Seriously, we were starting to feel like we weren’t that busy lately, but when presented with our own facts, well, we guess we were wrong – we’ve got tons going on this month! Popfests on 2 coasts, 2 songs recorded, and 2 videos, and a host of guest appearances all over town!
On the Recording front, we Smittens have been hard at work recording a couple songs for a new summer single and now it’s turning into a split with The Just Joans!
The single will feature 2 new Smittens recordings and 2 recordings by one of our favorite bands in Glasgow, The Just Joans, who are also our WeePOP! label mates – you may recall that Dana and Colin had brief cameos in the Just Joans video for their song “Hey Boy, You’re Oh So Sensitive” last summer – anyhow, the Smittens have a new song, “Summer Sunshine” and a cover of a Joans tune, “What Do We Do Now?” on our side and the Joans will be covering a Smittens song and contributing one of their own as well. Should be aces and sure to sell out fast! The single will be released on the lovely WeePOP! label (www.weepop.net ) hopefully just in time for the Smittens UK tour (with Boston pop friends One Happy Island) – we are especially looking forward to our show in Glasgow, which we may use are the official release party – since we will be playing with the Just Joans and it’s hosted by the Half My Heartbeats crew (www.halfmyheartbeats.
Fingers crossed that all the stars align for that to happen!
On the Video front, we’ve recently completed a couple more videos to continue with the promotion of our most recent album, The Coolest Thing About Love on the Happy Happy Birt hday to Me imprint (www.hhbtm.com ).
The two videos (which will be available soon) are for the songs “One Hundred Roses” and “Magpies and Eccles Cakes” both made by Rob Koier (who has been on a video making tear lately ) with One Hundred Roses filmed at the VCAM studio and incorporating a lot of David Zacharis’ artwork – drawings and felt dolls – and Magpies using footage filmed at our last local show at Parima restaurant. One looks like a candy confection and the other looks more like a 70’s rock film in slow motion. Interesting contrast, and different sides of the visual representation of the band. We can’t wait to share them with you!
On the Festival front, we are thrilled to tell you about 2 awesome popfests we are honored to be playing this month! First we will be playing at the NYC popfest held over the 3rd weekend in May We are playing the Sunday all-dayer at Cake Shop which should still have tickets available at the door (though we were informed that the presale tix are all gone already!) and will be totally awesome – the fest includes a lot of bands we love, including the Radio Dept, Suburban Kids with Biblical Names, Rose Melberg, The Ballet, The Icicles, Knight School and more! The whole thing kicks off on Thursday May 14th and runs thru Sunday the 17th. Tickets and lineup are available thru the NYC Popfect website (www.nycpopfest.org ).
And then, on the weekend after the NYC Popfest, The Smittens will by flying over to the west coast to play at the San Francisco popfest – (www.sfpopfest.com) playing at the Rickshaw shop on Saturday, may 23rd! That fest runs from Thursday-Sunday May 21-24 and the tix are available along with all details and lineup and locations at the festival website. Let’s Whisper will be also playing a set during the free Sunday picnic show in the park, too!
We are sad and honored to be playing at what is reported to be Tullycraft’s last ever live show – holy molee! – and excited to finally make good on our promise to come to the West Coast – obviously, one show isn’t going to satisfy all our friends out there, so we promise (again) to make another effort soon to play some more shows out there – all apologies to our pals in Portland and Oly and Seattle and Joshua Tree, and San Diego, and everybody else on that coast. If you can make to the the SF fest, well, that would be awesome – apparently much of the fest is being filmed, so hopefuly you can still feel like you were there at a later date!
In other Smittens and Smittens-related happenings, here are some cool things we’ve been involved in lately:
– Colin, Dana, David, and Holly spent a wildly amusing night in the studio here last week taking part in backing vocal sessions for our friend James Kochalka’s new gameboy music album, Digital Elf! Not sure when that will be coming out, but we had tons of fun with James and a couple of the Jazz Guys, plus a handful of other wonderful singers both tall and small!
We’ll let you know when it’s coming out!
– Max and Colin and Dana had a short visit to London to rock out at the London Popfest at the end of February – delivering an inspired trio performance and being inspired by the other fab acts on the bills! Let’s Whisper even kicked off the whole thing on the first night of the festival and a good time was had by all.
– Dana and Colin had a new Let’s Whisper song come out as part of the latest compilation set from the Eardrums label – and all 4 volumes are available for free download here: www.eardrumspop.com ! The Whisper track, titled “All Happy Endings,” is in very good company with loads of good indiepop from all over the globe. The comp is titled Birdsongs, Beesongs and we recommend it highly. There’s also a Colin solo song on there, “I Miss the Bubblegum,” which is about a time that Colin missed Smittens practice because he was in Portugal with his friend Isaac – a new recording of an old fave.
– Our good friend Steve Williams, who mixed our first two albums and whom you may know as a Magog or even more recently as the bass player for Rough Francis, just completed a new video for his awesome MFDOJ song “Count Me in, I’m Good to Go,” which was filmed by Rob Koier and which also features brief cameos from Colin and David and a handful of our friends here in town! It’s inspired by Goddard’s classic film Breathless and incorporates text from the film and new footage shot in homage to the original – very nice!
– And Colin has a new mini album out on the Weepop! label, too! His latest is titled “Every Little Thing Counts” and features 10 songs in just about 22 minutes with some cute handmade artwork and you can order it here: www.weepop.net – word is it’s selling briskly and could be sold out soon. Alas, the Let’s Whisper ep, “Make Me Smile” is already all gone! So please hurry up if you don’t wanna miss out!
-and this just in – Max and his friend Gillian are also now moving folks on dance floors in the UK! Keep an eye out for dj sets from GMAX! Early reports are in, and yes, the kids do just love it!
Check back here soon for dates and details of our summer adventure plans, too! This year we will be returning to the UK for a short tour (with our friends One Happy Island) which will find the Smittens playing in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds and making a return trip (this time to the main stage) to the Indietracks festival July 24-26 at the Midland Railway, Butterley, Derbyshire – one of the hottest and nicest summer tickets in the UK this summer. Full line-up, details and a festival blog with links, interviews and mp3s can be found if you start here: www.indietracks.co.uk – it was the highlight of our summer last year – and this time Let’s Whisper will be playing a set on a train, too!
We’ve also got half a mind (and three quarters of a plan) to hop on a plane and visit Sweden for a few shows in Gothenburg, Jonkoping, and at the Cosy Den 5 year anniversary festival in Stockholm! Once we get all that stuff sorted and confirmed, you all will be the first to know! (and we’ll tell you about a top-secret gig we have planned, once that information becomes declassified, too)
Anyhow, have an amazing run up to summer and we’ll be sure let you know when our single has a release date set and when our Sweden plans are confirmed – and check back soon to see one or both of our new videos!
Say hello to your mothers for us,
The Smittens
xoxo
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