Swearin' - The Best of the 90's is Alive and Well

Just when I think I’ve found a band that couldn’t get any better it seems another one comes along which raises my expectations.  That is exactly what happened with Swearin’, a Philidelphia based four piece whose second album Surfing Strange released at the end of 2013 is a 28 minute explosion of everything that was great about the 90’s, mixed with some current indie influences and incredible punk rock undertones.  The albums 11 tracks are each as mind-blowingly awesome as the last and punch you in the face with some heavy Nirvana like riffs and incredibly catchy hooks.  Tracks like “Watered Down” and “Curdled” are carbon copies of the sound Pavement invented in 1992 with some modern influences which make the tracks a blend of both classic 90’s indie and current alt-rock which is VERY difficult to do well.  Other tracks like the slow/heavy/slow sound of “Melanoma” take that same Pavement sound and mix it with the Lemonheads in the best possible way.  The Pixies come through heavily on songs like “Mermaid” and “Parts of Speech” especially as singer Allison Crutchfield sings back and forth with singer/guitarist Kyle Gilbride over scratchy distorted guitars and that famous loud/quiet/loud song structure which made Surfer Rosa such a kickass record.  With Allison solely at the helm on “Lorretta’s Flowers” the band starts to take on the Breeders in a good way while the piano in “Glare at the Sun” turns a 90’s influenced alt rock track into a Beatles infused cacophony of guitar rock.  Just when the multitude of phenominal influences couldn’t get any more diverse, the song “Unwanted Place” clearly has elements of early 90’s pop punk like NOFX or Dookie era Green Day with heavier guitars.  But the band can also craft a sound all their own and that is exemplified in songs like “Echo Locate” and lead track “Dust in the Gold Sack” which show that the band loves the old stuff but know how to fit in to the modern indie alternative landscape.  Swearin’ are a group that pays intense homage to their predecessors in a way unlike any other band I’ve seen lately and they do it unfairly well.  It’s criminal that bands like this don’t get more attention today and for that I raise my glass to Swearin’ and say well done!  Now please make more records.