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Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Swiz


One of the indelible memories of my youth was seeing a hellacious show with Soulside, Swiz, and Hunger Artist in a church basement in Rochester. Soulside and Hunger Artist were great, but Swiz was on another level. Something about their energy and passion hooked me - I was converted to a life long fan on the spot.

Swiz had the quintessential DC sound - melodic and powerful with a jagged edge. Listening to this now I hear the sounds of their more well known DC brethren: small hints of Ignition and Fugazi, big doses of Can I Say era Dag Nasty. No real surprise on the last one, as vocalist Shawn Brown was the original singer for Dag Nasty before being booted in 1986. Soon thereafter Swiz was born. The band would release a 7" and two albums on Sammich before calling it quits in 1990. Jade Tree would compile these releases, along with two posthumous 7" of vault material into the excellent 32 track discography No Punches Pulled. A sampling of the material:

Swiz - Lie.mp3
Swiz - 'Toon.mp3
Swiz - Sunstroke.mp3
Swiz - Black.mp3

Endnotes:

  • Shawn Brown went on to sing in Sweetbelly Freakdown and Jesus Eater
  • Guitarist Jason Farrell also was in Sweetbelly Freakdown, the excellent Bluetip, and currently is in Retisonic
  • Jade Tree has some mp3's on Swiz's artist page
  • Buy No Punches Pulled