The four-piece experimental rockers out of Provo are known best for their live house shows, complete with lights and fog, turning a regular venue show into an experience. Bands who can pull that off will have an audience no matter where they go, but translating that experience onto a recording rarely works.

Local Reviews: Swindlers

By
March 25, 2013

Local Music Reviews

Swindlers
Self-Titled
Self-Released
Street: 07.12
Swindlers = Max Pain & The Groovies + Spell Talk + A single-cassette recorder
The four-piece experimental rockers out of Provo are known best for their live house shows, complete with lights and fog, turning a regular venue show into an experience. Bands who can pull that off will have an audience no matter where they go, but translating that experience onto a recording rarely works. This is the case with Swindlers’ self-titled album. What should be a garage rock album sounds way too polished for the genre, and instead comes off as a pre-produced collision of stoner rock and grunge. The audio itself is crunched together and takes what would be really awesome sounds, and compresses them down to AM radio standards. This album is not terrible by any means, but it clearly falls short of their intended goal. If you want to hear the band at their best, catch a live show without the balanced audio or vaguely creepy album art.