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ARMS AND SLEEPERS
Matador - New Album Campaign (North American Release - Fake Chapter 11/17/09) www.fakechapter.com, www.friendofminerecords.com, www.expectcandy.com Arms and Sleepers are a duo of comprised of Max Lewis (Boston, MA) and Mirza Ramic (Portland, ME). Formed in 2006, they have produced multiple albums, EPs and hand-made releases, most notably the Bliss Was It In That Dawn To Be Alive EP (Fake Chapter, 2006) and the well-received Black Paris 86 (Expect Candy, 2008). Following an intense touring schedule in 2008 and 2009 that included appearances in the UK, Europe, and North America and saw the band opening for the likes of Asobi Seksu, The Books, Her Space Holiday, Cass McCombs, Lymbyc Systym, This Will Destroy You and Caspian, Max and Mirza took a break to focus on a new proper full-length in the summer of 2009. The result is Matador, featuring contributions from numerous musicians, including Tom Brosseau (Fat Cat Records), Shelley Short (Hush Records), Ben Shepard and Catherine Worsham (of Uzi & Ari), Philip Jamieson (of Caspian) and Mona Elliott (of Travels).
Matador is an album studded with varying themes and textures. The synergy between a haunting sonic mix and delicate, ethereal lyrics yield an ambitious, precise whole. Maintaining consistent intensity and energy, the music and artwork both reflect the moodiness behind the concept of the album, which can be summarized as a reaction to the surroundings and circumstances Max and Mirza found themselves in throughout the past two years. Matador also finds the duo expanding on their sound, reaching for a new and fresh direction. Vocals are more prominent throughout the album than with previous releases, and the band ventures into new soundscapes, incorporating an expansive array of instruments. The result is a cinematic and hypnagogic mix of rusts, antique grays and olive greens which evoke an eerie nostalgia - memories of places you’ve never been and things you’ve never seen.
Matador will be released in North America by Fake Chapter, Europe & the UK by Expect Candy, and Japan & rest of Asia by Friend of Mine. Praise for Matador "...a foreign, yet strangely familiar place to feel right at home in." -Redefine "Arms and Sleepers have seamlessly stitched a mood-piece, unwavering in both its melancholic and sonic stance." - Skeleton Crew Quarterly "Indeed Arms and Sleepers' Matador is a soundscape all its own." -Plug In Music "Arms and Sleepers ask you to stop, slow down, and pay attention to the moment." -QRO Mag "...an auditory adventure worth taking." -DOA "...surpasses the passive to float over edgy, enigmatic elegance." -Maximum Ink “Matador by Arms and Sleepers. A major step forward for a major artistic force." -Love and Mathematics "bold and unafraid." -Stereo Subversion "Could prove to be addictive..." -Monsieur Delire "An absolutely beautiful album." -Tome to the Weather Machine "Absolutely stunning." -The Sirens Sound "Lewis and Ramic are getting good at what they do. Quite damn good." -Babysue "Arms and Sleepers has made a record that is refreshing and engaging." -Star City Blog Praise for Arms & Sleepers: Live Shows, Black Paris 86, and Bliss Was It In That Dawn To Be Alive "...soft, dreamy compositions—warm, textured, heady as a summer night, watching stars sparkle in the blackness..." -Portfolio Weekly (VA) "Lush, delicate, and expertly textured..." -Mountain Xpress (NC) “Soft, intricate, pensive, and soothing...this is an album with a ton of staying power” –Babysue "For anyone looking for a refreshing new change of pace, I have little doubt that Arms and Sleepers could be the stimulus you are looking for." -The Silent Ballet
"Arms and Sleepers' music is about evoking stories from the subtle disintegration and regenerations of life, capturing fleeting moments when humanity reaches a crescendo but there's no one there to witness it." -Eugene Weekly (OR) "Moody, strange, atmospheric, mysterious. The ambient avant-garde sound of electronica duo Arms and Sleepers eludes easy description." -The Charleston Gazette (WV) "Arms and Sleepers have chosen to go the path of originality and have really created a marvelous groundwork for their musical career." - N/A Reviews "...the overriding vibe is so laid back as to be supine, with the horns and voices used to enhance the dreamlike textures generated by the keyboard-bass-programming mix." -The Times of Acadiana (Baton Rouge) "If nature could digitally remix its collection of summer night sounds, the disc would be a sister to the music Arms and Sleepers produce. Soothing, earthy, and electronic, it's nature plugged into the wall socket..." -City Pages (Minneapolis) "...jazz- and trip-hop-influenced electro-pop, IDM-pop punctuated by effective and never-distracting vocals..." -Newcity Chicago "It's hard for some people to believe that electronic music can have a real emotional core. Cambridge, MA duo Arms and Sleepers leaves little doubt that such machine-generated soul is possible." -Centerstage Chicago "Black Paris 86 from electronica duo Arms and Sleepers sort of plays like the soundtrack of an introspective indie flick or a deep space sci-fi movie." -Lansing Noise "Early contender for Best of the Year, easily." -The Speed of Silence "Arms and Sleepers make ethereal, noir electronic music just this side of other sex-inducing acts like Portishead and M83." -Boston's Weekly Dig "...a quiet, introspective rainy-day soundtrack..." -Eugene Weekly "Evoking everything from Saxon Shore, Sigur Ros and Sleeping Kings Of Iona to Mogwai, Portishead and Radiohead, Arms and Sleepers seem in step with a lineage of bands whose purpose is more to make art than millions." -Jamestown Post-Journal
TOUR DATES
| DATE | VENUE | CITY | STATE | SUPPORT |
| 02.27 | Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh | PA | |
| 03.09 | Black Cat | Washington | DC | Caspian |
| 03.10 | Blue Nile | Harrisonburg | VA | Caspian |
| 03.11 | The Hide Away | Johnson City | TN | Caspian |
| 03.12 | The Muse | Nashville | TN | Caspian |
| 03.14 | Will's Pub | Orlando | FL | Caspian |
| 03.16 | Drangons Den | New Orleans | LA | Caspian |
| 03.17 | The Rustic Cowboy | Shreveport | LA | Caspian |
| 03.18 | The Mink | Houston | TX | Caspian |
| 03.23 | TBA | Tucson | AZ | Caspian |
| 03.24 | Rouge Bar | Scottsdale | AZ | Caspian |
| 03.25 | Pehrspace | Los Angeles | CA | Caspian |
| 03.26 | Che Cafe | San Diego | CA | Caspian |
| 03.28 | TBA | San Francisco | CA | Caspian |
| 03.31 | TBA | Boise | ID | Caspian |
| 04.01 | SHO | Murray | UT | Caspian |
| 04.02 | 3 Kings | Denver | CO | Caspian |
| 04.03 | Winnings | Albuquerque | NM | Caspian |
| 04.05 | Mohawk | Austin | TX | Caspian |
| 04.06 | Lounge on Elm Street | Dallas | TX | Caspian |
| 04.07 | Record Bar | Kansas City | MO | Caspian |
| 04.08 | Orange Carpet | Vernon | IA | Caspian |
| 04.10 | Mike and Molly's | Champaign | IL | Caspian |
| 04.11 | TBA | Ft. Wayne | IN | Caspian |
| 04.13 | Rancho Relaxo | Toronto | ON | Caspian |
| 04.14 | Divian Orange | Montreal | QC | Caspian |
| 04.15 | Webster Hall Studio | New York | NY | Caspian |
| 04.16 | Northstar Bar | Philadelphia | PA | Caspian |
| 04.17 | The Iron Horse | Northampton | MA | Hadoken, A Troop Of Echoes |
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