Check out Amaris's Etsy shop, Akzidental Purpose, at https://www.etsy.com/shop/AkzidentalPurpose?ref=hdr_shop_menu 
Since she obviously can't keep her fingers still for long, we here at SwampDrag.com decided to give Amaris her own page to let her thoughts run rampant... er... I mean wild and free. Feel free to spend time in here, but don't get lost... Amaris's mind can be a dangerous place.

Summer Wrap-up?  

Whoa, gee whiz, and golly dang... Swamp Drag has had one hectic summer! Charleston, Sutton, Weston, Elkins, Buckhannon, that Meadery in Ohio... We've been all over you places... If you guys haven't seen us lately, you can't blame us because we've likely been within spitting distance of a lot of you, but you didn't come out. That's on you guys... We were there, man. We drank that mead out of an Empty Glass... We've been bringing out our friends during these travels - meaning bringing in our out-of-state friends - and showing them the kind of awesome fans WV has to offer. 

Anyway, if you did somehow miss us, and you're within the general North Central West Virginia area, we have two shows coming up that you might be interested in. Tomorrow night in Elkins, we hit the Brewstel with our good friends in Wish Awake and The Long Hunt. This is the first time The Long Hunt has played this area, so let's show them how much we love our music! On August 18, we play the 2nd Annual Traders Alley show, in Buckhannon. Just park somewhere close to Main Street, and you should be able to find us pretty easily. 

We are working on booking our fall schedule, so if you want to see Swamp Drag near you, contact us asap! Dates are filling up quickly! 

 

4 am Blog, because why not?  

You're all alone inside your mind....

 

Greetings fellow night travelers... or wannabe night travelers. I don't know if its anticipation for our two upcoming shows (one tonight at the Blue Parrot in Charleston, and one tomorrow night at 123 Pleasant St in Morgantown), or if I'm still riding high on the euphoria from the music video release for Dead Water (check it out on youtube if you haven't already!), or if it's just this random lack of sleep thing that happens for like several weeks every year (the time change, perhaps?). Regardless, I figured I'd update you all in all the news that is Swamp Drag.  

So.. first things first.. Tonight, Blue Parrot in Charleston. We're playing as Swamp Fox with The Fabulous Brothers Steele and Sox N. Sandels. Tomorrow night: 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown. We're opening up for Captain Catfeesh and The Furr. Both shows should be a good time. We'll be playing somewhat new tunes, and some old favorites might be making an appearance. Ouroboros, I'm looking at you.  

Next.... We have very limited supplies of the Jackalope shirt left. By very limited, I mean like 2 or 3, and they're all size Medium. So if that's your size, and you've been eyeing that shirt (and I mean, who hasn't? It's pretty cool!), then you should probably jump on that. ^_^ Check out our store if you want to order it.  

And of course, my favorite discussion topic: Merch! Some of you may have recently noticed these really cool mirror plates with Swamp Drag written on them. Thus far, they are only available at shows, because shipping a little glass mirror plate just seems dangerous to me (dangerous for the plate, that is). Yeah, people ship glass all the time, but I'm not that brave, so.... come pick it up at a show if you're so inclined.  

New merch debuting tonight at The Blue Parrot. I'm not gonna spill any secrets, but it's pretty freaking cool... It's been my after-work project for the last week or so, so I really hope you guys dig it.  

And finally.. i know you all have burning questions about the filming of the video. Chris Seymer from Homegrown Fox Studios did a really amazing job with it. ^_^ Along with the video parts, a ton of rather random footage was also shot. There's a clip of E-Rick Miller from Elderly Man Records rolling down the sidewalk on an office chair, and culminating in a pretty spectacular crash onto the gravel driveway. We also had far too much fun with the fog machine... Let's just say, yes. The fog machine was probably used to generate some pretty lewd laughter.  

 Dead Water Music Video

Anyway, I was hoping this would help put me in the mind-frame to get back to sleep, but it hasn't. I guess it's back to doing jigsaw puzzles for me.  

 

 

I tried to warn you....

This is what happens when you spend almost a year trying to find the right things to write...  

Sorry guys/gals/10 Lb. Snails/Aluminum Spacemen...

I know, excuses, excuses, right? Every time I would open up the band site to add a new blog post, I would second-guess myself, and not end up writing anything. Work stress, constant repairs needing done on the house and car, and a very hectic year definitely didn't help with my writers' block, but I'M BACK! 

So... What have I been up to since July of last year? Swamp Drag had some really great shows! The Dec. 23 show at 123 with Orvill Rex, Captain Catfeesh, and Weird Paul was so much fun! We also played with Jet Set Vapor Trails and When Particles Collide, and finally seeing Particles live was a huge inspiration. If I grow up to be half as cool as Sasha, I'll be a happy camper. ^_^ We had a few awesome shows with our bros in The One You Feed, and look forward to many more! We got to hang out with Timelapzzz, who's a really cool dude! Just a few days ago, on Easter, we played an amazing house party in Hurricane, and I won the championship belt from Kirk Blackman! I had to give it back though... :-( Everyone we've met and hung out with will stick with us forever, and we really hope to play with all of you soon!!!! ^_^

Airships to the Sun, the long-awaited third release from Swamp Drag, is going to hit the interwebs and a merch table near you on May 19. If you're available (and heck, even if you're not!), you should come join us on that date at the Brewstel in Elkins, as we join up with stannous FLUORIDE to unleash this new plague upon the world. ^_^ We have also created some wicked new shirts! If you aren't already part of our mailing list, it's in your best interest to join up... Indescribable things are coming, and the mailing list members will hear about it first. 

Sludgement Day II- RAWR!  

So, guys, I think it's a bit obvious... but.. I'm super pumped for this Sludgement Day show we're so excited to be part of next weekend (August 6th!). Just about a year ago, we were gearing up to go to Ohio for NEOFest 5. It ended up being one of the coolest shows we had the opportunity to play. We played in the back of a bowling alley, and it was super cool. If you haven't seen the video from it yet, here it is. 

Since I really am totally excited, I figured I'll *try* to spend the next week showing you some of our behind the scenes stuff we have going on. I have a new arts and crafts project that will eventually become Super Exclusive Swamp Drag Merch. Not gonna expose anything about it yet, as I'm trying to get the techniques perfected, but yeah, it's going to be really cool. :-) We also have new orange vinyl Swamp Drag stickers that are 3"x5''? size. They're great for covering up those pesky political stickers for when the election cycle is over! 

Well, that's honestly all I have for today. I just made a sale on my Etsy shop, so if there's anything you've been eyeing, you might want to go ahead and get it. ^_^

Til tomorrow....

Stay out of the water...

Return of the 17-Year Menace!  

If you're located in West Virginia, you all know exactly what I'm talking about...


Little red-eyed buggers projecting themselves like buzzing, screaming missiles that land on you and freak you the heck out. That's right. The 17-year cicadas are out in full force.. Though they really don't hurt anything... they're just kind of big, and noisy, and they love to scare the crap out of you. ^_^ 

The Anti-Strawberry Festival Show was an amazing success! We anti-festivaled like there was no tomorrow, and our labelmates, Sick_Bob and the Symptoms, shot their video that night. Joining us was Brasstaxx, and Adam Moyer, and it was an absolute blast!

Check it out here

We have a bit of a break for the rest of June, but we will strike again in July, with a double whammy of shows on July 16 and 17.

July 16, we play Morganfest, a benefit show in honor of the Morgan Family, who suffered two losses in May. One of the members of the family was Swamp Drag's dear friend, Steven. Steven was the guitarist for No Strings Attached, and we played a couple shows with them. Steven was also a fan of Swamp Drag, and he came out to our Anti-Strawberry Fest show. Steven, you will be sorely missed. Rock on, brother. 

July 17th, we return to the Main Street Cafe with our brothers in Hoof and Electric Green Machine, and our soon-to-be new friends, Crab Legs. Come on out, because this show is gonna be one you DON'T want to miss! 

See you at a show soon!

Amaris




 

Super Busy!   

Long time, no type! At Swamp Drag Central, we've been SO busy! We've been fine-tuning our setlists (as most of you know, we play a different setlist every time we play.. we even have an Excel spreadsheet that tells us how many times we've played each song at each venue, just so we know that we're not playing the same songs every time), I've been working on more items for my Etsy shop (which you should totally check out if you haven't already), we've been making music contacts with people in Europe, and trying to spread the Swamp Drag-ness across the US. We have a couple pretty big shows coming up. Jerry Morris has invited us to play the Elk River Music Festival again, so we're prepping for that, and we have an Anti-Strawberry Fest Party Gras show coming up in a couple weeks. ^_^ The weekend after that, we're making our return to the Main Street Cafe for their Memorial Day weekend barbecue! We have a pretty busy summer planned, and can't wait to see as many of you as we can!

To the new(er) fans (who have come about since November), Welcome to the Burn.

To our old(er) fans, All Hail the Aluminum Spaceman. 

We'll see you soon.

Shows, shows, and More Shows!!!  

We here at Swamp Drag Central have been SUPER busy! Between going to shows (We love you, Flipswitch, Holey Soles, Beloved Dead, Stephen Lee and everyone else who we go to see frequently!!), playing shows (We just need to hit a show or two in December, then we've had a year of at least one show a month!), or craft shows, we've been all over the place... Elk River music fest, NEOFest 5 in Ohio, Morgantown, Elkins, Buckhannon, Clarksburg... I have been in contact with Kimberly from One Eyed Doll, and Ariel from Icon for Hire, so my hope is that the next year will bring us some interesting gigs alongside them! ...But we'll see. ^_^

I have a big sale going on my Etsy Shop, so if you've been eyeing one of my scarves or bracelets, NOW is the time to strike!!! ^_^

Have a super radtastical holiday, if I don't pop up before then! 

THIS, by the way, is a Feuerzangenbowle.. Wine, rum, sugar cone, and FIRE...

Welcome to the burn....

 

SLACKER! YOU ARE SUCH A SLACKER!  

...I know, and I apologize. Turns out, I've been really busy! Between practicing for a handful of gigs, making items for my Etsy shop, playing with my rabbit, and trying to cook healthy food, I don't have a lot of time to do everything I'd like to do. If anyone out there has perfected instantaneous cloning yet, PLEASE hook me up, because I need like three of me, at least. ^_^ 

Anyway, so how are you all doing?! I've missed you all terriblyyyyyy, but I've also gotten to hang out with a lot of awesome people at the last few shows we've played. We had an epically amazing show at the beginning of April with Beloved Dead, Flipswitch, and Darsombra, and we are playing another show this weekend with Flipswitch and Hoof. We'll rock out Captain Ron's Bar like there's no tomorrow!! (If Hoof doesn't blow the place up with their allegedly very loud equipment...) We also played with Holey Soles and Miniature Giant a few weeks ago, and it was a great time as well. We really hope to play with you guys again very soon! 

If you haven't made it out to one of our shows, you should definitely give it a go. We have the show this weekend at Captain Ron's, and I believe our next show is the weekend of June 19 and 20th at the Elk River Music and Arts Festival. Both should be a pretty amazing time, so you should totally make plans to come out! 

Well, I'm afraid it's past my bedtime. My rabbit is looking at me, like, "Uh, you know, it's time for me to have a private bunny party, right? Get out of here!" So I better let her go enjoy her hay munching in peace. :-)

Til next time.... always drive on the right side of the road... unless you're in a country where you have to drive on the left!

What DOESN'T THIS GIRL DO?! 

Greetings, fellow Swamp Denizens! Today I bring you a strange blog post, which is only really strange, because I claimed it was. Actually, it's pretty straight-forward. For the few of you who were at our show at Captain Ron's in Elkins, you may have noticed some floral additions to our merch table..
This is one of my little creations, a flower shaped hair barrette. Hardly original, but I like to think I added my own little twist to it.. You see, I've taken up a not-so-new hobby. I've been sewing for a long time, but I jump from interest to interest - for a while, I'll be going nuts and knitting, buying yarn, and having knitting needles all over the place... then next, I'm into painting, so I'm constantly digging acrylic paint out from under my fingernails... next I'm a decoupage master! You get the drift. So as of the last month, I've been into sewing.. and sewing, and sewing... As one might expect, that has accumulated to quite a field of flowers in the house (I think Adam's starting to develop an allergy to cotton and tulle?), so I expanded to infinity scarves as well. If you're into crafting, trust me, my house is a crafter's paradise. Haha... In order to cut down on a bit of the craziness that has started to invade my sewing room, I decided to open a shop on Etsy, called AkzidentalPurpose (Get it? It's an accident, but I did it on purpose? Haha...) Personally, I think you should all check it out. I think it's a pretty cool place, and I have a load of different looking things on there, so it doesn't matter if you don't have the same punk-rock chick style that I do... I sew all kinds of pretty things. :-) 

Right here is the website for my store:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/AkzidentalPurpose?ref=hdr_shop_menu

And I really hope some of you go check it out. And if you really want to, buy something. ;-) You don't have to of course, but it'll help your favorite Swampy bassist support her tulle habit, and help decrease her stress level. Haha.. 

Til next time, Don't Eat the Yellow Snow..

So... I've been relocated, eh?  

You know its been one of  those days when you go from being on the front page of the website, to jumping to some random tab, but ah well, it is what it is. 

Ok.... so I did it to myself. You figured out the secret. Congratulations. 

Yeah, so I made my own tab, and moved my musings to my own section of the website. CJ pinkie-promised he wouldn't bother it, so I was pretty thrilled with that. I apologize for being so lame over the last.. whoa... uhm... few months.. I don't know where I've been, but I promise, I'm back!

I've been working on some super special, rad-tastically awesome merch for our upcoming show on January 2nd. Be sure to come out if you want to claim some for yourself! Yeah, I bet you didn't know I was multi-talented, huh? I'm pretty excited about the new items I've been creating, and I hope you all like it as much as I do. :-)

Well... I guess that's really all I have for you all right now. We've been working on new music for our next album to be released early in 2015, and.... if you're super cool and you come out to our show on Jan. 2nd, you can come listen to it first! Or at least a couple of the new songs. Either way, you won't be disappointed. 

Hope to see you all out there on Jan 2nd! 

~AZ