kinda stoned                since 04.20.01
	41

SWELL'S RELEASE IS SOLID

by Tom Turner
Daily Cougar Staff

It would be very easy to pass Swell off as another somewhat straightforward group that has a few twists, but there is much more to the group's music than this.

The band has a very original style to its music, which is apparent on the latest release from American Recording/pSycho-sPecific Records.

Swell is founded on fairly simple rhythms, but the music produced is far from the monotony of your average, every-day, radio-friendly band. The music on the group's latest release, 41, comes across as very pure. The band is structured off of guitar, bass and drums; it's about as basic a setup as it can get in order to maintain the interest of the listener.

On 41, the tracks range from slow, nearly ballad-like grooves to original, flowing rock passages. Quite simply, the music of Swell sounds like an original, rock-fold type of band.

Most of the tracks move from a strumming acoustic guitar to the rising and falling volume of the rhythm section. A few of the stronger tracks on the 13-track release include "Is That Important?" "Song Seven," "Don't Give" and "Forget About Jesus."

Melody Maker stated that Swell is "one of the best surprises I've heard in a good while. Subtle, unusual and well worth a listen."

Swell is led by David Freel on guitars and vocals. The other members are Sean Kirkpatrick on drums and Monte Vallier on bass. Each member ontributes his own style to create a laid-back type of groove to nearly all of the songs on 41.

The way in which the music is recorded provides much of the originality for the album.

The drums sound loose and big. Basically, just throw a drum kit in a room with some mics a good distance away, which creates an open type of sound. The acoustic guitar provides an almost folk-sounding element to the band. The electric guitar seems to flow over the rest of the instruments in a few of the songs, providing a sense of power.

If you happen to be in the mood for something a little different that's still interesting enough to keep you awake, check out Swell's latest release, 41.

"Stay a little longer this time/Stay a little lonely this time," sings guitarist David Freel in "Forget About Jesus," his delivery dry and yet as poetic as his lyrics. While never predictably "experimental," Swell are riveting in their refusal of all ingratiating pop conventions. Filled with mise en scène sounds (footsteps, ringing phones), 41 resembles an aural black-and-white movie of San Francisco's hard-luck Tenderloin district. Bassist Monte Vallier and drummer Sean Kirkpatrick join Freel on these lean life studies, fashioning an ambient folk music capable of sparking disturbing epiphanies. (RS 686/687)

- Paul Evans

Swell - "41" (Beggars Banquet/American) 13 tracks 53:53

41 Turk Street, San Fransisco. That's the address of the building Swell recorded their three albums, creating their own atmosphere, their own world. All the recordings breathe the space of the building, the sound of the walls, the floor, the ceiling and above all everything outside. A Swell record gives you a view in a world they only know, a city which is theirs, you only are allowed to taste a bit of their creation. They make you want to be a part of it, a place you can never reach, Swell's world.

Still, their world doesn't exist. It's a parallel universe full of wise, literary drunks and bums. A world dark, scary but still comforting. Climb the stairs, open the door and you're inside. A world where sin is essential ("Thank god for sin to show the way" - 'Forget about Jesus'), where the telephone rings endlessly ('Don't Give'). A world where you can hear the sounds of a city, trucks unloading, drunks calling out loud. And when you step outside, there's a man who reads all the lyrics for you out loud. He sounds like a drunk bum, but it's Swell's dentist.

Somewhere between American Music Club and Joy Division, this San Francisco band offer a lowkey but powerfully moody simplicity. Songs start on insistent strummed acoustic guitar, before the sparse, low bass rumble and drums kick in. Evidently recorded from some distance, the drums' unusual boxy sound is also right up there in the mix-higher sometimes than the mumbling vocals. Much of the emotion and melody come from the added electric guitar-simple, sustained blazes of sound. The songs themselves tend to the slow, personal and reflective, with a nod to the classic minimalists-deliberately spartan, but personal and oblique: 41, for example, is the street number of their musical home in the low-rent district where this third LP was recorded. The contrasts fit together well, and for something that's understated and not obviously catchy, it has a compelling, hypnotic power. Effort is required of the listener; it is amply rewarded.

- Ian Cranna

San Francisco's Swell writes, records and produces its own music, as well as filming its own videos and creating the artwork for its releases (41 being the address where most of that activity occurred). The result of all this teamwork is a record that has both the intimacy of a home demo and the artistic touches of a (gasp!) concept album. Happily, through all of this, there's not a whiff of pretense anywhere near this trio; these unassuming songs and their tenuous rock rhythms make Pavement seem like sticklers for detail by comparison. Most of 41 features a prominent acoustic guitar, a biting electric slide, modest bass, trashcan-style drums and disenchanted vocals. Songs like "Smile My Friend" or "You're So Right" are so damn flexible that they could be just as effective with only an acoustic guitar and voice or, on the other extreme, done in full rock regalia, with horns, strings and timpani drums thundering where the band had left silence. Swelligant: those mentioned above plus "Forget About Jesus," "Here It Is" and "(It's Time To) Move On," and see if you can't sing Led Zeppelin's "Dancin' Days" while listening to Swell's "Song Seven" (which is actually track #3 on 41).

-Steve Ciabattoni