Swank

The Swill of it All (Curve of the Earth)
by J. Lianna Ness

“They’ll blow their flaflubas, they’ll bang their tatinkas, they’ll play their gordinkas and beat their trumtookas. They’ll make ear-splitting noises and if there’s one thing I hate it’s all the NOISE NOISE NOISE NOISE!”

That’s what Dr. Suess’ evil Grinch said when he decided to steal Christmas. Swank would definitely send him over the edge. The Swill of it All proves once again that these girls can play just as hard as, if not better than, all those boys with their electric toys. I wondered if they would be able to capture the energy, volume, and excitement of their live performance in the recording studio. Fuck yeah! If you put Black Sabbath, L7, and Smashing Pumpkins in a blender, you’d have a good idea of this trio’s sound.

Guitarist/vocalist Janet Egan has a strong, unique voice – I could decipher most of the words to the songs even without the benefit of a lyric sheet. Don’t let that lovely voice fool you though. All 10 songs (or is that 11? There’s an unlisted track at the end of side one that was recorded backwards… and it still rocks!) gave me quite an adrenaline rush. I felt like shouting four-letter obscenities and breaking stuff for no particular reason. If this doesn’t propel them into the stratosphere, I don’t know what will.