SWMRS Release Debut Album ‘Drive North’
I remember about 10+ years ago wondering about how cool it would be to see musicians’ children – children of Green Day members – to be exact following the footsteps of their parents and what would they come up with, after reading an article about the band. Today, in 2016, here I am listening to the debut album of one – Billie Joe Armstrong’s son, Joey – produced by FIDLAR’s Zac Carper (hell yeah!).
Baby punk SWMRS’ highly anticipated (by yours truly) first album is high on Californian punk energy, teenage angst… and Miley Cyrus. I’ve been rocking out to ‘Miley’ ever since its debut and I’m still amazed by it! It’s huge chorus “You bring the bleach, I’ll bring chlorine. We dye our hair a color that nobody ever seen” could even work as the second best lyric pick up line ever. The other leading track of the album is definitely ‘Figuring It Out’; it’s a massive car jam about the scary moment of setting your foot in adulthood. Don’t worry, though: some of us still don’t have it all figured out.
Opening track ‘Harry Dean’ is quite an experimental one where old school punk meets Ennio Morricone-like cowboy riffs and sick guitar solo climax. It’s a very energetic song that instantly grabs your attention. The playfulness of both in sound and lyrics make ‘Miss Yer Kiss’ another favourite. It’s a rather simple song but very fun to hear live, I imagine – just like ‘Turn up’ with its catchiness and beachy surfer teen-movie soundtrack vibes (that doesn’t really makes sense, does it? [Ed’s note: Nope, it does! I get what you mean]).
‘Silver Bullet’ could easily be a Vampire Weekend song, which is a good thing, while title-track ‘Drive North’ closes the record with not one but two rebellious middle fingers up against the city of L.A.
If this is what being uncool sounds like then I totally back SWMRS on their upcoming and hopefully very long journey in music.
‘Drive North’ is out now! Go buy it or catch them live on one of their US tour dates!
Header photo by Alice Baxley
