i just listened to a solo acoustic recording of Adam Franklin singing 'Harry and Maggie' - he calls it '93 million miles and counting'....
regardless, i felt inspired to speak my mind regarding the mammoth slab of noise that was swervedriver. underrated is a starting place, but really that focuses less on their music and more on the public's reaction. i want to talk about their music...
wildly energetic, at times bordering on frantic. with just the heaviest guitar tones pounding like big rain drops on the pavement. jim hartridge weaving groaning, wailing, screeching melodies and countermelodies through every song. they are a guitar player's band. but not guitar athletics, rather truly weaving a sonic tapestry, guitar strings as bristles on an audio paintbrush. songs ranging (and raging) from the simple to the wonderfully complex. far more aggressive, less ethereal than their shoegazing contemporaries, but no less melodic or gifted...gasoline and chrome, volume and disaffected passion. i've said it before - they were the hell's angels of the shoegazers. if you've never heard the album 'Mezcal Head', look into it (start with the track 'Duel') - you won't be disappointed.
regardless, i felt inspired to speak my mind regarding the mammoth slab of noise that was swervedriver. underrated is a starting place, but really that focuses less on their music and more on the public's reaction. i want to talk about their music...
wildly energetic, at times bordering on frantic. with just the heaviest guitar tones pounding like big rain drops on the pavement. jim hartridge weaving groaning, wailing, screeching melodies and countermelodies through every song. they are a guitar player's band. but not guitar athletics, rather truly weaving a sonic tapestry, guitar strings as bristles on an audio paintbrush. songs ranging (and raging) from the simple to the wonderfully complex. far more aggressive, less ethereal than their shoegazing contemporaries, but no less melodic or gifted...gasoline and chrome, volume and disaffected passion. i've said it before - they were the hell's angels of the shoegazers. if you've never heard the album 'Mezcal Head', look into it (start with the track 'Duel') - you won't be disappointed.
