the appleseed cast, owls, built to spill, don caballero, circa survive, hum, maps & atlases, sunny day real estate, rx bandits, explosions in the sky, community, pele, american football, minus the bear, volta do mar, king crimson, tera melos, battles, tenebre, unwed sailor, jai alai, colossal, ghosts & vodka, make believe, toe.
Guitarist Patrick Bailey and bassist Michael Volpi formed Smiley with a Knife in the summer of 2005 with childhood friend and guitarist Justin Vicknair. A rotating cast of temporary drummers filtered through the band until Jared Marcell joined their ranks in September 2007, when the band forged ahead with a distinctive high energy and a dynamic live experience. Since then, SWAK has worked tirelessly to unite the varied instrumental indie rock groups of south Louisiana into a regional movement, and in doing so has gained a solid reputation as a leader among their peers. Smiley with a Knife released their full-length debut "How a Reign Comes to and End" in November 2008 and are currently working on a follow up. The band has shared the stage with great touring bands such as Tera Melos, Unwed Sailor, Native, Maserati, The Littlest Viking, Constants and DD/MM/YYYY amongst many awesome locals. Smiley with a Knife also founded the New Orleans Instrumental Festival in 2009 and hopes to curate another successful installment of the festival in 2010 and beyond.
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"New Orleans' fastest rising instrumental rock band"
- Wesley Swinnen, Director - Static TV
"One word to describe Smiley With A Knife's latest album, "How A Reign Comes to An End": Sexy."
- Barbie Cure, The Wolf Magazine
"[Smiley with a Knife] seems to realize the importance of developing the catchy, melodic bits just as much as the math-rock sections. Due to this great balance between melody and technicality, How a Reign Comes to an End is sort of a math rock album for people who aren’t fans of math rock."
- Brenton Dwyer, The Silent Ballet
"Smiley with a Knife’s How a Reign Comes to an End is an album that exists in the realm of duality... without the linear nature it would be just a rock album and without the tight rhythm it would be pure experiment... an album that breaks almost every rule of the rock genre in its experimental nature... this duality combined with the [emotion] is what gives How a Reign Comes to an End its vitality to stand."
- Mark Heck, Static TV blog / The Beardless Hipster
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The Winner of our Operation Kegger video contest:
THE EXECUTIONER SAYS by Kelle Ory & Andrew Landry
The runner up:
AS THE BLADE DROPS by Sarah Devlin
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Please note our one pet peave:
Don't leave comments on our page that say anything along the lines of "thanks for the add," and please especially do not post flyers for your shows on our page either (unless they're shows that we're playing.)
If you have something to say to us or to ask us, please take a moment to think about what you'd like to say or ask and then send us a message. Thanks!
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Band Contact: SMILEYWITHAKNIFE@GMAIL.COM
Twitter: smileywithaknif
Download "How A Reign Comes To An End" HERE from Bandcamp.com
At least there are a good bit in Birmingham, so there is less of a chance it won't work out. Yeah, that was one of the best shows I've been to, honestly. I love that venue.
swak talk weekend gonna be righteous. cant wait for our battle at the house show in austin after the 1808 gig. Been promotin you in Austin as "Dizzy Buzy Party Tap from Nola"
yeah dudes fo sho. and hopefully i should have some photos for you soooon.and yeah that'd be awesome to hang again soon. i'm way overdue a trip to nola again.
