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Freight Train Rabbit Killer Celebrate 10 Years with Concerts & New Album

Haymaker Records will help celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the doom blues group Freight Train Rabbit Killer with a series of concerts and the release of a new full-length album.

Freight Train Rabbit Killer is a duo made up of Kris Bruders (Freight Train) and Mark Smeltzer (Rabbit Killer). Described as a heavy doom blues American Roots opera, they have been performing for a period of ten years since the group formed around Halloween 2013 in Kansas City, Missouri. Since then, they have been able to play shows and festivals in more than twenty U.S. states, two tours of Europe, a residency with the Kansas City Art Institute, two fashion shows featuring their own hand-created clothing designs, the release of a comic book, and the completion of three full-length albums and four 7-Inch singles.

Freight Train Rabbit Killer - Common Thorns
Freight Train Rabbit Killer – Common Thorns

In celebration of the groups 10-year anniversary, Freight Train Rabbit Killer will be performing a set of three concerts over seven days in Kansas City. The first performance will be at Boulevard Brewing Beer Hall (2534 Madison Ave. KCMO) on Tuesday October 24 from 6-8PM. This is a free event and will feature a 10-year art retrospective with artist Hector Casanova and student works from the Kansas City Art Institute. The appearance by the duo will include an interview and performance broadcasted live over the KTBG 90.9FM airwaves. The second event happens at Stockyards Brewing Co. (1600 Genessee St. #100 KCMO) on Saturday October 28 from 7-10PM. The free event will feature a multimedia performance with video projections and props. The final event will be Halloween night Tuesday October 31 from 7-11PM at The Ship (1221 Union Ave. KCMO). The $10 cover will include a special Halloween blacklight performance featuring Freight Train Rabbit Killer, The Peculiar Pretzelmen, and The Black Mariah Theater and a blacklight costume contest with prizes for the top three costumes.

Freight Train Rabbit Killer - Mule to Plow
Freight Train Rabbit Killer – Mule to Plow

 The new album The Ten Year will be pressed to vinyl and released on digital media platforms in early 2024 through Kansas City’s Haymaker Records. The LP contains one side of four new songs and a second side of the 22-minute drone / ambient piece “A Forest of Whispers”. The songs “Commons Thorns” and “Mule to Plow”, will see an advance digital release on all digital media platforms on October 20 in celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the band. Pre-orders for the new album will be available at all three shows. Check back with Haymaker Records website for future information about pre-ordering the new album.


Schwervon! Broken Teeth out September 30th, 2014

schwervondinnerSchwervon!‘s new album Broken Teeth will be released on CD and digital media by Haymaker Records on September 30th, 2014.  This is the third release on the label and will be the first release in the newly created Home-Fi Series on Haymaker.   The goal of the Home-Fi Series is to provide an official release for special home recordings, demos, long-lost rarities, and one-offs.

After two years of whirlwind touring and a family member’s cancer diagnosis, Schwervon! found themselves moving from their Lower Eastside apartment in New York City to a basement (of the house Matt grew up in) amongst the suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas. Frustrated with the process of writing new material, Matt and Nan started reworking some songs off of their third album I Dream Of Teeth. The result defied logic: a more vulnerable sound and yet somehow more kinetic. The material was given a new life through a raw acoustic treatment. By the time they were done they had worked out six songs off of I Dream Of Teeth, as well as two cover songs.  One by The Vaselines with whom they toured with in 2011, and another by one of their favorite NYC artists The Purple Organ. The songs for Broken Teeth were recorded in their basement practice space in Shawnee, KS where they reside with Matt’s Dad Harry, who they are happy to report is in remission from lung cancer.

Read Schwervon!’s notes on this new album and hear a couple early unmastered tracks.   They’ve also provided their thoughts on the philosophy of Broken Teeth and provided some photos of the recording session.