Dan Bejar (Destroyer / New Pornographers), Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes) and Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade / Sunset Rubdown) have joined forces to create the new supergroup Swan Lake. The group has signed with the Jagjaguwar label and will release its first album sometime in late 2006. No tour plans have been made just yet, but it’s not out of the question (if the price is right).
Bejar’s second supergroup; Krug’s release from the snowy depths of the Montreal winter; Mercer’s first supergroup and second chance to work with the aforementioned princes: a thought as satisfying and unlikely as “Cascadia” or “Trotskyism”, Swan Lake works like a nervous writer’s group or a Wednesday night prayer gathering, which is another way of saying in February Krug flew back from visiting his bud in Japan, and Bejar caught the ferry from Vancouver as is his habit, and Mercer swept the doorway at his home in Victoria and fluffed the pillows for a month of friendship and record making.
Idea first conceived in Europe. Each member contributes 4 songs: 4 “suites” consisting of three songs: three members at 4 songs plus one collaborative effort for closure=13 songs (all “real” songs and not 1:30 ditttties). The group has already written and recorded most of the album, each songwriter is allowing the other 2/3 of the group to attack their songs at will, adding extra vocal tracks, guitar tracks, etc. Track Listing and album title (likely not called “A Gentleman’s Slam”) forthcoming. The original name for the band was Thunder Cloud, but after a little research it seems that that monstrous moniker has already been claimed, so the words “thunder” and “cloud” will likely show up in the title of the band’s debut release.