and long-awaited and still forthcoming in the summer third album!

It's going to be called: The Coolest Thing About Love

We are so happy to be listening to the finished master of our album and should be shipping it off to our label soon and then Happy Happy Birthday to Me (www.hhbtm.com) will be announcing our release date sometime after that - most likely sometime in late July! That should give all of you plenty of summer sunshine listening time!

In other Smittens news, we are going crazy with excitement about some of our other big summer touring plans - this year we are going across the ocean to play some European shows!

The first confirmed show is at a fantastic indiepop festival called Indie Tracks (www.indietracks.co.uk) which is a 3-day festival at an old steam train railway station in Ripley, Derbyshire! Bands announced to date are The Wedding Present, The Wave Pictures, Darren Hayman, Comet Gain, Airport Girl, Manhattan Love Suicides, Roadside Poppies, Amida, Ballboy, Dirty Fingernails, The Just Joans, Little Things, The Kabeedies, Kategoes, Lardpony, The Mai 68s, The Middle Ones, Milky Wimpshake, The Occasional Flickers, Pocketbooks, Slow Down Tallahassee, The Smittens, Strawberry Story, The Bobby McGees, Tortoise Shout, Brontosaurus Chorus and Voluntary Butler Scheme. Tickets went on sale on the 1st of this month and weekend tickets are £45 and available now! The Midland Railway, which is set deep in the heart of the Derbyshire countryside, houses a whole range of lovingly restored steam diesels and locomotives. Festival goers are allowed to have unlimited rides on the steam railway over the weekend and full access to other railway attractions. How cool is that?

In addition to this awesome festival, we are also going to be playing a decent handful of other UK gigs and may even try to play in Sweden or Iceland! Wowee! If any of you overseas folks would like to see us play near you, please drop us a line and let us know where you would like to see us play and we'll see what we can do! We have shows in the works in London, Glasgow, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Leeds, in addition to Indie Tracks. We'll update our shows listings as we get some more things confirmed, but for now a lot of our plans are in the early stages.

In other news - our split 7" with Tullycraft has been sent off to the manufacturing plant and should be available in the next month or so! We will let you know when we get our copies - we will have a small number of them available at our shows until we run out!

We have a couple fun shows in Burlington this month - one on Friday, March 14th at Parima Thai Restaurant with one of our favorite bands and friends - Missy Bly! It's free to get in and bound to be a blast and a half!
The following week we are playing a Rock for Choice benefit in the Davis Center at UVM on Thursday, 3/20!
It will be the first day of spring and what better way to kick off the new season than with us and a handful of other fine bands!

Anyhow, we should have a bunch more good news soon - we are going to do a short tour in mid-to-late April and will be announcing the dates in the next few weeks!

Hope to see some of you soon and some more of you a little bit later than that!

Also, if you live on the west coast or somewhere in the middle of this country, well, we may be coming your way this Fall! Our goal at this point is to rock the UK (and potentially a few other European countries) in late July, pop down to Athens for this Summer's Athens popfest (the 3rd weekdn of August), and then we are going to fulfill our long-ago promise to visit the west coast this Fall after The Coolest Thing About Love comes out!

Super yay,
the Smittens
xoxo

--

ps- if you are in the Boston area, please consider yourselves invited to the Great Scott on Saturday March 15th - Dana and Colin with be playing a Let's Whisper show that evening with our friends One Happy Island, Hand and Knees, and The Piddly Kids, along with a few indie pop DJs in between - it will be a full-on indiepop dance party!

Boston Phoenix interview!

2008-02-05T23:06:00.001-05:00

The Boston Phoenix interviewed us this week about our upcoming show at Lizard Lounge on Saturday night (more details below).

Here is the article (or go to the direct link here)

Twee time

The warm and fuzzy pop of the Smittens

In the cold climes of maple country, the Smittens are sentimental saps and proud of it. Militant, even. They went so far as to print the phrase “Being nice is a political act” in the liner notes of their two albums, the first of which was called Gentlefication Now! (North of January). In this cruel world, the odds are against the Burlington (Vermont) quintet. But they press on.

“You’re like Frodo climbing up Mount Doom, one little hobbit versus the entire army of all evil,” says guitarist Colin Clary. The rest of the line-up is keyboardist Max Andrucki (currently pursuing a master’s in geography at Leeds College), drummer Holly Chagnon, guitarist/keyboardist Dana Kaplan, and bassist and Newburyport native David Zacharis. But their roles in the band take a back seat to their roles in one another’s lives. “It wasn’t about the music first. It was about forming this group of friends,” says Kaplan. “That’s really what Gentlefication was all about. That’s been our grounding value.”

The Smittens were born in 2002 from, of all things, a driving game. While traveling for hours around New England going to shows, Zacharis and Andrucki would make up band names. When they came up with the Snowpants, they called Clary and told him the name of the band they wanted to form. Then they called back with a new name — the Smittens. Kaplan and Chagnon were soon brought on board. No matter that Chagnon didn’t play drums and Zacharis had never touched a bass. Details, details.

The Smittens formed around a name but also around a desire to fill the twee void in Burlington, that jam-band capital of the North. “We wanted to do the music that we wanted to hear,” says Zacharis. “We were feeling underrepresented.” Their first album came out in March 2004; its follow-up, A Little Revolution (North of January), arrived 18 months later. They remain mysterious about the title and the release date of their third album, but they expect it to come out on the Happy Happy Birthday to Me label in the next few months.

The other members cite Clary as the musical heart of the band, a man nurturing talents both burgeoning and mature. The group’s sound bounces easily between the refinement of wispy Australians the Lucksmiths and the naïveté of Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, an ’80s Boston indie folk-rock favorite. With Kaplan, Andrucki, and Clary all chipping in on vocals and everyone collaborating on songwriting, the result is a charming blend of styles and harmonies, and songs with titles like “Twee Valley High” and “Doomed, Lo-Fi and in Love.” They also revel in mixing things up. Kaplan: “Clary might write a song about a girl that he digs, and I get to sing it and suddenly it’s got a queer connotation to it.”

The Smittens have shared the stage with the likes of the Mountain Goats, Stars, and Kimya Dawson. With everyone in grad school or holding down a full-time job, they end up playing weekend shows out of town more often than they gig in Burlington. And getting out of town, for shows like the one this Saturday at Lizard Lounge, has produced a devoted fan base spread from twee to shining twee. When the band played the Athens Popfest at the 40 Watt in Georgia last year and Kaplan’s microphone failed, the crowd ably sang a chorus.

There’s a warm fuzzy-wuzziness the Smittens bring with them to the stage. And they feel it’s helped fuel that fan base. “I think that there’s something about the way we are together on stage,” says Kaplan. “You can see we’re a good group of friends, and that comes out in our banter and the dynamics we have.” Although they describe their relationships as more like brothers and sisters than friends, there is little sibling rivalry or back-seat bickering to report. Kaplan, who’s getting a master’s in negotiation and conflict resolution, adds that this outfit “hardly gives me any opportunity in practicing my skills.”

That solidarity comes in handy when you’re wholly independent. “You have to be really creative to do everything on your own terms,” says Clary. A big part of that is Zacharis’s colorful flyer designs, which, filled with winsome-faced, bubblegum boys and girls holding hands, give credence to the Smittens’ twee image. Both their songs and their flyers, according to Clary, “tie into the same vision of innocence and warmth and love.” That’s the biggest hook, they say, more than any riff or beat they could hope to pen. “You hear a song that gives you a glimmer of hope about something, that’s inspiring and attractive,” explains Kaplan. “Who doesn’t want it?”

THE SMITTENS + ONE HAPPY ISLAND + THE 500S | Lizard Lounge,1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge | February 9 | 617.547.0759

New Year, New Web Site

2008-01-25T15:47:00.001-05:00

Hey Kids!
Welcome to the wonderful new Smittens web site! We hope you love the new look and feel as much as we do – and we are thrilled to report that soon we will have some major announcements to really help us feel like the new year is underway and all systems go!

Hopefully in the next week or so we will be able to announce the title and release date of our third album! We have finalized the sequence and all the mixes and now we are moving in to the next phase – getting the artwork ready and making plans for touring and promoting the album.

On the near horizon, we have a new video in the works – shot in an elementary school library with a gang of exuberant kids, a few outfit changes, and one of the cutest cats in the world! It’s for one of the songs on the new album – “Gumdrops” – and we can’t wait to see it ourselves! Our good pal (and local videographer extraordinaire) Eva Sollberger came up with a fun concept and we did all the principal shooting on a long and fun Saturday afternoon. We’ll let you know when and where you can see it once it’s completed.

It looks like February is going to keep us Smittens very busy – we have a number of shows lined – one here in Burlington and a couple a little farther away. First, we’re playing at Club Metronome on Thursday, February 7^th with Leslie and the Lys and The Physics Club, which should be a hoot!

Then on Saturday, the 9^th, we’ll be playing in Cambridge, MA at a swell club called the Lizard Lounge – it will be with our Portland pals the 500s and Boston locals One Happy Island – it’s also going to be the release party for OHI’s new EP on the Wee Pop label! Yow! Finally, We are going to be going back to the Langdon Street Café in Montpelier, VT for another evening of awesome pop action! Hopefully We’ll get to see some of you there.

If that’s not enough Smitten action for you, well, let us recommend two very fine Let’s Whisper shows! On February 2^nd, Dana and Colin will be making their NYC Let’s Whisper debut with a show at the Cake Shop to benefit the NYC Popfest – the fest is raising funds to help some faraway bands defer travel costs to come play in the states in June – last year they helped us fly Max in from Leeds for the festival and we are glad to be able to help them be able to help some other bands this year! Along with Let’s Whisper, there will be performances from the Baskervilles and One Happy Island and some swell guest DJs, too!

That’s all for now! We certainly hope you dig the new look of our site!

Xoxo,

The Smittens

Ps- Much more soon!

2008, baby!

2008-01-24T22:49:00.000-05:00

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Popfest!

Hi Folks! Just a short lil’ up date here to keep you abreast of the latest in Smittens News!

First of all, a sincere thank you to those of you who came out to see Colin and David and Holly play their soft and intimate set at last month’s CMJ Festival! It was an interesting experience down in the Tank, but it was also a bit exciting to try something different with some of our songs – including a handful of new ones, too! We got to see some of our HHBTM friends rock the house and hang out with some of the New Yawkers and others in town for the fest. Good times, all round!

Next, we hope to see some of you this coming weekend at the 4^th Popfest! New England! (www.skippingstonesrecords.com/popfest) It runs from Friday, November 9^th through Sunday the 11^th at the Elevens in poptastic Northampton, Massachusetts! Every year thus far has been a real treat – featuring some of the funnest regional acts along with a handful of bands coming from as far away as England and Sweden and Norway (and even St Louis)! It’s always a special celebration of fantastic songs performed by truly independent artists and there will be plenty of time to hang out with other popkids and friends – some of our best band friends are folks we met there in previous years! Anyhow, William and Christine from Skipping Stones really do a bang-up job of keeping everything running smoothly and toe-tappy and this year we are playing on Sunday evening on a bill that also includes another swell Vermont act, The Capstan Shafts! Way to go VT! Colin is also playing the matinee show that day with our friend Steve Williams and they will be playing as Colin Clary and a Magog – Whoo Hoo!

The Skipping Stones folks put together this free sampler if you want to get revved up for the fest!

http://www.skippingstonesrecords.com/popfest/2007/popfest_sampler.html

Say! Did anyone see the picture of David in the most recent issue of Nylon magazine? Apparently we were mentioned in a little article for their Fashion Road Trip that took the mag through our lovely city! Some of our friends are in there, too! If you wanna check it out, it’s on newsstands now!

If you are up for rocking it in mid-November, we have just confirmed an awesome Smittens show on November 16^th at Parima Thai Restaurant with The Jazz Guys! Talk about a double-whammy! We should be confirming some shows for December shortly, so we’ll be sure to keep you all posted as soon as details are all firmed up!

Last, but certainly not least, we are happy to announce that we’ve gotten all our artwork completed for the forthcoming Tullycraft/Smittens split 7” that is coming out as part of Happy Happy Birthday to Me’s singles club early in the new year! Hopefully we’ll have a few more exciting announcements shortly! It shouldn’t be too much longer before “Til the Summer’s End” has an actual release date set! We are in the early stage or sorting out the plan for our next video, too, so that is something we will be looking forward to in the new year as well!

See some of you soon or sooner!

xoxo,

the smittens

Fall Breaks and Back to Winter!

2007-09-28T13:34:00.000-04:00

Hi all! We certainly do hope you are enjoying these lovely transition weeks – here in Vermont it keeps going back and forth between sweater weather and t-shirt weather! Luckily we like them both and this time of year gives us some of our favorite green mountain days and nights to relax and rock out and go for walks and spend some quality time with friends and family. We wish you all the best!

As far as Smittens news, we do have a few things to tell you – first of all, we’ve decided on a new title for our album! The official new current title of our album is “Til the Summer’s End” and we think it suits the many moods and sounds and feelings on the album just right! We’re been tinkering with it a bit longer than we expected at first, but now that we’re on the verge of being done mixing it we are really glad to have taken our time making it all super awesome – we hope you’ll agree when you finally get to hear it!

Probably the first thing you’ll get to hear is our forthcoming split 7” with Tullycraft, which is being worked on even as we type this – our side will be “My Boyfriend’s Back” and the other side is a mystery to us – last we heard Tullycraft were planning to contribute a Pooh Sticks cover! When we have that confirmed, we’ll let you know for sure in a heartbeat!

Next month we are gonna have a fun trip to New York City for this year’s annual CMJ festival! We will be playing a poptastic Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records showcase at a club called The Tank and yes you will have to walk down Church Street one more time to get there! It’s a couple blocks north of the Knitting Factory if that helps you picture the location. Here’s the details on that:

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17th, 2007 6:30pm / ALL AGES / FREE w/ CMJ badge or $10
CMJ SHOWCASE: Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records
Casper & The Cookies (Athens, GA)
M Coast (Athens, GA)
Velcro Stars (Murfreesboro, TN)
Keith John Adams (London, UK)
The Smittens (Burlington, VT)
Fishboy (Denton, TX)

www.myspace.com/thetanknyc
http://www.thetanknyc.org/
279 Church St @ White
A/C trains to Canal St across from Tribeca Grand Hotel
2 blks N of the Knitting Factory

Apparently the music starts at 7:15 p.m. (sharp!) and we will be playing at 8 p.m. yow!

We had such fun on our tour this summer and want to thank you all for coming out and making us feel welcome in the places you live! Athens popfest was especially fun – Dana went head-to-head against Darren Hanlon in Ms. PacMan - and lost! Yikes, but it was all in good fun – and we also got to finally play in Max’s home state of Maine and in between we had a pretty easy time travelling and getting to and from all the places we needed to get to.

After we got home, we played a special hometown gig with our new friends Lullatone, and our friend Eva (a fantastically nice and wicked cool videographer) made a little video montage out of footage she took at the show which you can watch here: smittens at tee firehouse here:
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1155087545

Don’t be fooled by Max looking different in the video – that’s not Max! He was in Maine on that night and we had Emily (who many of you haven’t met yet) play the show with the rest of us! Lots of folks wore pajamas, which made the whole thing extra fun.

On the Night we played in Chapel Hill at a spot we like called The Cave, we went home to our friend Ned’s pad and ate burritos and listened to all sorts of things he’s recorded for his online radio program “No Love for Ned” which we highly recommend! After we’d eaten our fill, Ned recorded a little session with Colin which you can hear here: www.noloveforned.com ! If you search back in the archives, you should be able to hear the Smittens set we all recorded when we came though there last year, too!

In extracurricular Smittens news, Colin is wicked excited to announce the release of his latest album for Asaurus Records! It’s called “Apocalypse Yow!” and it has 17 songs and comes in a paper fortune telling machine! Way to go, Colin! If you wanna buy it, you can follow this link: http://www.asaurus.org/records/store/

This January or so you will also be able to hear our new song “Interstate,” on the next HHBTM compilation!

We’ve gotta go pick some apples!

Love,
the Smittens
xoxo
yow!

It's getting Sassy in Here!

2007-07-17T16:32:00.000-04:00

We've been super busy lately - still in the mixing stage with our latest album - currently titled "Something Sassy" - it's our third album and will be our first for Athens, GA, label Happy Happy Birthday to Me (www.hhbtm.com) - we've been working with our mixing guy, Eric Masunaga (www.modulusdvd.com, also ex-dambuilders, etc..) who has been really helping us our with some production advice, too - so this time around we are going for a fun and light and breezy kinda thing - staying true to the gentle-fi sound, but with a bit cleaner production and lots and lots of vocal harmonies and fun things like that - plus we have added banjo and fiddle to a few tunes (thanks to Emily "the Sweet Smitten" Hilliard... it's gonna be awesome when it's done and out sometime in the fall!

We're doing a short tour this summer - up through Boston and up to Portland (Maine), and then down to Athens for the popfest there - we're extra excited to play the same day as Darren Hanlon, and also with Ted Leo and co! should be a blast.

We're also working on finishing up our side of a split single with Tullycraft that will be coming out also in the fall as part of hhbtm's 7" singles club and have a few songs coming out on comps and stuff... after Something Sassy comes out we should be making a CMJ appearance as part of an hhbtm label showcase and we are looking to tour out on the west coast after that - so it's looking like a fun and busy year ahead!

yow!

also, Colin has his second Asaurus records full-length coming out in august (www.asaurus.org) and it's called "apocalypse yow!" and that should be super fun, too - and dana and colin are planning to release their bedroom pop side project duo album (as Let's Whisper) in the late fall or early spring - they're hoping to get a chance to finish it off after Smittens tour. We have a few other things coming together (perhaps The Green Movie will be released), but those are the main things for now...and isn't that plenty?

We hope you are all having a sweet Summer - we just had an awesome show here in town with our friends The Magogs and The Besties and Missy Bly - and it was a perfect birthday night for David! Of course, there was a bit of a ruckus at the club and perhaps some folks we ejected for turning cartwheels or going shirtless... oh the humanity!!!

Stay Gold and keep the peace!
xoxo,
the smittens
yow!

2007-07-17T16:25:00.000-04:00

Here's what we ended up playing at the wedding we played! It was asuper fun time - if you wanna, feel free to check out some pics on our myspace page!
Yow!

Set 1
Your Song
With a little help from my friends
Twee Valley High
Baby, don't you know?
Obligatory Sad Love Song
Garden
My Boyfriends Back
Stop the Bombs
Jeans and Mittens
Father and Daughter
Gumdrops
Party Time
My Girl
Half my Heartbeats
100 Roses
I'm a Believer

Set 2
In My Life
March of the Grooms
Momus, Where are you?
Doomed lo-fi and in love
The One for Me
Eleven Eleven
Capucine
This will be Our Year
It's a Saturday
Cast a Shadow
Sapphire
I Hate Vermont
C'Mon!
My Favorite Dream
Gin and Platonic
Good to Go

Rainbows, Mixing, A Wedding, a show, a birthday and the Lovin Spoonful!

2007-07-05T09:20:00.000-04:00

The Smittens have been busy busy.

First, we drove through a rainbow!!
We are SO closed to done with our record; we are in the final stages of the mixing process. Mr. Eric Masunaga is doing a terrific job.
We have been preparing to play wedding of Kat and Aiden this weekend. It is the first wedding we have ever played and we are very excited. We learned some special covers just for a the occasion
On the Friday July 13^th, we are playing at Metronome with our friends from New York the Besties, that is right the mother effin Besties! If that is not enough Missy Bly and Colin Clary and the Magogs are playing too. It is going to Be SO awesome. It is also the night before my (David) birthday!! I am a lucky boy.
So we were in Boston mixing the album with Eric. He went a head to the studio and we decided to get some breakfast at a dinner just out side of Chinatown, and the Lovin spoonful is eating at the table next to us!!

Until next time,

xoxo

The Smittens

2007-06-29T10:49:00.001-04:00

Friends,

The Smittens are returning to the Monkey Bar, this Saturday June 30^th. We will be accompanied by Colin Clary and a Magog! The Show starts at 9 and there is a 5 dollar cover charge.

So come down to Winooski and prepare to shake your tale feathers!

until then,

The Smittens

The A in April is for Awesome

2007-04-30T09:56:00.000-04:00

Hey Kids!

We sure hope the spring is back in your step! It is for us - especially after a wonderful weekend playing shows in Boston in Burlington!

P.A.'s Lounge was a fun-and friend-filled evening with The Icicles, Casper and the Cookies, and Shumai (who announced that they were playing their last show together - we can only hope that they do indeed play again sometime) and we also spotted rockers from the Lil' Hospital,
Spoilsport, and the Besties in the house! A fun time was had by all.

On Saturday we had our Parima debut here in Burlington - for those of you who don't know, Parima is a local Thai restaurant that also hosts shows - and it was a smashing success - Smittens and Icicles were seated at a banquet table and fed fabulous vegetarian and vegan treats until we'd had our fill before the show and then we both rocked the house! We were lucky to have Jolene join us on keys for a fun rendition of "capucine" and we had Greg Icicle give us his best pinch-hitter vocal on "Gin and Platonic!" (see the video below, the sound isn't the greatest) Somehow by the end of the show Dana was down on her knees crooning "I Hate Vermont" during our impromptu encore and then it was time to head home and tuck in for a well-deserved
rest.

We will definitely be playing at Parima again - and we may have a show sometime soon at the Monkey House in Winooski, too - we'll keep you posted! Our album has been coming together just swimmingly and we are so excited to share it with you when it's finally al ready - David's
planning some fantastic cover art and we're starting to wrap our noggins around the idea of making another video, too!

Our next big plan is the NYC Popfest which takes place over the Memorial day weekend! Here's the line-up tat was announced a little while ago and a link if you wanna order tickets or get more details! (we're playing on Friday night at the Delancey)

NYC POPFEST 2007

THURSDAY MAY, 24 2007 at Opening Night Gala
98-104 Meserole Ave., @ EUROPA in Brooklyn, 11222

BMX Bandits (Scotland)
Pants Yell! (MA)
Yellow Fever (TX)
The Metric Mile (NYC)
Lispector (France)
& Other Surprise Guests!!

FRIDAY MAY, 25 2007 at Kick-off the weekend with Mitch Easter & a
Rooftop Afterparty!!! 168 Delancey Street, @ THE DELANCEY on L.E.S.,
10002

Baskervilles (NYC)
Mitch Easter (NC)
The Secret History(NYC ax-my Favorite)
The Smittens (VT)
Affair d'Coeur (NYC)
The Reverse (NY)
& ROOFTOP AFTER-PARTY

SATURDAY MAY, 26 2007 at FREE Daytime All-Ages Show Astroland Stage -
Coney Island Boardwalk, @ ASTROLAND on Coney Island!!!!!, 11224

Bunnygrunt (MO)
Cars Can Be Blue (GA)
Best Fwends (TX)
The Gritty Midi Gang (NYC)
& Special Surprise Guests!

SATURDAY MAY, 26 2007 74 Leonard St., @ THE KNITTTING FACTORY in
Tribeca, 10013

Casiotone For the Painfully Alone (CHI)
The Ballet (NYC)
Ballboy (Scotland)
Harvey Williams (UK)
My Teenage Stride (NYC)
The Besties (NYC)
Brown Recluse Sings (PA)

SUNDAY MAY, 27 2007 361 Metropolitan Avenue, @ LUNA LOUNGE in
Brooklyn, 11211

Pipas (UK/NYC)
CaUSE-CoMOTION (NYC)
Human Television (PA)
Michael Leviton (NYC)
Pelle Carlberg (Sweden)
Dear Nora (CA)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (NY)

MONDAY May, 28 2007 Memorial Day BBQ & Show 484 Union Avenue, @
UNION POOL in Brooklyn, 11211

Allen Clapp & His Orchestra (CA)
The Gazetteers (NY)
The Lil Hospital (PA)
Surefire Broadcast (PA)
Titans of Filth (GA)
& Special Surprise Guests!!

CHECK OUT MORE INFO AND PURCHASE ALL INCLUSIVE PASSES AT:
http://www.myspace.com/nycpopfest

We hope to see some of you soon - and get ready for an awesome Summer!

Love, hugs, and kisses,

The Smittens

xoxo

Here is the video from Saturday night (thanks Scott!):

Pop Yr HEart!

2007-03-19T18:11:00.000-04:00

Hey Kids!

The new Smittens album, Pop Yr Heart, is almost done! Or rather, were
are done recording it and now we're in the mixing stage - according to
Happy Happy Birthday to Me (www.hhbtm.com) our album should be out
sometime this summer - we'll let you know when the official release date
is set!

Here's the track listing (not in order)!
100 Roses
Eleven Eleven
Something Sassy
The One for Me
Half My Heartbeats
Good to Go
It's a Saturday!
C'mon! (When the Grass Grows Tall and Green)
My Boyfriend's Back
Magpies and Eccles Cakes
Baby, Don't You Know?
Gumdrops
Hunger, Malaria, etc
All the Love in the World
We also recently had an exciting international release - in Italy!

February 1st saw the release of "Let It Bee" - a new compilation album
from Italian indie label My Honey records (www.myhoney.it)

The Smittens contributed the song "C'mon! (When the Grass Grows Tall and
Green)," which the band wrote special for this Bees and Honey themed
release. Mixed by Rob Christiansen, Recorded by the Smittens!

The album can be purchased online via the label website for a mere 10
Euros.

Other international pop bands featured on this release: The Shermans,
Half-Handed Cloud, Wattoo Wattoo, Locas in Love, Celestial, Luisa Mandou
um beijo, Le man avec les lunettes, Rough Bunnies, Piney Gir, Ant, Linda
Guidala, Oceano da Cruz, Eisenhower, Minibar, Mr. 60, Mocca, Mutt Ramon,
Hacia dos veranos, Sebastian Fors & The Ones That Got Away.

This release also marks the first recorded appearance of the Sweet
Smitten (Emily Hilliard)!

The mix of C'mon! is exclusive to the comp and there is going to be a
different mix on Pop Yr Heart!

In other fun news, we just turned in another new song, "Interstate,"
for the forthcoming "Happy Happy Birthday to Me vol. 3", compilation
that should be out sometime this summer!

Everything else here has been hibernation and sneaky planning! We hope
you are all doing well - we've got some new shows happening in the
coming months - including a hometown gig at Parima with our friends the
Icicles (April 28th), a return visit to Boston (P.A's Lounge in
Somerville on April 27th with the Icicles and Shumai) and we're planning
on doing a few dates with Casper and the Cookies in May (hopefully NYC,
Philly, and D.C.) , and may even end up playing a popfest in NYC, too!

It's going to be a wonderful spring! Hopefully we'll see some of you
then and there!

Xoxo,
The Smittens!

Ps- don't forget to check out our friend Eva Deadbeat's new Vlog, Stuck
in Vermont (http://7d.blogs.com/stuckinvt/), featuring tons of Smittens
music! They even use some of "I Hate Vermont" as their theme song!

Yow!

We got a Show tonight, Plus a Web Photo Album!!

2006-12-29T10:53:00.000-05:00

Show tonight plus Web Album!!! Kids,
We have a show tonight! At the Monkey Bar in Winooski Vermont!! We are playing with Brett Hughes. It will be a dance party!

Here is a little Web Photo Album of smittens art work!

Who Loves Ya Baby?

smittens flyers

Two Smittens Shows!!!

2006-12-27T17:53:00.000-05:00

Kids,

The Smittens are back and we have TWO, count them two shows coming up. The First show is on Friday December 29 at the Monkey Bar. The Monkey bar is located at 30 Main Street in up and coming downtown of Winooski Vermont. We are playing with our good friend Brett Hughes (of the Chrome Cowboys, Rambling Rose.)

The Second show is on January 1 at the Middle East Night Club located at 472 Mass Ave in the Central Square of the Peoples Republic of Cambridge Massachusetts. We are playing the Specific Heats!!! It is quite exciting, because it is the second annual Smittens/Heats New Years Day show at the Middle East!! Talk about a rocking New Year!!

Pop Your Heart,

The Smittens

PS. Mr. Max Smitten will be at both shows. YEAH BABY!!

Said Maybe..........

2006-12-06T22:19:00.000-05:00

Dudes! We are internet Famous!!!!

Check out Myspace! We are on the front page baby!!

As of right now 68,000 people have watched the video for"My favorite Dream".... TODAY!!!

more later.......

More News from the Homefront

2006-09-08T12:53:00.000-04:00

As part of our constant quest to keep this website 'fresh' and 'exciting' I thought it would be fun to let you dear readers know what some of the Smittens have been consuming since we got back from the indiepop acropolis (see below). This is not because we are trying to get you to buy any of this, but rather because we think it's all cool and also makes us look cool for liking it.

David has been listening to Donaoan "A Gift from a Flower to a Garden", Blast Off Country Style "C'Mon and Blast Off Country Style" , and The Specific Heats "Aboard A Spaceship Of The Imagination". He's just re-read 'Franny and Zooey' and 'Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters' by JD Salinger. He skipped 'Seymour, an introduction' because it is kind of boring.

Colin just finished listening to the new Mountain Goats album ("Get Lonely") and their new-ish e.p. ("Babylon Springs e.p."). He's still reading The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow and the Complete Sherlock Holmes stories from the Strand Magazine by A. Conan Doyle.

Dana's been into Kimya Dawson ("Remember that I love you"), Magnetic Fields ("I"), the latest smittens mixes (just watch out when that shit drops!-ed.) and Vermont Public Radio. She just finished reading: Trumpet (Jackie Hay), Love in the Driest Season (Neely Tucker), and the latest issues of Bust, US, People, Bitch, and Real Simple.

Max (that's me) is annoyed because Dana stole my thunder with VPR, although I was going to offer Radio 4 instead, which in some ways is better because of the amount of serialized radio drama. I have been absolutely obsessed with the absolutely mind-blowing "Love and Youth" by Jenny Wilson (doesn't sound Swedish, but she is, apparently). Also "Pet Grief" by the Radio Dept. and "Brief Lives" by the Would-be-Goods. And I've been attending sessions of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition 2006 where I have been attempting to soak up keyboard skills by osmosis. Since tour I've read "Berlin Stories" by Christopher Isherwood, "A Room with a View" by E.M. Forster, "Billy Liar" by Keith Waterhouse (Yorkshire!) and am now in the opening stages of "Swann's Way" by Proust. Ah, memories...

More, in even more interesting formats, later!

Post Tour: 22 Days

2006-09-05T11:41:00.001-04:00

So we it has been 22 days since we have been home from tour. Max has made his way back to the UK and Holly has moved across town. We are gearing up for a show on Friday, Sept 9th as a four piece. The show will be at the Green Door Studio and part of the Burlington Art Hop. We are playing with Hammer and Saw (Emily’s Band), Greg Davis, Home Items (the greatest band in the whole wide world), Nest Material, The Cripples and the CUSH!!! It is going to real blast.

And for those of us that miss tour, here is a video of Gin and Platonic in Athens!

It was shot by Miss Courtney and the dancers feature members of the Besties, Cars Can be Blue, The Specific Heats, Shumai and the Indiepages Board.

Athens is the greatest place on earth.

live footage from our Grand Rapids show

2006-08-14T15:10:00.000-04:00

Ahh, tour 2006....
Thanks for being such great hosts, Icicles- we'll see you at the Northampton popfest!

A shout out from Marysville, TN

2006-08-04T15:13:00.000-04:00

More press from the road

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/262210

Press from the road

2006-08-03T10:44:00.000-04:00

Check it!
And if you live in the area, come on by the show...

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/Issues/2006-08-02/music/critics6.html

Oh My Goodness! Summer Tour!

2006-07-21T18:09:00.000-04:00

Thank you so much to all of you who made so many swell suggestions for a new Smittens moniker for our newest member, Emily! Some of them were hotly debated at Smittens HQ and some made us double up with laughter, we even got a number of good one`s from Emily`s mom! In the end it came down to Spunky or Sweet and we let Em make the final decision so now we are very happy to introduce you to Emily Hilliard; the Sweet Smitten!

As you know, we have been working extra hard on our next album and doing a few extra things on the side as well – we recently had our song It`s a Saturday! come out on a fantastic comp from Durham, NC`s 307 Knox label and will have a new song called C`mon! (when the grass grows tall and green) on a bees and honey, themed comp from Italy`s My Honey label in the late summer/early fall!

Look for us on the road starting on August 2nd! We`re excited to be playing so many new places this time around and we promise to do our best to come back and visit those of you we won`t be seeing this time out as soon as we can.

Here`s the tour schedule:

The Smittens: Summer Tour 2006

August 2 99 Custer Buffalo, NY
w/ The Grade Grubbers and La Cacahoutte
August 3 Toledo Popfest Vamps Toledo, OH
w/ Pony up!, The Maybellines, and more
August 4 TC`s Speakeasy Ypsilanti, MI
w/ The Icicles, Showdown at the Equator, & Umberto
August 5 Sazerac lounge Grand Rapids, MI
w/ The Icicles
August 6 The Red Line Tap Chicago, Il
w/ Bunnygrunt and The Fake Fictions
August 7 CBGB St. Louis, MO
w/ Bunnygrunt & Poison Control Center
August 8 The Pilot Light Knoxville, TN
w/ Bad Animal, Skeleton Coast and the Mito Band
August 10 Popfest! The 40 Watt Athens, GA
w/ Mountain Goats, Oh-Ok, and more
August 11 Joe and Jo`s Durham, NC
w/ The Midtown Dickens & Future Kings of Nowhere
August 12 The Galaxy Hut Arlington, VA
w/ The Antiques
August 18 The Metronome Burlington, VT
w/ The 78`s and Fire the Cannons
more info here.

Hope to see some of you soon and wowee are we ever looking forward to two awesome popfests this summer!

As always, don`t forget your dancing shoes!
Love and sweetness,
The Smittens
xoxo