August 16th, 2012
Swearin’ Is A Sick Band That’s Soon To Be A Full-Time Philadelphia Band And Their New Record Rips
So a perusal of Pitchfork’s record reviews today landed us on the review of Swearin’ and their new one on Salinas records. The Fork gave it a whopping 7.8 and let us listen to one track, “Here to Hear,” which has a ton of energy. They’re one of those bands that has a name that makes it hard to Google (like The Internet), and their Tumblr doesn’t give you much info about them. Their Facebook page is a bit more helpful and you should probably go ahead and ‘Like’ them. However, try the If You Make It site and you can listen to a few songs for free. And some crafty YouTubing might land some gems, like the below-embedded “Kenosha.” This is their self-titled debut after an EP called What a Dump. And from the digging we’ve done, the place you should probably go to buy it is at the Salinas Records site.
One of the key players here is Allison Crutchfield, who so kindly responded to a few emails. She confirmed there is a Philly connection: “There is a Philly connection! Our drummer lives in Philly currently, but the rest of us are moving there September 1st! So we will soon be a full-time Philly band.” THAT IS SOME GREAT NEWS.
To describe their style? Punk that’s listenable and friendly to crowds. We’re not talking about punk rock that’s going to guarantee a bloody nose if you attend a show. Well, it COULD do that. But more like punk rock that aligns with the Japandroids or Sleater-Kinney. And because Crutchfield is a woman, feminists are down with her brand of thrash and shout. They come to Philadelphia as a foursome with another key player, as Pitchfork seems to know, being Crutchfield’s bf, Kyle Gilbride. They met after Allison had already wowed people with her band P.S. Eliot. They also rip but broke up almost a year ago. In fact, in that band, she was the drummer. So she can wail on a kit and then pick up a guitar and melt faces? IMPRESSIVE.
They just did a show at the opening of Little Baby’s Ice Cream. You know we wrote a cover story about those boys who were once in bands and now peddle brilliant dairy desserts, right? They’re friends with Jeff. Which can’t hurt our welcoming them into our fair city’s bosom. As for the near future, they’re on a bit of a tour hiatus but they’ve got some September dates booked. After some digging, we found out that they’re going to support Tenement on September 11th at the Golden Tea House. And then with The Two Funerals on September 17th (venue TBA).
