Swerdlove - Press and Pics

Show/CD Reviews:

Here’s an energetic self-titled debut from this Baton Rouge quartet that would have you recalling Hum and Toad the Wet Sprocket. The vocals can stumble through the melodies at times, which can make it a struggle. Overall their dynamic is strong and their songwriting ability is superb but maybe it’s the cacophony of layered vocals on the album opener that feels too forced. The production isn’t too bad for a demo but the levels are in need of adjustment. Overall a great beginning and with enough feedback these guys will be headed in the right direction in no time. Heck they’ve already got a few steps ahead of most bands.

J-Sin
http://www.smother.net/reviews/

Swerdlove came on next, another band I hadn't heard before. Their style also escapes a finite description but I'll try anyway. Their songs were extremely varied but had some kind of mix of power pop, brit pop, and hard rock. They used a lot of dissonance, but it was tastefully done and sounded very good. The vocals were smooth and mellow and when I could hear the harmonies they were very good. The two guitarists were very talented and came up with some very neat licks. One guitarist's hand started bleeding from playing part way through the set, how rockstar is that? The bassist and drummer were also good.

David Johnston
http://STOCKROTER.OUTOFSTEP.ORG

After The Burning Issue came Swerdlove. I was anxious to see these guys play considering I had heard good things about them, and I wasn’t disappointed. Muscially they were wonderful. They played a sort of indie rock thing, and the guitar players seemed to have an extensive knowledge of chord placements up and down the neck and octaves. The drumming was amazing, and the bass player played some great lines while singing. Their music was melodic and somewhat heavy, and in a few songs there was good use of feedback, which the band seemed so have good control of. The singing was good…the singer had an excellent range, however I found the style a tad bit bland and at times sounded like a Christian rock vocalist or something in that area. (Take this with a grain of salt, it’s just my opinion). The composition of the songs was excellent and the band pulled it off with no noticeable errors.

Andrew Michael Wrigh
http://STOCKROTER.OUTOFSTEP.ORG