Band of the Week: Swanton Bombs

by Pop Tarts Suck Toasted on Thu, 2009/01/29 - 2:00pm Post to Twitter

Listening to the debut EP from London’s Swanton Bombs, I’m reminded of what it was to be a teenager. Youthful promise and hope mix poorly with the realization of all the damning evidence that you will not get out of this life alive. And that’s basically the gist of the 4-songs found on Mammoth Skull, though it comes with a bit more pep to the message then the way that I’m conveying it to you.

No Swanton Bombs mix guitar, drums, and piano perfectly with their vocals, which are often a little too distorted for their own good but still fit the music well. The disc opens with "Shock", a song that doesn’t take it’s title literally but instead kind of jolts and soothes at various points. There are subtle sounds at play at times and at others it’s jagged, fast paced, and right up in your face. In other words it could be a teenage anthem. The real shocker of a track is the third tune, "Moth and Moon Song", which is backed by some old timey record playing far away and loaded with a piano folk vibe that doesn’t quite fit in with the other tunes, but you don’t mind that fact so much. This tune crackles with the record underneath and all the distortion on the vocals, but everywhere else it sounds like pristine pop.

This sort of inide pop is refreshing in a day and age where even the independents are starting to ape each other more then they innovate and push the envelope. Of course we leave it up to a duo of young men to be the creative ones, it’s always been the kids that are willing to take some chances. And why not? Why not mix the pure sound of the piano with some distorted vocals? It sounds pretty damn good to me.

Swanton Bombs - "Shock"
Swanton Bombs - "Moth and Moon Song"
Swanton Bombs on Myspace