Whenever I’m confronted with something that needs to get done and I sense the motivation levels dipping, I often ask myself ‘WWSKD?’, or ‘What Would Spencer Krug Do?’. The answer is always the same – he would do the shit out whatever random task I was faced with, and do it well. The reason I know this is because Krug may be one of the hardest working men in musicland right now. The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist is involved in no less than five different bands at any given time – Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes, Fifths of Seven, Swan Lake – and those are only the ones we know about.

It is Swan Lake that brings me to the Muffin today, an indie power trio that sees Krug joined by Daniel Bejar (of Destroyer and New Pornographers) and Carey Mercer (of Frog Eyes and Blackout Beach). The group released their first album back in ’06, naming it Beast Moans after Krug poetically described the sound as “a boar dying in a pit”.  Now, after three years and countless side projects, the fellas are ready to drop their new album, Enemy Mine, via Jagjaguwar on March 24th. According to the label, Enemy Mine was recorded in early ’08 in Victoria, British Columbia and reflects a more stripped-down, more deliberate approach to collaboration – “It’s as if they really tried to just make nice songs together.” That sounds lovely to me, and so do the jams below. Check it:

Swan Lake – Spider

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Swan Lake – Spanish Gold, 2044

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Swan Lake – A Hand At Dusk

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Enemy Mine will be released on March 24th. Preorder the CD or vinyl here and get instant access to a digital copy of the album!