Swervedriver: Англиялық альтернативтік рок тобының тарихы

English alternative rock band

Swervedriver are an English alternative rock band formed in Oxford in 1989 around core members Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge. Between 1989 and 1998, the band released four studio albums and numerous EPs and singles despite a considerable flux of members, managers, and record labels. By 1993 the band's lineup had settled with Franklin on vocals/guitar, Hartridge on guitar, Jez Hindmarsh on drums, and Steve George on bass. They had emerged with a heavier rock sound than their shoegaze contemporaries, and over the next five years it evolved to include elements of psychedelia, classic pop, and indie rock. Record label issues and waning interest within the group led to their split at the end of 1998. A decade later, Swervedriver reunited and toured periodically over the next five years, releasing their first new material in fifteen years with the 2013 single "Deep Wound". They have since released two full length albums, I Wasn't Born to Lose You in 2015 and Future Ruins in 2019, with touring stand ins drummer Mikey Jones and bassist Mick Quinn permanently joining the band.

Swervedriver have their roots in Oxford when schoolmates and aspiring guitarists Franklin and Hartridge along with Franklin's older brother and vocalist, Graham, and drummer Paddy Pulzer formed the band Shake Appeal in 1984. In 1987, bass player Adrian "Adi" Vines, from Yorkshire, joined the band, and the following year they released their solitary single "Gimme Fever" through Notown Records. Shake Appeal were influenced by late '60s garage rock bands like The Stooges and MC5, When influence turned to emulation, the members felt they needed to develop a sound of their own. They had meanwhile turned their attention to American alternative rock acts Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr., and subsequently were inspired "to push out the boundaries of electric guitar within a pop format." The former bandmates were impressed with his work and assembled at Union Street Studios in Oxford to record a demo, Before leaving Oxford, they had handed their demo to Mark Gardener of local band Ride, who in turn passed it on to Alan McGee of Creation Records. McGee signed them almost immediately after listening to the tape (while riding around downtown Los Angeles in the back of a limousine) and Swervedriver was born. and included the song "Kill the Superheroes", one of Franklin's first attempts at writing in an alternate tuning. The EP was characterized as "a chromium plated piece of automobile romanticism." The group launched the release with an appearance on the John Peel BBC Radio 1 show on 31 July 1990, performing a select B side from each of their three debut EPs along with the song "Over" (which would not see an official release for 15 years). The release of Rave Down, the second EP in the series, followed in November. Mary Anne Hobbs called its title track "a cyclone of wild, swollen riff machinery that sounds like it's been played with dislocated shoulder joints." On 22 July 1991, their third EP, Sandblasted, was released with the title single reaching number 67 on the UK chart and being described as "a head on collision between guitars raging for chaos." Swervedriver released their debut album, Raise, on 30 September 1991. It was recorded at The Greenhouse & Falconer Studios and produced by the band, like their prior EPs, and included the title tracks from all three. Regarding the group's overriding fascination with everything automotive, Franklin had said, "the car thing came from twisting around rock 'n' roll imagery. Chuck Berry used to sing about cars. T. Rex used to sing about cars, and being in the car is just a good place to hear music." The album was praised as "incurably romantic, [getting] its rocks off" as one of the "truly great albums made this year" and charted 44th in the UK. Producer Alan Moulder, who had worked with fellow Creation acts The Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, introduced himself to Franklin at a bar at the University of North London's ULU music venue with the interest of working together. Just as they started to experience a rise in success, Swervedriver would hit another roadblock—in addition to them losing their manager, following a performance at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden on 8 August 1992, Vines left to form heavy metal oriented Skyscraper. The group got to work on recording their new album first at Playground rehearsal studios in Camden and then Trident 2 studios in Strutton Ground in Westminster, Later reviews praised it "combined the best elements of shoegazing with grunge and even American indie rock" and "really is the lost classic of the shoegaze movement." Its first single, "Duel", garnered both NME's and Melody Maker's "Single of the Week" solidifying a strong American following in the process.

Swervedriver's third album, Ejector Seat Reservation, was recorded primarily at Church Studios and Konk Studios in Crouch End, North London and again produced by the band and Alan Moulder. Aside from themes of fatalism and flight working their way into its composition, "for some reason we were wanting to reverse the notion of being the band with the American references in our songs and so some very British reference points appeared in the lyrics," explained Franklin. The band had a dispute with McGee over picking the album's launching single—they thought "The Other Jesus" was the obvious choice but McGee overrode them, selecting "Last Day on Earth" in an attempt to capitalize on the current trend perpetuated by Britpop bands like Oasis of featuring strings and acoustic guitars. With its loss of the band's licensing to A&M (approximately US$350,000 per album), an already financially troubled Creation released Ejector Seat Reservation domestically on 15 July 1995 but dropped the band a week later. Subsequently, it received no promotional support (aside from a few small ads) and would remain unreleased in North America. During that time, the band also put out a pair of self produced boutique label seven inch singles, including the double split "Why Say Yeah" with indie collaboration act Sophia. DGC distributed promotional copies of the album and scheduled a release date of 7 May 1997. and a bad experience with one of the label's reps during mixing. Considering the recent break with their third label in two years, Hindmarsh stated, "Someone from A&M once told us that it takes four or five listens to a Swervedriver album to see whether you like it or not, and in this marketplace, unless you can hit immediately it's not going to register with people." About the album's progression to a more indie rock style, Franklin told The Star Ledger, "It wasn't a conscious decision. [It was] just the way it was going – concise little pop songs, bossa nova beats and such." He continued, "I've always liked the idea that you don't always know where it's coming from [The lyrics are] all about time. It's all over the place. I didn't put too much thought into it, which may be good. You're fueling more from the subconscious that way." In an interview for Mean Street magazine, Hindmarsh mentioned, "There's a track called 'She Weaves a Tender Trap.' That's like a one take, all four of us thing, and it has a lot more air in it, a lot more space. Whereas in the past, we used to try and fill every single hole. That song sort of defines a change in the way we're thinking. I think we're headed that way, to leave space to let the music breathe a little bit." Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly concurred: "The sheer heaviness of the old Swervies is much missed, but even on cruise control the band has a singular intensity, not to mention a sharp sense of songcraft." Proponents of the release maintained it "mixes the tempos up with equal parts 'Brit' to 'rock,' blending into a nice mix" and "never makes grandiose rock and roll promises, only to let the listener down later." and Drop D Magazine opined, "The slow, druggy pace and fascination with their own weird noises work against them." Swervedriver would spend the rest of the year touring extensively for the album. The band performed a promo gig opening for Hum on 26 February 1998 at Irving Plaza in New York The tour swung to the UK at the end of July, and discussions started within the band about a break: "it cropped up – 'Is this fun? Are we having fun doing this?' I guess we kind of weren't," spoke Franklin in a 2011 interview. They ultimately decided to keep going until the end of the year, honoring their touring commitments, and then according to Franklin, "take a bit of a time out although it did seem like the end, to me." The group returned to the US to headline a nine show club tour in the Northeast; they immediately followed with a wide ranging Australian tour opening for Powderfinger, Hartridge went on to establish a distribution company. eventually contracting with Scottish rock band Terra Diablo. In the beginning of 2005, the group convened in a collaboration with Castle Music to decide on songs for a retrospective. Juggernaut Rides '89–'98 compiled 33 tracks remastered from the original DATs and asserted that it "proves they were so much more than just another underachieving T shirt band." The following year on 24 November 2006, Hindmarsh published the autobiographical book Rider (Lulu. com self publishing), which chronicles his experiences and observations on the road touring from 1992 to 1998 with Swervedriver. Meanwhile, Franklin had begun an indie rock collaboration with Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino under what would become the moniker Magnetic Morning. At the time, Franklin held little optimism for a Swervedriver reunion as they were all deep in individual pursuits The former bandmates would get together with serious intentions shortly thereafter, when the idea resurfaced in a phone conversation between Franklin and Hartridge in early October 2007; Hindmarsh confirmed the news on the band's discussion forum the following day: "Yep – it's true. Your enthusiasm & passion for the band over these past years has been truly awe inspiring. Humbling in fact." Franklin released the following statement on 6 November 2007 about the band getting back together:text=So it looks like Swervedriver will hit the road once more. It all happened quite quickly and we met up in a pub in London last month and figured out what we'd like to do, which at this point is just heading out and playing some shows again. As far as new recordings are concerned, I already have two albums to record next year (a new 'solo' and [Magnetic Morning] debut) and they take priority. Maybe the Swervies can rustle up a new tune or two but really, there's more than enough going on with that back catalogue already. I gotta say that something that really sparked my interest in this was hearing the live version of "Sandblasted" that has been posted for some time at swervedriver. com and subsequently at the MySpace page. I'd just never heard it played like that before. I mean, I guess I was there and everything, but it's got this great kinda country style to it that sounds like it might have only happened one night, and it's stuff like that that keeps the whole thing alive to me not only in the music but the fact that other folks cared enough to record and post these recordings.

Swervedriver kicked off their reunion tour on 27 April 2008 at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California and continued through North America for the next two months. The band then performed a pair of shows in Great Britain at the Scala London and King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow on 16 and 18 September 2008, respectively. On the heels of the tour's success, remastered and extended editions of Raise, Mezcal Head, and Ejector Seat Reservation were reissued in the UK by Sony BMG on 13 October 2008. The special edition Digipaks contained four rare album era bonus tracks and a 16 page booklet with expanded artwork and liner notes written by Franklin and Hartridge. Label collaboration Second Motion Records/Hi Speed Soul licensed the Raise and Mezcal Head reissues and released them to American audiences on 20 January 2009. They regrouped a year later, this time reuniting with original drummer Bonnar, for two Scandinavian gigs in early November 2010 followed by a four show trip to Australia in February 2011, attending the Perth International Arts Festival on 20 February 2011. In mid June 2011, the band hit the three major US cities and Toronto with Mikey Jones of Bolts of Melody and Brooklyn dream pop act Heaven filling in for Bonnar, who was unavailable. In June 2013, the band announced a five date tour in Australia for late September–early October 2013 during which they would be performing Raise in its entirety along with "old and new highlights". The following month they recorded "Deep Wound" and on 20 August 2013 announced the single's release through Tym Records, scheduling a release date of 26 September 2013 to coincide with the start of the mini tour. A limited number of purple seven inch singles were made available for presale and limited edition red and yellow singles were sold during the tour. The band took a break from recording to reprise a one off "Raise" show at The Garage in Highbury, London on 4 April 2014. The first single off the album, "Setting Sun", was released on 13 January 2015. alternative rock, dream pop, and grunge.