dear friends -

the animators played our last show together in 2007, but we still have one final holiday present for you: our music.

http://theanimators.com

we've posted our entire catalog on our website for free download: all three studio albums, a complete recording of our final show, and a handful of unreleased tracks.  it's one last thanks to you and to all of our fans, collaborators, supporters and fellow-travelers.  we hope you'll enjoy and share our music for a long time to come.

and in case you're curious about what each of us has been up to, here's the quick update:

alex is currently working on a new project with good friend and collaborator, Amber Rubarth, called The Paper Raincoat.  They plan to release an EP on March 5th with a show at the Canal Room, NYC, immediately followed by a tour to Sweden, France, and the UK...(http://myspace.com/thepaperraincoat).  He also continues to perform and tour with New York artists Vienna Teng (http://viennateng.com) and Deadbeat Darling (http://myspace.com/deadbeatdarling), and write and produce various artists out of Angelhouse Studios in Brooklyn. keep up with him here: http://myspace.com/donwongdemarco

devon has been living in beijing since july, eating too much duck and working with a harvard start-up, noank media (http://noankmedia.com) on a new model for legalizing file sharing.  he expects to return to new york in early 2008 and hopes to see many of you soon after!

kevin has been touring with ben jelen (custard records) supporting acts such as pete yorn and common.  ben and kevin will be out on the road again in '08 -- find tour dates at http://myspace.com/benjelen.  kevin also continues to rock out (with phil!) with newly-anointed SNL guitarist jared scharff (http://myspace.com/jaredscharffmusic) and with NYC rockers atomictom (www.weareatomictom.com). drop by http://myspace.com/kevinrice for a complete list of projects, shows, and updated news.

phil has spent the last six months working as a freelance audio engineer, with his work appearing on ESPN and HBO.  on the playing side, he's been keeping busy (with kevin!) with both Jared Scharff and the Royals and Atomictom, as well as various hired gigs. He continues to work on his own material; check it out (soon,  he promises!) at http://myspace.com/philipgalitzine .

from all of us, thank you again for your support through the years, and
thank you, one more time, for listening.


the animators

dear friends,

 we have some sad news to share. the animators are disbanding.

 this was a very difficult decision for us to make. we all love the project, the music, and our fans very much. but it became clear that our individual paths were diverging and that the quality of the band as a whole was in danger of suffering because of this.

 we felt that this project deserved better than to slowly fade into mediocrity due to neglect, so we've decided to end this chapter while we still rock... we're going to celebrate what we've created together over the last 5 years with one final blowout show at the living room, the place where it all started. we will play a double length set starting at 8:30pm and cover material spanning both albums as well as the EP. we're inviting all the talented guest stars we've had the pleasure of playing with over the evolution of this project to join us on stage and rock these songs with us one more time.

 here are the details for the show:

 *SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD, 8:30 PM
 THE LIVING ROOM, 154 LUDLOW ST
 FREE,* but donations for the musicians greatly encouraged.
 *note - we recommend getting there early, as we expect it to be quite full.

 our albums will still be available at CD baby and the iTunes store. additionally, so the superfans don't have to go cold turkey, we plan to post our ENTIRE CATALOG, including b-sides and live shows, on our website available for free download. we'll let you know when the songs are available.

 speaking of the future, all of the members of the animators have active musical lives individually and continue to be involved in many other great projects...

 alex is currently at work on a brand new project, which he will let everyone know about when the time comes. in the meantime he will be performing/touring with vienna teng (http://viennateng.com) and joseph king (http://myspace.com/josephkingmusic), and producing several other artists locally and nationally. you can keep up with his current shows and news here: http://myspace.com/donwongdemarco

devon will be focusing on non-musical pursuits for now. late last year, he joined a project at the berkman center at harvard law school, exploring a new model for internet distribution of music and other media. this project was recently spun off into a startup company, noank media (http://noankmedia.com), which devon is joining full-time. despite the day job, though, he plans to continue writing, co-writing, and recording, and will send news on how to keep track of his further musical endeavors as soon as there's a URL.

phil is currently performing and touring alongside kevin with jared scharff and the royals (http://myspace.com/jaredscharffmusic). he's also playing with north street records founder chris howerton in his band tiny animals (http://myspace.com/tinyanimals), and with NYC rockers atomic tom (http://myspace.com/atomictom). keep up with phil at http://myspace.com/philipgalitzine - he'll be posting some news in the near future regarding his own completely new project.

kevin is currently working with NYC based pop band honor society (http://myspace.com/honorsociety); they are in the studio working on their debut release. he is also touring with ben jelen (custard records, http://myspace.com/benjelen) and continues to rock out (with phil) with new york guitar hero jared scharff. feel free to visit http://myspace.com/kevinrice for a complete list of projects, shows,
and updated news.

thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to our incredible fans and friends who believed in this project from the beginning. thank you for making this music a part of your lives, and for letting us know that the songs meant something to you. they certainly meant the world to us. we are very grateful for all the love you gave to the animators and hope you will give our individual endeavors a chance at earning your fandom as well.

hope to see you sunday...

with love and gratitude,

THE ANIMATORS

dear friends,
we just want to thank you for an incredible 2007 so far... our joe's pub show in february was a dream come true. we are still glowing from the incredible energy we got from the sold out audience that night. austin and SXSW was a blast. we played 3 great shows, ate copius amounts of barbeque, and invented an awesome game where you see a band walking down 6th street and you have to guess their band name based on their tattoos.

now the animators are using the next month to conquer the world of music on other fronts before settling into the next phase of writing... devon is currently in china (yes, china) to work on a new way to digitally distribute music to the chinese. alex will be on a US tour with Rounder Records artist Vienna Teng (http://myspace.com/viennateng) around the US, working on manually distributing chinese music to americans :). kevin will be heading out for a two week west coast tour with Warner Bros artist Ben Jelen, and Phil will be traveling to the galaxy M14 to collect samples for the upcoming record. when we return devon and alex will be locking themselves away in nova scotia (or something) for a long overdue writing session, and we will reunite in May for another big show at Joes Pub here in NYC.

don't think we won't miss you in the meantime, and we'd love to hear from you when you have a chance to write. please send us your comments/messages/questions/fashion suggestions here and we'll do our best to respond quickly and thoughfully.

see you soon,
the Animators