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Everyone get Swizzy… Recently I pulled out my Swiz “No Punches Pulled” discography and was kind of pissed to notice some skips on it. No sweat I thought, and pulled out my vinyl copy of “Hell Yes I Cheated”. The needle hit the vinyl, and I was shocked. I was furious. The CD sounded SO BAD by comparison, all the life had been sucked out — forced out in the re-mastering stage (and I’ve started to suspect a few things were changed in the mixing or possibly parts were rerecorded). The side by side comparison was almost like hearing a different recording of the same songs. It seems whomever was in charge of the CD project tried to make all the songs sound like they were one recording, and the only way to do this was to heavily EQ and compress them, but to the detriment of the original music. Even the vocals sound more urgent to me on the vinyl of Hell Yes I Cheated. When I went for the side by side comparison of the self-titled 12″ that predates “Hell Yes”, the story didn’t change much. You need these records on vinyl…

Swiz were such a wrong place/wrong time band being from DC in the late 80’s. The main things happening were the self-conscious and socially aware Dischord groups, and hard headed Skinhead and NY derived hardcore.  I can’t say that I was there (well I mean I was in the vicinity, but i was 8 years old), but it’s obvious listening to their music now Swiz doesn’t fit with the moralizing Positive Force crowd, nor the machismo of the tougher bands, in fact they were at times confrontational towards both. They played faster than either one, but kept their songs tuneful and melodic, most of them running about a minute and a half. That’s not to say they were a thrash band though as gear-shifts like Sun-Stroke and Won’t Breathe For You prove beyond a doubt. But what characterizes Swiz most to me, is how fearless they seem now. Shawn Brown’s delivery sounds venomous and focused as it does assured, even when he’s holding a mirror to himself, there’s never a note of doubt. Not afraid to spit in the direction of his former band-mates (Dag Nasty). Not afraid to stand alone between two of the most overbearing, heavy handed scenes to ever happen in the DC area. They were a straight edge band that decided to smoke cigarettes on the cover of their 2nd lp and call it Hell Yes I Cheated. I guess it’s a little juvenile, but if that’s not fearless, especially in the late 80’s, then I got nothing here.  Besides these two 12″ vinyls, there were two 7″s released during Swiz’s run, 1987’s “Down”, and 1990’s With Dave.

There was also the side project Fury, which was most of Swiz but shuffled around to different instruments, attempting to sound more raw. It doesn’t actually sound much different other than the vocals, but they seemed to be aiming for something like an early 80’s HC band, and even put “Thanks to: no fucker” on the insert. I think the recording is from ‘88 or ‘89. Eventually the lineup on With Dave, disbanded as Swiz, and re-named themselves Sweetbelly Freakdown, a terrible terrible name, but issuing a fine fine lp under it.