Silversun Pickups – Swoon

I’m not one for giving great indepth musical reviews, in part because I don’t know genres, but also because I don’t give a shit, if it sounds good to me, it’s good. So let me just put a recommendation out there regarding a little known band who Saj introduced me to over the weekend, after he saw them live supporting Muse in Toronto. Silversun Pickups are the band, and the album to get is Swoon. They’re classed as alternative rock, whatever the fuck that is, and I’ll borrow some musical review crap from their wiki for the sake of making the post longer than a Max special:

The band’s sound, often encompassing multiple overdubs of distorted guitars, is frequently compared to that of The Smashing Pumpkins, while the band members have said they are heavily influenced by artists such as My Bloody Valentine, the Velvet Underground, Elliott Smith, Sonic Youth, Sweet, Modest Mouse, and Secret Machines as well as numerous other artists with lesser publicity.

The album itself is pretty Mellow on the whole, but the kind of upbeat mellow that won’t put you to sleep. That probably doesn’t make any sense, but since I’m talking out of my hole to fill space, just trust me when I say it’s good. “The Royal We” and “Sort of” are two my early favourite tracks, but the whole album is a decent standard.

I was impressed enough to try their earlier album, but it’s not as good, so just stick to Swoom and you’ll be happy with what I’m considering to be one of those random wee gems you find every couple of years.