Friday, April 27th, 2012 by mewithoutYou in Music, Store, Ten Stories, Update

Sooo… we blew through that last set of Ten Stories Deluxe Box Sets. We had NO IDEA people would be this pumped on that package. We’ve been getting a lot of requests and some complaints that the full packaging was so limited.  It seems more and more people are coming out of the wood work everyday asking us to make more. We felt like we were stuck in a dilemma yet again. “How can we keep those first 2,000 copies special and how can we give the rest of our fans the package they so obviously desire?” The conclusion we all came to was to do another run of Box Sets except scale them down a bit. We’re sorry if that’s a disappointment to some of you but we wanted reward those who showed up early. But we also don’t want to punish those who came late either. That’s why the Box Set still includes the 2XLP on Colored Vinyl, the 4th Side Etching, the inner sleeves, the B-sides 7″, the 28-page booklet, and the 11×17 Poster all in that big beautiful 1″ box. Gone are the autographs, the 180 gram, the Icy Blue, the Audiophile Black, and the hand-numbered boxes.

We are still limited to the quantities we can make of these, because they cost a TON of money to make (money we don’t have yet) and they’re gonna take a lot of effort to assemble them. That being said if we sell out again we’ll try to make more  of these in the near future but right now we’ve hit our limit in terms of  production cost.Here’s a complete list of the new specs on this package:

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Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 by mewithoutYou in Music, Store, Ten Stories, Update

Good news! The pre-sale has been a hugely successful so far and in less than 24 hours we sold out of all Deluxe Box Sets. We initially thought 1,000 of these Deluxe Box Sets we’re going to last us the 5 weeks leading up to the street date. So when they started to fly like hot cakes on Tuesday we thought to ourselves “Man, we should’ve made more.” But we weren’t going to do that. To say a pressing is limited to a 1,000 and then bump up that number just to sell more copies, we felt would’ve been a disingenuous move . “You live and you learn. Next time we’ll do more.”

But as it turns our online merch company is working with somewhat of an antiquated system where they have to manually pull down items in the store if they get too close to their stock limit. Long story short the guys who handle our online sales weren’t able to pull the Deluxe Box Sets from the store in time and oversold them by 265 copies. So we we’re left with the choices Refund those 265 orders or Order more. It seems clear that there is a demand for this product and we don’t want to bum anyone out who already think they’re getting Deluxe Box Set in June only to be told they aren’t. So today we made some calls to the manufacturers today and bumped up all our orders by an additional 1,000. Which works out better for our costs cause we hit certain price breaks at that amount. So really everybody wins here except for  the people who think 1,000 copies is cooler than 2,000 copies. For that we are sorry but they’ll probably get over it, right? And if exclusivity is really your concern then you can rest easy knowing that this time when we say 2,000 copies we mean 2,000 copies. So back on the table are another 500 Icy Blue and another 500 Audiophile Black.

CLICK HERE to pre-order the Deluxe Box Set now for only $40

Any questions, concerns and comments with your orders can should be directed here custserv@11spot.com

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Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 by mewithoutYou in Music, Store, Ten Stories, Update

We are very excited to announce that starting today our new album Ten Stories is up for pre-sale on our brand new online store. Right now we’ve got the following options for you guys:

Compact Disc – $12
• 11 new songs
• Full color disc artwork
• 12 pg lyric booklet
• 8 original paintings by Vasily Kafanov

Vinyl LP – $18
• Marbled Gray vinyl
• Tip-on Gatefold Jacket
• 12 pg lyric booklet
• Extra 5×5 Insert
• 8 original paintings by Vasily Kafanov

Deluxe Box Set – $40
• Limited to 1,000 copies
• Hand-numbered
• 180 gram 2XLP available in two colors (Icy Blue, Audiophile Black)
• 4th Side Vinyl Etching
• Custom Inner Sleeves
• 28 pg lyric booklet with 11 original paintings by Vasily Kafanov
• Autographed 11x 17 Poster
• Bonus CD with Alternate Album Cover
• Exclusive B-Sides 7” Single “Other Stories:”
Includes an 8 pg lyric booklet, 2 more original paintings by Vasily Kafanov and foreword by Rick Mazzotta

All orders also include a free digital copy of the album that will be sent out the day the album drops (5/15/12). For those of you who hate physical media we are working on setting up a way to just buy the digital download, but we ran into a couple issues at the eleventh hour.

Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume

Last but not least every pre-sale order will come with an automatic free download of album track “Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume,” which has our friend Hayley Williams of Paramore contributing vocals. This song is definitely a highlight moment of the album. We think you guys are gonna love it.

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Friday, April 6th, 2012 by mewithoutYou in Interview, Music, Update

Okay, you’ve all been asking for it and so here it is. Finally, a new song from our band. Not some shabby live recordings on YouTube or bits and pieces strung here and there and throughout interview clips. This is a full song, uncut, in all its glory. Click HERE to head over to Paste Magazine and wrap your ears around February, 1878,  the first track off  “Ten Stories” (in stores and online 5/15). This is track one off the new album. It hits hard and it croons smooth. We love it and hope you guys do too.

Pre-Sale for “Ten Stories” will start on April 17th on this very website. We’ll have new web store open at that time where you can purchase the new record on CD / LP / MP3 and exclusive to our store a Deluxe Version of  ”Ten Stories” (details soon).

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Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 by mewithoutYou in Music, Update

Press Release:

mewithoutYou returns with their 5th studio album Ten Stories, set for release May 15, 2012. A deluxe vinyl edition will be available as well. Helmed by producer and friend of the band Daniel Smith (Sufjan Stevens) and mixed by Brad Wood, Ten Stories is an allegorical collection of songs that, at first listen, follows a winding narrative about a circus train crash in 19th century Montana. But long-time fans of this band know that although we are immediately introduced to a talking elephant, fox and tiger, there is always more than meets the eye.
mewithoutYou – frontman Aaron Weiss, guitarist Michael Weiss, bassist Greg Jehanian and drummer Rickie Mazzotta – will be previewing the new songs during a run of select live shows in early March, beginning March 3rd in Baltimore at Metro Gallery. A U.S. Spring tour will be announced in the coming weeks.

Ten years into their life together as a band, mewithoutYou are still searching, and they still compel us to join them in their search. Well-loved for their introspective and eccentric ruminations on life, love, loss, spirituality and temptation, Ten Stories is the result of a lot of living and a lot of death. After experiencing the joy of a newborn baby in the Weiss family in early 2010, it wasn’t too long before several deaths of relatives and friends shook the band to its core. They spent some time apart to live their lives, but it is their deep friendships that always bring them back together again.

Reflecting on their history together, drummer Rickie Mazzotta says, “Think about everything that happens in the course of a decade – death, taxes, scholastics, break-ups, birth, illness, World Series Championships, foggy memories, whack decisions, the loss of innocence, the highest highs and the lowest lows. We’ve been through a lot together. When we came together to make Ten Stories, it was spawned out of being apart for a while, home with friends and lovers, pursuing other interests and naturally gravitating back towards one another in space and sound.”

This natural reunion led to the band beginning work on Ten Stories with a relaxed approach, leisurely enjoying the summer sun and leaving behind any pre-conceived ideas of what kind of songs they wanted to make. The result is an incredibly expansive album, encompassing where the band has been and where they are going. mewithoutYou’s last album, 2009’s It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright!, was a marked departure into the world of folk and written around an acoustic guitar, Ten Stories adds the band’s raucous vocals and hard-hitting instrumentation back into the mix. Still present are their melodic overtones and lush orchestration of more recent years, making for a riveting musical journey at the album’s every turn.

Through the fable-like interactions of fictitious animals, Ten Stories offers up deep ponderings and keen observations about human character flaws and the circle of life. As the band further explores their signature themes of romantic disaster and quasi-mystical speculation, a naive rabbit falls for a footloose fortune teller and a monastic walrus for a hedonistic owl. A pretentious Fox has a prophetic dream, a starving Bear has a vision of a martyred saint and an indecisive Peacock and gnostic Tiger learn the virtues of megalomania from an ego-annihilated Potter Wasp. From the urgent suspense of album opener “February 1878,” to the sweeping drum patterns and gritty vocals of “Grist for the Malady Mill,” to the psychedelic gem “Aubergine” to the special guest artist on “Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume,” it’s clear that Ten Stories is one of mewithoutYou’s most dynamic albums to date.

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Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 by mewithoutYou in Interview, Music, Update, Video

Originally when we announced  the WXPN Key Session we had planned to premiere the performances of three hot new songs from our new album. We also announced that it would be hitting the internet on December 14th. Well here we are a week late and sadly we are not premiering any full performances of new material. When the band got the audio and video back, they we’re not as hot the performances as we had hoped they would be; they were actually kind of cold. Simply put, they didn’t sound great and weren’t prepared to put out anything less than that. But we we’re able to salvage some of the performances and you can hear some snippets of the stuff mixed in with the interview the band shot. We’re sorry its not more, but we think it should whet your appetites just enough.

Here’s a link to the full Key Session:
http://thekey.xpn.org/2011/12/the-key-studio-video-sessions-a-decade-of-mewithoutyou/

Also we’d like to offer a shout-out to John Vettese for putting a lot of hard work and energy into putting this thing together. Word’em up, Vettese.

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Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 by mewithoutYou in Music, Shows, Update

photo by Jessica Fairchild

The following is is a message from Aaron:

Hello – I’d like to invite anyone who’s interested & capable to bring their (preferably) non-electrical instruments (e.g., horns, strings, woodwind, percussion, accordion) and join me on stage at the Troubadour this Thursday, December 15. The only songs of ours I’m probably going to do are acoustic-guitar & melody based (i.e., not old songs with shouting vocals), plus maybe a cover or two; if anyone takes me up on this, we can choose a set list based on whichever of  those-type-of-songs everyone is prepared to play. I’m hoping of course for some degree of musical competency from whoever might join me (as after all, folks are paying money for the show…we’d like it to not be disastrous). but you don’t have to be a bona fide professional, just solid at your instrument and thoroughly familiar with the song(s) you’ll play on. If you don’t have a ticket, don’t worry: I can likely get you in for free, especially if you’re a good player.

We made up a temporary e-mail account for this very purpose. If you’ll be taking part, kindly let us know:
troubadourdecember15@gmail.com

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Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 by mewithoutYou in Music, Photos, Update

Last Friday, Novmember 11th, the band got together and recorded live-in-the-studio at WXPN in Philadelphia for The Key Studio Sessions. If you’re not familiar with The Key Studio Sessions (and I’m sure most of you are not), imagine Daytrotter for bands from Philly plus video and then add in an interview.

If you’ve listened to any sort of in-studio session before you know that the best ones are the ones that offer some sort of exclusive material. So we took this as opportunity to premiere the performances of three brand new, unreleased songs from our new album coming out next year. We are really excited to share this new material with everyone and you can hear these three new songs plus two others when they go up online at The Key’s website on December 14th.

Also we wanted to mention that Eric Ashleigh shot some photographs of the sessions and he did an amazing job. You can see them up on The Key’s website, or you can head over to his portfolio site (http://lefte.co/) where he’s got higher quality versions up

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