May 13th

Last nights show at CBGB's was such a wonderful success. The Strange Attractors were wonderful. The Divide was beyond reason. (We were pretty good too.) And thank you to the X's for coming along for the ride. It was such a good night, completely put together by the bands, without any promoter or booking agent to skim off the top. Exactly the way a NYC show should go. Thank you to everyone who managed to come out. The Knitting Factory is just three weeks away...

May 1st

S8 has a big month ahead of us. We have two important shows. The first is at CBGB's on May 12th. The 2nd is at the Knitting Factory on May 31st. Please come to both. This will probably be our last CBGB's show before they close...and we've never played the Knitting Factory before, so we need a good draw. Come.

Saturday, March 31st

We played another drunken show at The Trash Bar last evening with the Strange Attractors. Friday, March 4th
Last nights show at Galapagos was a huge success. We'd like to thank Telenovellastar and the Strange Attractors for playing, and give a special thanks to Christopher Piazza for making the evening, by supplying an hours worth of video art behind us while we played.

Friday, February 3rd

Played a show at the L.I.T Lounge last night. Playing in that basement room is like having sex with children while your uncle watches.

Sunday, August 21st 2005

S8 is playing their first acoustic show in over a year and a half on September 1st. (see show page) It's a free show, so try to make it out if you can.

Tuesday, June 14th 2005

2:22am is officially mixed and mastered!!
The band returned from a week in South Philadelphia where we completed the long awaited album. Stay tuned for two b-side tracks to be uploaded to the songs page, as well as two tracks from the record. And now the fun process of label solicitation begins...

Friday, May 27th 2005.

Sorry to inform, but S8's multimedia show at Galapagos has been postponed. (Not our fault! Really.)

Sunday, May 1st 2005.

Swinger Eight is going to perform a completely instrumental noise set at Galapagos Art Space next month accompanied by video art projections from Director Chris Piazza and a possible dance performance.

Saturday, April 23rd 2005.

Thank you all for coming to CBGB's last night. It was a great show. And if you haven't done it yet, please go to CB's website and sign the petition to keep them in business. Thanks again.

Saturday, March 12th 2005.

We have two shows coming up in NYC this month. We're playing at Trash on the 16th and Arlene's on the 31st.

January 11th 2005.

The 1st Swinger Eight "Signals" was launched today. We'll send out a new poem by Chris Mis twice a month. If you didn't get one, they'll be posted on the Signals page. If you'd like to get on the Signals list then just send us an email saying so.

January 2005.

The final tracks for 2:22am are: 1) S.of.t 2) Heavy on the Ocean 3) Things We Said/Just The Sounds 4) Shadow Song 5) Constellation 6) The Lower East Side 7) The Heaviness of Rain 8) 2:22am.

December 2004.

S8 shot the video for the song "Constellation" this weekend with director Christopher Piazza at Context Studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Thanks to all who were there.

November 28th 2004.

Very cold pictures of S8 were taken last night in Times Square by Haik Kocharian. Some are posted on the Photos page.

November 2004.

S8 broke a tracking record. The song "Things We Said/Just The Sounds" on the upcoming 2:22am now borders on 74 tracks. Producer Jason Spittle was last seen mumbling and scratching at his neck on a street corner somewhere in Times Square...

October 31st 2004.

Yes...it's true. If you didn't make it to our Halloween show at the Rockstar Bar underneath the Williamsburg Bridge last night, Swinger Eight Bassist Christopher Medrano has chosen to shave his beard and upper body and now wear a dress. The rest of the band stands behind him and gives their full support for his new life choices.

October 10th 2004.

After leaving Hard Luck Studios in Times Square at 4am last night, Chris Mis managed to have our first Swinger Eight fistfight while recording the album with a drunk Spaniard.

Friday, April 23rd 2004.

As we begin the climb back to playing live again, if anyone is around, Chris Mis will be playing a solo acoustic show at CBGB's Gallery tomorrow night. He'll play some S8 songs...but no one really knows what he's going to do...

April 5th 2004.

After an impromptu hiatus S8 is about to begin the long process of recording 2:22am once again. We've cut it down to 11 songs out of the original 17 tracks. It's starting to look like the kind of album that's going to take a while to finish. Stay tuned, further information will be posted as the months continue.

Tuesday, December 30th 2003.

We'd like to thank everyone for a very successful and interesting year. From playing at Sundance to releasing A Division to beginning what seems to be the very lengthy process of recording 2:22am. Thank you all for coming to shows and supporting us with this project. See you again in the middle of 2004.
Swinger Eight.

Tuesday, December 16th 2003.

S8 is playing our final show of 2003 this Thursday at Continental. After that we'll be taking off from playing live for a good six to eight months of 2004 to record 2:22am. So if you can make it to this show, please try to come. We're going underground right afterwards.

October 25th, 2003

Thank you Elliot Smith.

It was May of 2000 and I had just found myself coming out of a very hard time. Five months earlier a woman who I had spent several long years with had left me for another man. This resulted in what I could only call a "small" nervous breakdown on my part. I slept. I drank. I quit my job. I lost weight. I walked through the snow lined streets of Manhattan with my friend David like a lost man. Then when the summer came I found myself having to work again after depleting everything I had saved looking thinner and a little more beaten from what I went through the winter before. But on this one particular afternoon on my first day back to work, I was out in New Jersey on a film shoot and had to drive back into New York on a run for a screwdriver or something just as useless. It was a nice day, but I hadn't slept the night before, which was common for me at that point, so I went up to this guy Ray Foley and asked him if he had any music I could listen to on the ride. Earlier we had been talking about what was happening in the music scene, which prompted a conversation about how I was pretty much out of it. I had quit playing music in bands for 4 years at that point after the death of my college group "The Three Jerks" and their reformation as "The Metric Resistance" without me. The experience made me lose my faith in people and I just walked away. So Ray handed me this mix tape and I threw it in the radio and drove off to Manhattan to fetch the screwdriver. Anyway, during the three hour drive back and forth I found myself rewinding a few key songs. When I asked Ray who those songs belonged to he said that they were all from a singer named "Elliot Smith." So I went out the next day and bought "either/or." Two days later I bought "xo" and "Elliot Smith." By the end of the week I found "Roman Candle" and "Figure 8" and that was pretty much it for me. I was hooked on the guy. But more then that, I found that the type of music that he was writing was similar to the acoustic songs I was playing alone with myself. Through the months after the break up I had written 18 songs that ended up becoming the "a division" record for S8P. For me, in my head at least, what Elliot Smith was doing and what I was writing in my own little world seemed the same. About three weeks after this I asked Chris Medrano if he was interested in getting together with me to possibly start a band. Chris was playing with "Driver-X" at this point and desperately wanted the chance to do his own music. He agreed. Then I found Ozzie Martinez out in my park one afternoon walking his dog. I asked him if he still was interested in playing with me. He also said yes. We jammed a week after that. Two months later we named the band Swinger Eight. "Hotel Room" and "On and On" came from those first sessions and made it to the EP. "On and On" made it to the soundtrack of "What Alice Found" and that got us to The 2003 Sundance Film Festival two years later. "a division" with the bulk of the break up songs came out in the middle of the year. So what's my point?

Elliot Smith killed himself earlier this week by stabbing a knife through his chest. I shook my head when I heard it. I was busy at work setting some planks of wood up to be cut when it came through the radio. A day or three later I started to think about how this guy's music affected me, or more so, how it got me out of a bad situation and moved me to start a band again. So, I don't know if it matters or not, but I just wanted to write this and say thank you Mr. Smith for somehow helping to create a band in Brooklyn called Swinger Eight. Thank you for the experiences that we've had, anyone who has felt anything while listening to our songs, and for giving me the courage to have found my voice once again three years ago. That's all really. Thank you for that. I would have loved to have gotten to meet you, shake your hand, and tell you this story myself.

Sincerely,
Chris Mis.

September 1, 2003

THE LEGEND OF 2:22 AM CONTINUES.

The band managed to get the basic tracks of 17 songs down during our 14-hour session with Jason Spittle at Coyote Recording Studios last month. There are still quite a lot of overdubs to put down, something like 100 hours worth of them, but things are moving along.

On a side note, if anyone out there is looking to do a record I'd like to give a little push to COYOTE RECORDING STUDIOS in our hometown of Williamsburg Brooklyn. Jason Spittle is one of the meanest son of a bitch bastards to work with...no...just kidding, ask for him, use him, meet him, whatever. It was the kindest most prolific recording experience that the band has ever had, and Jason was a pleasure to work with.
(Click on to the links page to take a look at the place.)

Other than that, stay tuned for a whole bunch of new shows coming to you this fall from "Brooklyn's Greatest Unsigned Band." (Y'know...I'd really like to change the "unsigned" part of that name soon.)

ChrisMis.

July 28, 2003

Swinger Eight officially goes into the studio to begin recording 2:22 AM in a week and a half. This record will have most of the songs people have been hearing at our live shows on it. It's a big undertaking, keep crossing your fingers or whatever other parts that you can cross.

Also keep checking the songs page over the next few days. We'll have a few new live tracks from the last CB's show that Buzz played on up there to download.

I stood on a corner on Bedford Avenue last night and looked at all of the people I used to see ten years ago in the East Village walking around. I know it's slightly arrogant, but I think it's kind of funny how they all followed me home.

I couldn't sleep so I stood there for a while and watched them. No one was talking, just walking by. I think it has something to do with Mars, the planet, being so close to Earth right now, the me not sleeping part I mean...the not talking, well, I think that they do that everyday.

ChrisMis.

July 19, 2003

The band would like to thank Patrick "Buzz" Murdoch for playing with us over the last few weeks, and we look forward to the few months from now when you return. We'd also like to thank everyone who made it out to the last CBGB's show. If you were there then you know why.
Thank you.
Swinger Eight.

July 7, 2003

Summer. I have that uncomfortable comfortable feeling of my beard growing on my face in the heat. Been wearing the same blue jeans for a week and a half. I need another new patch to go over another new hole, but I'm seeing a lot of sunrises.

The acoustic nights at M's Shanghai Den are a success. May, the owner, has given us a monthly slot there from now on, which is a good thing because we've wanted a local neighborhood place to play at for some time and now we've got it. A lot of this is due to acts like Walker, Driver-X, The Skips, Allison Dennis, and The Epochs who have all pitched in so far. There's more to come.

We're going in to the studio to begin recording 2:22 AM early next month. This will be Swinger Eight's first full length studio album. Cross your fingers.

Then on Thursday July 17th we're playing at CBGB's with Buzz Murdoch on lead guitar. He played with us at the last acoustic show and the things he's come up with on guitar are blowing us away. Try to come out if you can to see this. It should be a good show. The poetry page on the site is up. Go check it out. If you like or hate anything you can contact us through the swinger eight email address. I'd like to hear the feedback.

Meanwhile, there's more to come. There's more to come.

ChrisMis.

May 1^st, 2003

Hello everybody, welcome to May. We have a few Items to discuss here on the news page.

The first Item is that we have been very lax lately about website maintenance. We'd like to apologize for that. As you may or may not know, we have been working on a new record, Swinger Eight Projects A Division. Sometimes when you concentrate on one thing, other things fall apart. We're sorry!

The second matter of business is that Swinger Eight would like to congratulate S8-Projects member Emily Grace for her first starring role in the 2003 Sundance Jury Award Winning Film What Alice Found, directed by Dean Bell (the movie we have a song in). The movie is playing this week at the Tribeca Film Festival here in NYC so go see it if you can and cheer when you hear our song.

The Third matter is that on May 10th, Swinger Eight Projects will be releasing its first full length acoustic album entitled A Division at CBGB's 313 Gallery (go to the shows page for details). It's a big night for us as well as the other bands that are going to play. This record is a bit different than the things we've been doing in Swinger Eight, so please try and come. We hope to see you at this show.

Now that things are running here again, expect more annoying emails and updates from us soon.

Love,
The band.

January 21, 2003

SWINGER EIGHT AT THE 2003 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL.

Hello.

We want to take a moment to thank everyone in New York for your continued support of Swinger Eight. Because of our shows, songs, and fans, the unbelievable has happened for the group.

On January 23rd, Swinger Eight will play at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, at the main stage, a club called Plan B, to showcase some of our songs that appear in the motion picture What Alice Found, directed by Dean Bell. This is a huge moment for the group, as it's the biggest thing that's ever happened to us. We are the only unsigned band in the United States who have been asked to perform at the festival, not to mention that Swinger Eight is now on the same soundtrack with Beth Orton, Emmylou Harris, and Loretta Lynn. So we wanted to take a second to thank a couple of people who have outright helped us by lending vehicles, or listening, or just being there at every show.

A special thank you to the following:
To David Rose and Emily Grace, for believing so much in what we are doing, passing the CD along to the movie people, and constantly picking our spirits back up when they had fallen down. To Dean Bell, the director of What Alice Found for choosing to put our song in it, and giving us this opportunity. To Marc Vogel for arranging the show at the Sundance festival. To Ken Brown and Mary Ames, for lending us their truck a dozen times so we could get to shows. To Julie Ames for asking them for the truck, getting it, and then driving us there…among other things. To Beatrice Georgalidis and Joseph Holden for lending us the other truck when we couldn't get the first one, as well as Mario Zollo the Butcher and to Captain Tom Mazur for their vans too. Also a special thanks goes to Beatrice Georgalidis once again, for helping us to arrange this show with the people at Sundance. To Alexa Vachon, Christopher Schmelke, and Peter Parker for being our secret Swingers, which leaves a huge, special, and well deserved thanks to Chana Strauss for putting up with everything else.

Thank you. We're getting on a plane and going west for a while, but we hope to see everyone at our next NYC show, which will mark our triumphant return to the island of Manhattan at no better place than CBGB's, on Thursday, March 6th at 9 pm. And once again, thank you for letting us get this far with this dream.

Sincerely,
Swinger Eight.

November 14, 2002: Hello.

I guess it's safe to finally say welcome to swinger eight's new home base. We've been working on trying to get this thing up for a bunch of months now and the truth is that this whole year has been about building the foundations for this band. So I guess we're running now, and the foundations are built. So there. We'll breathe. We've almost completed everything that we set out to do this year, and I'd like to take a few lines to give an overview of the next few months for the group. As it stands now, you could buy the swinger eight EP from any of the sites that we have listed. Then in January, we'll be releasing the first record of the "Swinger Eight Projects" section of the band. (Go to the page, it's all explained there.) During the same month, S8 will be going into the studio to begin recording our next two full albums at the same time. The first of which, tentatively entitled "2:22AM" will be out sometime around March we hope, with the second coming out later next year. For a three piece, this group is becoming huge. We have a running set of over 60 songs. We have plans for individual solo albums. We have plans for an instrumental record. And we're slowly completing them all. So, for anyone who has attended our shows, and come to this site, and shown interest in us, thank you. We're moving steadily towards something here, while knocking our heads into every wall that we see along the way.
Swinger Eight