Mercury Lounge

It's happening!

Finishing Maple Ridge

You've all been very patient with us, so I thought I'd give you a rough timeline on the release our first full-length record, "Maple Ridge."

In January 2012, We'll release our documentary on the record-making process. Shot on location at Maple Ridge, filmmaker Michael Oshins did an incredible cutting together the most musical week of our lives. It's also chock-full of interviews with Kari, me, and producer Ben Goldstein, who wears a crazy ass shirt. You'll have to wait for the finished doc to see the shirt, but here are some stills:


Around mid-January, they'll be a few tracks available for streaming. Most certainly "Marbles," a track that features 10 different players, including a circus of Louisiana-style woodwinds and horns, a ton of gang vocals, and an expansive world of percussion that pushes the song along. You can here a rough live performance of that tune here, but it's night and day compared to the studio recording.

By the beginning of February, you'll be able to sing along as you watch our music video for "These White Walls," a high energy folk rock tune where you can really hear Kari pour her heart out. Friend and photographer/filmmaker Ben Morse insisted we do some of the shooting outside, despite the freezing cold rain. It was totally worth it. Here are some mobile uploads from the day:


You can view some of Ben Morse's other work here.

By the start of March, you'll have heard two or three of the ten songs on the record. The official release party will be mid-March. We're planning on making it our biggest show to date: getting all of the many musicians that played on the record out to perform with us, and packing out whatever NYC venue we decide on. By the end of March and into April, we'll be touring with the record at many more east coast cities.

Today's important too. I'm releasing the album artwork. Visualize it with me: a retro uncoated finish with foil stamping for the letters and maple seed insignia.

Thanks so much for your patience. Now that's it's nearing completion, I couldn't be more proud. This record means a lot to me, and I look forward to sharing it with all of you.

Much love,
Adam
P.S.
If you want to stay up-to-date with our album release schedule, please sign the mailing list here.

"For Better, For Worse" - A New Single

While spending almost all of our time working on the Maple Ridge LP, touring around the country, and writing new material, we also had a unique opportunity to cut a single with some very sharp NYC producers. The clip below is a new tune we'll soon be releasing as a single (iTunes, Amazon and more) titled, "For Better, For Worse." It was mixed by Brian Malouf of Cookie Jar Recordings, Los Angeles, CA, (All American Rejects, O.A.R. and more).

Check out these photos that we took while recording as you listen to the track, and please let us know what you think on Twitter and Facebook and here on our blog!

For Better, For Worse by Swear and Shake

Shaun laying it down.

The view from the studio: Madison Square Garden.

Producer Lee Nadel

The single cover.

Plenty of Shows to Cap Off October

Morning Friends---

The end of October is going to be something else for Swear and Shake.

NYC

This Saturday (10.22 - 4:00 p.m.) we play a free CMJ Showcase at The Living Room in Manhattan. The CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival began in 1980 as a new way to showcase breaking talent to industry professionals. Now that CMJ is in its 31st year, we're proud and excited to have our hard work pay off and be a part of it. Thanks to Paper Garden Lovely Hearts Club for hosting us.

NYC

This Tuesday (10.25 - 8:00 p.m.), we open a show for Radical Face at the Studio at Webster Hall. Radical Face is an amazing-sounding act originally from Florida. You might know one of their tunes from a recent Nikon commercial: "Glory". Tickets are available here.

NEWBURGH, NY

For residents of the Hudson Valley: This Thursday (10.27), the band will travel to Newburgh, NY, to film a music video for our original number, These White Walls. That night, we will be playing a show at the newly renovated and awesome-ized Railroad Playhouse with Alpha Male Gorillas. Thanks so much to WDST for their endless support-- here's a radio snippet you can stream. Tickets and details are available here.

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA (VT - NY BORDER)

David Wax says, "Houses will never replace traditional venues, but many artists have come to consider them an indispensable part of their touring routine." Friday (10.28), we will travel to Williamstown, MA, to play at the Billsville House Concert series, just like acts such as David Wax Museum, Pearl and the Beard, and many more have done before us. Details and tickets can be found here.

Thanks for sticking with us. And remember, you can also check shows directly from our website, www.swearandshake.com/shows

Adam 

Swear and Shake

Show Fliers

Show Fliers, a set on Flickr.

Chords to Johnnie by Swear and Shake

We've been getting a few email requests for chords for our tune "Johnnie." I hope this makes things easier! I'm only going to paste the basics here, there's too much extra pizazz to tab out. There's a capo on one, putting the studio version in Db. Here are the chords:

VERSE

C

Johnnie all your hundred songs

F

learned them on the guitar

C

played them in the mirror

G

pretended they were mine

C

Johnnie what a knack for words

F

each one cuts me deeper

C

strong enough to make you near

G E7

when you're far away

CHORUS

Am B/G C

Johnnie is your suitcase tight?

F

you say goodbye to no one

C

leave a mess of paper

G E7

and make way for the coast

Am B/G C

Honey all your bridges burned

F

should you find your boots worn

C

I will patch your soles

G

if you swear you'll walk with me

Then the verse chords repeat:

Johnnie, I could be your queen
No more nights of long dreams
You could be the stronger man
To sleeps between these sheets
But never with your lips sewn shut
I can only do so much
Won't lift a finger
'Til you show me where it hurts

CHORUS

BRIDGE

C F Gaug

It's the way I'm gonna love you

C F E7
It's the way I'm gonna love you

Am
It's the way I'm gonna love you

Am/G#
The only way I know to

G D7
And I'll lay my candid loving on the line

F Gaug C
It's the way I'm gonna love you

Johnnie Live at Purchase

Jeez we had a lot of fun at SUNY Purchase's Fluxus Friday. Kari and I are both Purchase graduates (May 2010), so whenever we go back to perform, we really feel the love. Playing for our close friends is always a good time, but Purchase is also just a great place to meet new music lovers, making it very exciting and comfortable at the same time. Here we are playing the first tune we sang together, "Johnnie," one year after its creation, at the same school it was written.

The Light - Live at Rye Playland

Kari and I wrote this tune late last summer, but it's been unreleased until now. We found a strangely lit construct near the Long Island Sound at Rye Playland, and asked good friend and housemate, Lori, to film it with her new fancy camera.

Aside from getting this little number out there, we're also hoping that it drums up some action for our Knitting Factory date. If you can make it, please come and show some love this Thursday (April 21, 2011) at 7:00 p.m.

Suddenly Live

It's really important to us that people don't think we're only an acoustic duet anymore. Fans of the EP or New York City residents that make it out to shows already know that, but the YouTube community is mostly familiar with our earlier vids from early last summer. Here we are in late February playing a new tune, "Suddenly," with the full band.

Leave your thoughts below!

St. Patty's Day at Spike Hill

Spike Hill was the perfect setting-- with the smell of corn beef flowing freely and the strangest New York City dwellers coming out of the wood work-- including NYPD impersonators (isn't that really really illegal?), we did St. Patty's Day right. Here are a few clips from the Swear and Shake set.

It's hardly representational of the extremely fun and uhh. . . Irish night, but you know how I like dinking around in iMovie.

Thanks to Ben Goldstein for shooting!

Wanderlust

A little souvenir from Adam and Shaun's duet tour of Chiapas, Mexico.

Vamos a Patear Fuego (Let's Kick Fire)!

Lyrics - Swear and Shake - Extended Play

It's time we threw them up on the internet to see what happens. . . raise it up the flagpole see if anyone salutes. . . throw it on the doorstep see if the cat licks it up. . .

Lyrics to the Swear and Shake Extended Play:

1. Being and Time

So, you feel a tingling somewhere beneath your chest
It feels as if the years will pass before you feel it next

Oh, careful when you smile
Oh, wear the feeling right

It knows not sight nor sound nor taste
But, oh, you know it's real
And disregard the things you are
The rules don’t apply here

Oh, it’s alright to try
And be someone else
For a little while

Yesterday, you woke up screaming loud
Frightened by the eyes of a looking crowd

Oh, you’re not crazy
You’re just too aware
How stupid people speak
And waste the air
And I find I’m too bored
I find I’m too bored with them
I find I’m too bored with them to care

2. The Promise

Say what you need to say
You've got my open ears
You've got my trusting heart
That I've just stitched up

Say what needs to be said
Keep in mind the day I bled
All alone in your bed
That I had stitched up

I inhale your exhale
You've no trouble sleeping
I'll quiet my weeping not to wake you up
I inhale your exhale
Pray these stitches hold
You promised they would hold
You promised they would hold

See who you want to see
Make love to who you will
I'll deadbolt the trusting heart
That won't stay stitched up

If I should stand my ground
You'll want what I won't give
Your hands will move like they once did
To take me in

I inhale your exhale
You've no trouble sleeping
I'll quiet my weeping not to wake you up
I inhale your exhale
Pray these stitches hold
You promised they would hold
You promised they would hold

Say what you need to say
You've got my everything
You've got my only heart
I've just stitched up

3. Johnnie

Johnnie, all your hundred songs
Learned them on the guitar
Played them in the mirror
Pretended they were mine
Johnnie, what a knack for words
Each one cuts me deeper
Strong enough to make you near
When you're far away

Johnnie, is your suitcase tight?
You say goodbye to no one
Leave a mess of paper
Make way for the coast
Honey, all your bridges burned
Should you find your boots worn
I will patch your soles
If you swear you'll walk with me

Johnnie, I could be your queen
No more nights of long dreams
You could be the stronger man
To sleeps between these sheets
But never with your lips sewn shut
I can only do so much
Won't lift a finger
'Til you show me where it hurts

Johnnie, is your suitcase tight?
You say goodbye to no one
Leave a mess of paper
And make way for the coast
Honey, all your bridges burned
Should you find your boots worn
I will patch your soles
If you swear you'll walk with me

It's the way I'm gonna love you
It's the way I'm gonna love you
It's the way I'm gonna love you
The only way I know to
And I'll lay my candid loving on the line
It's the way I'm gonna love you

4. Truckstop Flower

The truckstop flower I shelled out for never brought a single smile
No, that rose wilted in my wardrobe and never saw the light of day
Well, Mary, maybe things got crazy
Still, I try to sort them out

Some things just can't wait
Just can't wait
Just can't wait

The careful graphite you pored over never got a second read
No looseleaf letter neatly folded ever did us any good
Well maybe, Mary, things got scary
Still, I try to sort them out

Some things just can't wait
Just can't wait
Just can't wait

I spoke too soon
You told me I could take it back
Mark it a slip
And put those words back on
My good and sorry tongue
She said,
"I'd be a fool
to think that I'd deserve all that
Swallow it down
Each and every word (to) come off your sorry tongue"

That old Volkswagen you pored over took us up and down the coast
And on its last leg I took over and never moved a mile more
Well, Mary, Mary, quite contrary
I'm dying for the open road

Some things just can't wait
Just can't wait
Just can't wait

I spoke too soon
You told me I could take it back
Mark it a slip
And put those words back on
My good and sorry tongue
She said,
"I'd be a fool
to think that I'd deserve all that
Swallow it down
Each and every word come off your sorry tongue"
Each and every word come off your sorry tongue
Each and every word come off your sorry tongue

Some things just can't wait

5. Bones

I said, "Be strong and hold on
You won’t feel this way forever"
But I am the weakest of all and my advice
Is worth goddamn

I said, "Goodbye and take care"
And made my way down to the river
I’m looking forward to the sunshine in my hair

I’ll be the body if you’ll be the soul and I’ll go where you go
And in between words of the letters I sent you
My bones
Are my bones

I’ll be the body if you’ll be the soul and I’ll go where you go
And in between words of the letters I sent you
My bones
Are my bones

I said I’m sorry I’m scared
I can’t get this close to human
My legs have been restless since the day
That I was born

And in between words of the letters I’ve sent you
You’ll find my bones
My bones
Bones
Bones

XP55WJXHZS29

New Show Fliers!

View the full list of shows here.

Lost Leaders: Found Friends

We first met Lost Leaders when we played the Charleston in Brooklyn. I had an extended dialogue with frontman Peter Cole about bearded dragons before we played. You can get a free download from their forthcoming E.P. at lostleaders.net.

Skip the Intermediaries - Swear and Shake in the Creative Commons

Swear and Shake's Extended Play is available for free download and sharing under a Creative Commons (CC) license. Thanks to a well-known blog called FrostClick, which only hosts CC content, our Extended Play has just been downloaded for the 150,000th time. The Creative Commons has been a wonderful friend to me since the launch of my last pre-Swear and Shake recording, Let's Kick Fire. I can go on and on about what the Creative Commons is and it's an intrinsic part of my musical career, but I thought I'd let this nifty video do the talking.

This one is great too!

Swear and Shake Goes Sledding

Snow Day

Swear and Shake can't take anything seriously. Here's some photography by Chris Weger we did after the last snow storm:

Let's Kick Fire in Mexico

Hi all, Adam here.

I haven't been a solo artist for about a year now, but my last solo record, "Let's Kick Fire," seemed to take on a life of its own over the past few months. Here's the story starting from the beginning:

In February of 2009, I released an album of original music titled, "Let'sKick Fire," which featured ten stripped-down songs written, performed, and produced by myself. It was released under a Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, and after some research and outreach, I came upon a few blogs and websites with enough clout to effectively spread the word about "Let's Kick Fire" all over the Web. I made the album available as a free download on FrostClick (which will soon be hosting Swear and Shake's EP as well), and thus attracted the attention of like-minded, free-culture-loving listeners, including a few torrent seeders that pushed my download hits into the thousands. After making my tunes available on Jamendo (an international CC content site), I began to receive electronic comments from new fans in the United States, Mexico, and Europe: every morning, I would find myself translating comments and messages about my music in French, German and Spanish.

Time passed and I attempted to push the record a bit more, but ultimately new projects, new musicians, and college graduation took precedent in my life, and I assumed that although I had accomplished a great deal with "Let's Kick Fire", it was pretty much tapped. This fall, however, I was offered a unique opportunity: "Entretenimiento," anentertainment blog based in Chiapas, Mexico, got a hold of my record and asked to do an online interview. The questions they asked were specific to the "Let's Kick Fire" project, and I could tell that the interviewer was genuinely interested in my songwriting. Only a few days after posting the interview, Entretenimiento presented me with a very unique opportunity, and I am happy to announce, after a month of planning, that from February 27 to March 8, I will be flying to Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas (Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas) to perform a series of shows as a solo artist, judge a battle-of-the-bands, give a lecture on my work with the Creative Commons, and travel to public schools to play for music for the young Chiapanecos.

So that's it: I'm brushing up on my Spanish, rehearsing the songs from my record (many of which haven't been performed in over a year), having my album art and liner notes translated, and eagerly anticipating anything and everything that Mexico has to throw my way. And Shaun is coming too.

"Asi que pateemos Feugo!" (Let's Kick Fire. . . sort of)

Adam

P.S. The album will always be available for free digital download here.

P.P.S. Look at how strange this place is:

Patterns

Here's a cool little video of drummer Tom Elefante and friend Samuel Aaron Bennett trying to work out a feel for a new verse.

Happy Friday

Looking for something to do Saturday night? You should probably consider coming out to Spike Hill in Williamsburg and grabbing a bite, having a drink, getting slimed, and enjoying a few bands. Albany-based Around the World & Back teams up with Swear & Shake and our good friends Julius C and The Nightmare River Band to make some noise for y'all. We're excited to play with these guys and show you a few new tunes. We'll be hanging so show your face and shoot the poop for a bit. Doors are at 7:30pm, we hit at 8.

Swear and Shake in Newsday

We're super proud and excited that we got a good bit of press this weekend. Here is a link to a piece on Swear and Shake written by Newsday's Glenn Gamboa. It includes excerpts from an interview that Gamboa did with Adam McHeffey. Alright!

LI Sound: Swear and Shake's 'Johnnie' be good

Photo credit: Jessica Lehrman | Center Moriches-based band Swear and the Shake will play Spike Hill at 184 Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn on Jan. 15, 2011.

Spike Hill

Holy cow! Post #1.

We have a show coming up in Brooklyn with good friends The Nightmare River Band and Julius C and others!

Here's the flier: