First: check out that picture up top. If you're telling me those aren't the people you want to spend your Saturday night with, you're lying.
I'm not being especially novel by comparing Swearin' to The Pixies and The Breeders, but that's because it's true. Male-female vocals, clever lyrics, solid melodies, loud-quiet-loud dynamics and a healthy dose of fuzz: the band's debt to late 80's/early 90's alternative rock in general, and Frank Black/Kim Deal in particular is on display. That's not to say that Swearin' is derivative by any stretch. Where Frank Black wanted to sing about, say, bloody dresses and incest, Swearin' is here to sing about the unease, precarity, and occasional joys of early adulthood. Their music isn't a rallying cry, an indictment or a resolution (leave that for poorly-considered trend pieces in Time). It's more personal than that, and all the more satisfying for sitting with the feeling of being unsure and inconclusive. Plus, it rocks: the choruses are gigantic and the hooks are never lost in the fuzz.
Joining Swearin' will be Buffalo bands Marine Biologist and Bryan Johnson & Family, along with Rochester's The Big. If you made it to our holiday party last December, then you caught the first one. Where Swearin' might capitalize on the feeling of being uncertain, Marine Biologist's effusive post-rock is totally sincere (we named their song, "Allegro," one of the best local songs of 2013 for that very reason). Surf-rockers Bryan Johnson & Family make catchy music for fun people (they, too, made the list of best songs of 2013). And Rochester's The Big will be bringing their slower, contemplative indie-rock to Buffalo for the first time. And it'll be their first show with their new drummer, who according to their Facebook page is a "looker."
Meowza. Facebook event here. Tickets are ten bucks. Doors at 7 pm.
