Something I Learned Today

Punk Rock and Other Assorted Bullshit

Swiz

March 30th, 2005 | Posted by: Eric | Category: 80's Hardcore

One of the indelible memories of my youth was seeing a hellacious show with Soulside, Swiz, and Hunger Artist in a church basement in Rochester. Soulside and Hunger Artist were great, but Swiz was on another level. Something about their energy and passion hooked me - I was converted to a life long fan on the spot.

Swiz had the quintessential DC sound - melodic and powerful with a jagged edge. Listening to this now I hear the sounds of their more well known DC brethren: small hints of Ignition and Fugazi, big doses of Can I Say era Dag Nasty. No real surprise on the last one, as vocalist Shawn Brown was the original singer for Dag Nasty before being booted in 1986. Soon thereafter Swiz was born. The band would release a 7″ and two albums on Sammich before calling it quits in 1990. Jade Tree would compile these releases, along with two posthumous 7″ of vault material into the excellent 32 track discography No Punches Pulled. A sampling of the material:

Swiz - Lie.mp3
Swiz - ‘Toon.mp3
Swiz - Sunstroke.mp3
Swiz - Black.mp3

Endnotes:

  • Shawn Brown went on to sing in Sweetbelly Freakdown and Jesus Eater
  • Guitarist Jason Farrell also was in Sweetbelly Freakdown, the excellent Bluetip, and currently is in Retisonic
  • Jade Tree has some mp3’s on Swiz’s artist page
  • Buy No Punches Pulled

    • 6 Comments so far

    1. Lil Mike March 31st, 2005 11:21 am

      yo…

      dig yer swiz appreciation

      and the fact you’ve wintered in Rochester…not easy…i know from experience…

      Here read a recent post involving Mr. Brown, the Dag House in DC…etc

      blog.eventmagic.com

      very remote inane small world DC Scene connection to Rochester:

      Charles Bennington who played sax in Bloddy Mannequin Orchestra, (one of the forerunner bands of Dag Nasty), went to college in Rochester after BMO split up…

      He later moved back to DC and opened WGNS Studios with Geoff Turner ( Grey Matter) and recorded several things released on Dischord.

    2. Jan March 31st, 2005 6:16 pm

      oh yeah, SWIZ. their demotape recordings were posted on some label website a few months ago. i can send them to you if you don’t have them…
      due to my young age i only recently noticed the band. great stuff!

    3. eric March 31st, 2005 10:05 pm

      Mike… thanks for the info and the link - lot’s of interesting info there. Another Rochester/DC music connection. Zach Barocas was a drummer in Rochester band Powerline. Jawbox came through town and took a shine to him and eventually snapped him up as their drummer. Anyhow, for awhile it was a real cool scene in upstate

    4. Jonathan April 4th, 2005 8:22 am

      Swiz is one of the greatest most under-rated HC bands of all time. I saw them at The Rat in Boston with Killing Time and Bad Trip and yeah… they were on a whole other level. Totally amazing. Definitely one the best live bands of that era. I’ve been trying to play guitar like Jason Farrell ever since.

      Glad to see someone else giving them props.

    5. alex August 29th, 2005 9:14 pm

      glad to see swiz is remembered. i played drums w/ the band.
      that rochester show was great for several reasons. one, i had a huge crush on allison moore, a rochester native and swimmer/student at catholic university (where I went to school). after the show, the bands wrestled for some of the door money. jason broke his hand and we had to cancel the next night in buffalo (with 7 seconds).
      other ties: mike honch, zach boracas and i worked at the same bookstore in dc/md.
      alex

    6. john December 14th, 2005 3:44 pm

      I saw swiz I believe at the Iguana in DC when they opened for a bunch of NY bands. They stole the show! I miss those days. Cheers Alex.

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