Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
September 10–17, 1998
critic pick
The Swirlies/Reverberation
The Swirlies are coming! The Swirlies are coming! Just when you'd probably forgotten about them (it's been a couple of years since their last record), the Paul Revere of wall-of-noise indie pop comes galloping back into town. The wildly experimental Boston band was one of the first American acts to follow in the footsteps of British shoegazer progenitors My Bloody Valentine. The Swirlies—then a four-piece of Damon Tutunjian, guitar/vocals; Seana Carmody (now of Syrup USA), guitar/vocals; Andy Bernick, bass; and Ben Drucker, drums—sculpted masterworks out of sheets of droning guitar noise, early Sebadoh-style post punk, tape experimentation and super sweet pop. Though their lineup's been in constant flux over the years and their calling card has always been monumental unevenness, at their best the Swirlies are no less than revolutionary. Their latest LP,
Strictly East Coast Sneaky Flute Music (Taang!), is a collection of remixes and unreleased oddities. And while the 16 tracks are characteristically hit-or-miss, sparklers like DJ Spooky's take on "In Harmony Retrograde Transposition" and N20's "France vs. Sebring" reveal the groove and ambient beauty buried beneath the band's wash of guitar and noise. Track eight, titled only "A Sneaky Flute Field Recording," is an unpolished but largely representative bit of archival wax, showing the band's knack for taking a rocking beat, a warped pop melody, and tangling it all up in a web of sinuous guitar fuzz. Tutunjian and Bernick are joined by drummer Adam Pierce for this latest incarnation.
France's Reverberation boasts a former member of Spacemen 3 -vocalist/vox organist Thierry who played with the band on the Playing With Fire album. So while it's neither Jason "Sonic Boom" Kember nor Jason Pierce, S3's two sound shapers, on Blue Stereo Music (Taang!) Reverberation wades in a pool of resonating psychedelia reminiscent of both Spacemen and early Pink Floyd, and then splash around some easy pop nonchalance à la Galaxie 500. With opener Bobby Conn, it's bound to be an evening of sonic shocks and booms.
-Brian Howard
The Swirlies, Reverberation and Bobby Conn, Thu., Sept. 10, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 238-5888.
