The Swellers
By Adrian Kelly
Flint, Michigan, USA is a decaying rust belt town famous for its economic woes and fatty faux Socialist, Michael Moore. Give it a few years and The Swellers will be the highlight of that ignominious list. Formed by brothers Nick and Jonathon Diener (vocals/ guitar and drums respectively) in their early teens, the band have gone through plenty of bass players and second guitarists in their 7 years, finally locking things down in the last year with sex symbol Ryan Collins and Canadian layabout Anto Borros. The result of this new lineup? The teasing precursor 7 inch, Welcome Back Riders and the excellent new full length, Ups And Downsizing.
While earlier material was a fairly spot on rendition of the skate punk sound as pioneered by luminaries No Use For A Name and Strung Out, the songs on Ups And Downsizing meld that background with a Jimmy Eat World/ Weezer-ish pop sensibility. Don’t believe me? Listen to “Fire Away” and “Welcome Back Riders” here www.myspace.com/theswellers and try and get those hooks out of your head. Hard isn’t it?
Ups And Downsizing is out on September 29th through Fueled By Ramen (which hopefully means we will see them in Australia soon!)
