3.07.2010

Arms and Sleepers spring 2010 update

As subscribers to the Arms and Sleepers email updates, and as fans of Max and Mirza's music, we thought we'd repost their update we got today, so you can help keep tabs on what the Cambridge, Mass. dudes are up to...

Hello,

It's time for the first update of 2010---we hope that everyone's doing well and that you're off to a fantastic beginning in this new year! We have a bunch of news to report to you, so this is a bit of a lengthy update...

EUROPEAN TOUR WRAP-UP
It's hard to believe that our European tour is now long finished, but we wanted to sincerely thank everyone involved for making this the most successful tour that Arms and Sleepers has ever been on. We played 25 shows, and almost all of them ended up being some of the best shows we've ever been a part of. The European audiences continue to be some of the most passionate, energetic and enthusiastic folks out there, and from the perspective of a small independent band that is constantly fighting through various obstacles, these shows were some of the most rewarding and memorable moments in our days as Arms and Sleepers. However, it's not just the audiences that made this experience special, but also the venues, promoters, booking agents, and all the other people involved. Never before have we been greeted with such kindness, generosity and warmth on such a consistent basis. It was overwhelming, and our heads did not have enough time to process it all---we're still thinking about it and trying to absorb as much as possible. No matter what happens to Arms and Sleepers in the future, these moments and people that made those moments possible will be some of the most precious things we've experienced as part of this band, and for that we are eternally grateful. A big thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and see you again in May!

KICKSTARTER
Thanks to you, we've achieved the goal of raising $2,500 to help Arms and Sleepers continue making music! This money comes at a time when we need it the most---paying back for previous debts but also funding future endeavours. To be honest, we were unsure whether we'd be able to raise this much money. Not that we doubted our fans, but times are tough for everyone and certainly our cause is not the most pressing issue in the world. We wanted to experiment with this and see if alternative ways of surviving from music are actually possible in today's utterly confusing and highly unfair music business. Thanks to you, we are reassured that some people do still care about independent, underground music, and are passionate enough about it to financially support small artists like us. Thank you so much for pledging to Arms and Sleepers through Kickstarter---we can't express enough just how grateful we are for your continued enthusiasm and willingness to help whenever help is needed. For those that pledged, you should have received a message by now letting you know that your order has been shipped, as well as a link to download the "Matador Alternate Versions/B-Sides" release. We hope that you'll like the items that you pledged for. Again, thank you thank you THANK YOU for supporting our cause!

MERCH STORE UPDATES
We have some new bundle deals available from our BigCartel merch store. 3 CDs for $20, 2 CDs + Matador t-shirt for $30, or high-quality mp3 downloads of 9 releases for $35. We now also have the "Matador Alternate Versions/B-Sides" release available for purchase as a high-quality mp3 download, and it will be up on iTunes soon as well. About 20 physical copies remain---if you want one, send us an e-mail (wearearmsandsleepers@gmail.com), it's $8 + shipping. We'll ship out a few and save the rest for future special occasions. Finally, now until March 9th, if you buy any of our t-shirts online, we'll send you a free copy of the "From The Inland Sea" CD. Check out all this by visiting our merch store. Even with Kickstarter, money is tight and any purchase you make directly from us always helps us out greatly. Thank you as always for continuing to support Arms and Sleepers.

UPCOMING TOURS
We have 2 big tours coming up. The first one takes place in North America from March 9 (this Tuesday!) until April 17. All dates except for the last one are with our good friends Caspian. We are excited to be sharing the stage with them night in and night out, and look forward to coming to a city near you. This will be the last full North American tour for us for a very long time, so if you're around for one of the dates below, don't miss out! The second one takes place in Europe from May 5 to June 4. We'll be playing some big festivals there, which we are very excited about!

(ed: Check the A&S online for details)

UPCOMING RELEASES
The "Matador Remixes" album will be out on vinyl/digital in May via Expect Candy. We got some sweet remixes by Boy In Static/Consulate General, Lymbyc Systym, The American Dollar, Amanda Rogers, Uzi & Ari, Nolens Volens, Thisquietarmy, Jatun, and Elika. More info about pre-ordering and other release info coming your way soon.

We've done a few remixes ourselves. We'll be putting up our remix of Consulate General's (aka Boy In Static) track "Make A Church Movie" and Tape Deck Mountain's (Lefse Records) track "80/20" on our myspace page soon for you to hear!

The vinyl edition of our split EP with The American Dollar "From The Inland Sea" has been slow coming, but it is on the way. Expect it in late spring/early summer via Ericrock.

Work on our 3rd full-length album has begun, and we hope to have it released in the fall. This one's going to be very different from the last few releases, to say the least. We'll post some short clips and video teasers at some point in the near future.

SPREAD THE WORD
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SHOP
BigCartel
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Lala
Thesixtyone

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Thanks for reading, and hopefully see you soon at one of the upcoming shows!

Be safe.

a&s

Related: Our review of Matador and our chat with Max and Mirza

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