Colin STETSON: News

Brand new clip from my cd release shows this march at Monkeytown! This one's from the first track off of
NHW Vol.1, "And it fought to escape".
Check it out here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx4_i1DO208

More on the way!

Hey everybody!
I'm fresh off of tour with Arcade Fire, it's been a great year! And
as of March 4th, my CD - 'New History Warfare Vol. 1' on Aagoo Records(www.aagoo.com)
has finally hit stores! I'll be playing a few shows in NYC and one
in Philly to celebrate the release. These are going to be great
shows! not only will I be performing music from the record but I'll
be joined in duets with friends of mine including Stuart
Bogie(Antibalas), Sarah Neufeld(Arcade Fire), Jeremiah Lockwood(Sway
Machinery) and Ryan Sawyer(Tall Firs). All this and I'm proud as
hell to have the wonderful music of SAM AMIDON to open each show!
(www.samamidon.com)
Please come out and join us for some amazing evenings.
thanks,
-colin

Philadelphia:
8pm Saturday, March 15th 2008
@the Gershmann Y, Borowsky Gallery as part of the Bowerbird Series
(www.bowerbird.org)

NYC:
7:30pm &10pm, Fri and Sat March 21st&22nd, 2008
@Monkeytown in Williamsburg Brooklyn (www.monkeytownhq.com)
with very very very special guest Sam Amidon

Celebrating the first night of Chanukah, The Sway Machinery burns the single eye of fire into the night, raging like ancient history poured out of the fantasy life of a child. The first full band TSM show since our barn-raising stomp Hidden Melodies Revealed.

The DVD of Hidden Melodies Revealed, which would make an ideal holiday present for almost anyone, will be offered for sale.

DETAILS:
A Single Eye of Fire--The Sway Machinery celebrates the first night of Chanukah - 9:30 PM
425 Lafayette Street between East 4th and Astor Place
New York NY
212-967-7555

Celebrating the first night of Chanukah, The Sway Machinery burns the single eye of fire into the night, raging like ancient history poured out of the fantasy life of a child. The first full band TSM show since our barn-raising stomp Hidden Melodies Revealed.

The DVD of Hidden Melodies Revealed, which would make an ideal holiday present for almost anyone, will be offered for sale.

DETAILS:
A Single Eye of Fire--The Sway Machinery celebrates the first night of Chanukah - 9:30 PM
425 Lafayette Street between East 4th and Astor Place
New York NY
212-967-7555

Celebrating the first night of Chanukah, The Sway Machinery burns the single eye of fire into the night, raging like ancient history poured out of the fantasy life of a child. The first full band TSM show since our barn-raising stomp Hidden Melodies Revealed.

The DVD of Hidden Melodies Revealed, which would make an ideal holiday present for almost anyone, will be offered for sale.

DETAILS:
A Single Eye of Fire--The Sway Machinery celebrates the first night of Chanukah - 9:30 PM
425 Lafayette Street between East 4th and Astor Place
New York NY
212-967-7555

OK. So it's been a loooonnnnggg time coming, but my solo record - NEW HISTORY WARFARE VOL.1 - is finally here! But there's a catch. I'm on tour right now (still out with ARCADE FIRE) and will be until mid-february. I will, however, be making a trip to NYC to play several shows (see below for the first). The second is happening on December 5th at my favorite place in New York, ZEBULON. For this one night only I'll be joined by my best friend on the planet, Stuart Bogie, and together we're going to make something Happen! The program includes the debuts of two bands, one of Stu one of Me, whose lineups include the unflinching likes of Ryan Sawyer(drums), Adam Roberts(bass), and Jeremy Wilms(guitar), to name a few. Stuart and I will also unite for duets throughout the night (something that hasn't happened for an age) and to top it off I'll be performing a solo set to make sure I drop dead of exhaustion, brain bubbles, or the dreaded bloody ear.
AND this'll be you're only chance to pick up my new CD until it's official release in March! So, mark your calendars, make a date, and come see me and Stuart Bogie how we were meant to be seen. Together.

-colin

Celebrating the first night of Chanukah, The Sway Machinery burns the single eye of fire into the night, raging like ancient history poured out of the fantasy life of a child. The first full band TSM show since our barn-raising stomp Hidden Melodies Revealed.

The DVD of Hidden Melodies Revealed, which would make an ideal holiday present for almost anyone, will be offered for sale.

DETAILS:
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
@Joe's Pub
A Single Eye of Fire--The Sway Machinery celebrates the first night of Chanukah - 9:30 PM
425 Lafayette Street between East 4th and Astor Place
New York NY
212-967-7555

Check out this clip of Sway Machinery at our groundbreaking performance, 'Hidden Melodie's Revealed'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLVQjV7wlQQ

Ladies and gentlemen--an event not to be missed! On this night the unique concept of The Sway Machinery will find its fullest expression to date in a work that is part concert, part theatrical event, all joyful and transformative exploration. Using music, storytelling and the debut of an animated film (directed by Shawn Atkins using puppets designed by Paul Andrejco and created especially for this event), Hidden Melodies Revealed will be a visceral feast. This event, which falls on the first night of Rosh HaShana, the Jewish lunar new year, takes as its goal the creation of an emotional state in which the musical folklore of the New Year liturgy can be absorbed by a modern audience. We are excited to invite you to be a part of this experimentation!

In the spirit of the holiday, there will be no charge for admission, however, we will be accepting donations. We sincerely look forward to seeing you there!

10pm September 12th
@the Angel Orensanz Foundation
FREE

Go to a place where they sell magazines. Find this month's copy of MOJO (the one with the Police on the front). Go to page 54. And there you'll find, stuffed somewhere in between Ron Ashton, Scott Weiland and Bjork...

And so, I emerged in the cafeteria, eyes struggling through the fog of fever to locate my Swaying brethren. Somewhere in the midst of this crowd, these throngs of women and men, parents and their children -- the festival goers-- the noise of their feasting a tangible thing, a physical force that assaulted my body like waves of blood thirsty midgets being thrown at me, kicking and biting. Somewhere in the midst of this chaos, in this strange dormitory cafeteria, in the countryside of southern England, was the Sway Machinery.
Driven by my hunger, which at this point was more just a feeling of necessity than an actual want of food. My body was broken and needed fixing. Food fixes. So on I went, up and down the aisles between the long tables full of human eaters. Hot christ were they loud! And in my weakened condition this was almost too much. I was a stranger in a strange land, a spirit walking through the world of the living, and living were a ravenous pack of assheads. Or so it felt to a man on the verge of total delirium. Never have I wanted so badly to punch people and things, babies and the elderly, loaves of bread, that guy over at that table. Real punches. Bruce Lee punches. Just go kung-fu nuts on a room full of dining families, chops to the throat of the cute round dads and flying kicks to the sternum of that old lady with the bagette. This was self-defense, this was Serious, these people were Hurting me. But, because Kung-Fu-Cafeteria is a reality that should never come to pass, I restrained and in this moment the divine shone down and lit my path.
Jordan Mclean is a Tall tall man, a tastfully mustached man, a man with great hair. And it was this tasteful mustache and fine quaff that brought me to my seat at the dinner table.
Now, being the late comer to the scene, I was stuck in a borderline position, just off the coast of the Sway. The clamour and racket of the long tables was too much for me to keep conversation with the boys who I knew and whose comforting company I so desperately needed, so there I sat. Quiet and waiting for the food to come to our table, as it had not yet arrived.
And then I noticed that apparently I Was in conversation. At least, someone was talking to Me. Seated accross from me, a woman seeming to be around my age was having a chat with me. About what I have no idea because through the fear and the pain her voice amounted to no more than the teacher from Charlie Brown with a british accent. But on she talked. And now I was feeling squeezed, like she was tightening the noose, her focus was on me. It felt hard and pointy and I certainly didn't want it to go in anywhere. Panic now. Was this woman FLIRTING with me? Could she not see that I was DYING? My neck was bulbous, my face ghastly white with patchy red rashes, my eyes were bloodshot from all the crying and I hadn't showered in two days. Was THis the man she wanted? This swollen and mukey visage was the inspiration for her come on? A come on so strong it was like she straight invited herself to a party in my pants? Well, my dear, I feel like Ass. And the party in my pants is horrible today. Please stop talking to me.
And so then the food arrived.
People talk about being Tested by God. Like God sets out obstacles in one's path to test one's faith or strength or whatever. This night I was not Tested by God. This night, God was punishing me. God was fucking my mouth with St. Peter's wang, he was blasting a dukey up into my butthole. This night, God shit on my funcake.
You should never call things food when you can't eat them. And here before me lay steaming trays full of the inedible squirt from God's anus. But I'm DYING here, remember? I NEED to eat. Maybe it just Tastes bad, I tell myself. I try it. And I do try it. I start with a vegetable dish that looks harmless enough but turns out to be corn oil soup with canned carrots and soaking eggplant squares. Next was the fish. Now, we're about 2 miles from the coast but somehow in preparation for this meal, someone caught these fish, left them out in the sun for a week, put them in a freezer for a little over a year, dropped them into a tin and covered them in a canned boyardeeish sauce and baked it for about 10 hours. The result tasted like chinatown on a summer's day with the consistency of rubber gloves. No good. So how's about some bread? You can't fuck up bread. Wrong. The bread's raw. Beautiful loaf of Challah, totally raw in the middle. So I take the squishy doe center and I start spinning a pizza-pie out, all while singing Hava Nagila in a wicked falsetto. Not really, but I could have and that's what counts. I could have made bread WITH the bread. Terrible.

New songs are up in the MUSIC section of this website. New songs by the Wheel On My Back, the amazing band of brothers from all three coasts. From Transmission, from Antibalas, from Crush Kill Destroy, we love this group and this record but it has yet to be released properly. SO, if you or someone you know is in the position to label us up or point us in the direction of labeling, please say hello. Unofficial CDRs of the Wheel On My Back "the seas are still not full" are available from this website.
-colin

And the day before we arrived, I must've aquired some tiny beasts of the micro sort. And these guys love throats, apparently. So, on the plane across the atlantic I noticed that my right-side-neck-node had swollen to the size of a grade AA Large chicken egg and it was approaching Jumbo. So what to do? On a plane, drink some water, drink some juice. How abouts some vitamins? Sure. Then to watch a good movie (Spike Lee's 'Inside Man' with Denzel and Clive, pretty fucking good movie) and a nap. Wake up in London and feel good? Hell no. By the time we reached our place my neck felt like it was host to some egg sack of insectile terrors that any minute would hatch and send thousands of the bastards burrowing out my throat skin with hopes of air and freedom. But the show must go on! So later that night we settled into the club and rocked it like only the Sway can deliver. An impressive show of force, moments of beauty, Jeremiah Lockwood proving yet again that he sits on the spine of this world, speaking for the spirits. All in all a great night. And with the help of a little whisky, no amount of burrowing Larvae can really keep you down. Good night, sweet dreams... psyche!
Did I just write 'psyche? Anyway...
I woke in the early early morning to find that I was sweating something terrible. The kind of sweat that can only come from a genuinely sweaty, sweating human man. I also found that my skin hurt, and the parts in between my bones. That hurt, too. My face, backs of eyes, over-hands, under-hands, small of back, large of back. All hurting. Then the blood started. Yep, thick blood and a solid faucet stream that I couldn't remember ever experiencing started pouring out my nose. As I tried to catch it and save the couch I was sleeping on from a nasty forever stain of life juice from my booger hole, I realized that other stuff was coming out with the blood. Shit that resembled soggy skin flaps and aborted fetus clotty glops were finding their way down the horrible shute as well. I ran to the bathroom, locked! All the while holding in my cupped hands, like of bowl of terrible soup, my blood and flaps and clots. What to do?
It was only then that I realized that I was in fact still in bed(in couch) No blood, no soup, bathroom's unlocked. This was to be the first of many terrifying and disgusting fever dreams that I experienced over the next few ours as my temperature spiked up over 102.
The peak of these feelings of pain and helplessness came on friday night when, having arrived at the festival grounds I became wrapped in hunger and joined my brothers at the dinner table.
To Be Continued...

So, after long years of self releasing live CDRs of solo concerts in San Francisco and elsewhere, here emerges my first studio recorded solo album! And Shit, my heart is full of blood and my brain is jealous! No, really, if you like the solo me shows, this record is gonna be like soaking in a warm bath of soothing sax crystals with clarinet bubbles and duckies and shit. It was recorded by my long lost cousin, Joel Hamilton, over at Studio G in Williamsburg, and, whilst "keeping it real" (only solo tracks, no overdubs/edits/blahblahblah) we did give it some studio magic. And everybody knows how much I love Magic.
It's coming out on the Brooklyn label "Aagoo", which earlier this year released the second album by Zemog El Gallo Bueno, the crazed latin band of which I am a member.
It'll be released this fall, so keep the eyes open if this is something you want to see when it becomes available to open eyes.
-colin

Hey all,
Just got a little nod in the Village Voice this week. Go here to check it out: http://villagevoice.com/music/0622,poole,73356,22.html

Two things. Firstly, if you don't know or haven't seen, I'm in a new band called "the Sway Machinery" where I'm playing exclusively the bass saxophone, it's Jeremiah Lockwood's baby and it's awsome and wonderful. You can hear new tracks by the band on it's website - www.swaymachinery.com

And next, I just found a video clip from my last trip back to San Francisco. This is Transmission playing Tiny Beast at Amnesia. My favorite guys, playing my favorite song, at my favorite place. Here it is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ1d6-iSq2w&search=colin

"When the night went black they realized their lights were too bright. Passing cars thought their high beams were on, and flashed them. They flashed them back, showing them their real brights, and then, to retaliate, the cars would flash theirs again. It happened a hundred times. They hated the implication of their thoughtlessness, and the strain on their eyes was terrible, all the flashing, all that quick bright anger."
-Dave Eggers, 'How We Are Hungry'

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Saphu that thoughts acquire speed, that lips acquire stains, stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion".

So, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the juice of Saphu that I was drinking last night, but whatever it was, it left me looking like the emperor from star wars and feeling thin, like butter scraped over too much bread. I think I'm gonna go eat some bacon, as bacon has become my new answer for everything. Yep, glorious bacon, fixing hangovers and headaches and the pain of a broken heart. Filling our hearts with gladness, taking away all our sadness. You ease my troubles, yes, that's what you do, bacon.
You should try it! Go ahead, let bacon work for you.

p.s. the first person to email me the correct sources of ALL quotes in this passage gets a prize!

Feel free to write whatever you want in the crazy box, people. Granted, most of it gets deleted for being just too damn hot for TV. But, those of you who've slipped by the censor police and get your comment up on the "big board", congrats. Now, we here at colinstetson.com are particularly fond of messages like Rebecca Anderson's "you are by far the hottest sax player on earth" (aug 6/05) or the simple but effective, "love you much!" by someone named "MOM" (Dec 31/05). But our all time favorites have got to be those like Feb 5th's "KARMA". That's right you sneaky little leavers of single words, bravo. We love that shit. We just sit back and ponder, hhmmmm.... I wonder what miss all-caps karma was trying to say? What can it possibly mean!? That is, we'd be asking that if we didn't already know the answer! That's right, this is a fucking computer, people. We know who you are and what you mean, cuz it does. It's in the html, dipshit. Next time you feel like getting cryptic, try getting REALLY cryptic and leave something like "FISHSTICKS" or "GERONIMO!!!!".
mmmmmmm..... fishsticks