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viewing 1 To 8 of 8 items
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LP
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SWA 172LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/21/2026
"I Will Die In This Jean Jacket is a testimony of how the lines between commitment and attachments are often blurred. It is the new gloom-punk project from Jim Blaha (The Blind Shake, Green/Blue). Blaha has collaborated with luminaries including Michael Yonkers, John Reis, Shannon Selberg, Dale Flattum, and Zak Sally and has released records on Goner, Castle Face, Dirtnap, Hozac, Feel It, Slovenly and Swami. On Hang From A Cloud he concludes over three years of artistic solitude by heading back into the basement to create in an even deeper state of isolation. Formed in Minneapolis this past December, the late-night sessions gradually revealed a concept: capturing the feeling he had from the mixtapes a friend used to make during their teenage skateboarding years -- where late '70s post punk sat comfortably alongside the more exposed underground sounds of the '80s and '90s and every song seemed to come from the same hazy, imaginary city somewhere far, far away. Recording onto a 1/4" tape machine and mixing everything down to the all-important cassette, Blaha emerged with an indiffussable sound. Hang From A Cloud is a long-lost pirate radio transmission from an alternate 1980s universe. The album is entirely analog by design. Guitars, vocals, drums, drum machines and bass all captured on cobbled together equipment in a cinder block bunker on a frigid Midwest, winter night. There is a one-dimensional resonance with a sheen of distortion and rust that is betrayed by the direct and simplistic beauty of the songwriting. Hang From A Cloud is a no-fi, DIY treasure that transports the listener to a parallel dimension where The Go Betweens, The Clean, The Jesus And Mary Chain, New Order, Guided By Voices, and Flip Your Wig-era Hüsker Dü are cherished and celebrated the same."
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LP
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SWA 171LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/21/2026
"'Navajo White' is a color. It's the color of an off white, interior, house paint. Throughout his teens into adulthood, John Reis was as a house painter by trade. The soiled walls of evacuated apartments were his canvas. Here he would cover up the residue of life's stains with a fresh coat of the beige, human white-out that is Navajo White. Amongst the vacated, drywall chambers littered with the scant detritus of a fleeing existence is where this record began. It started as road noise, a repetitious hum of a fictional dialogue. A languageless, argument of noise that took shape as a disconnect between two people. They are both barricaded by an impenetrable surface tension that harbors the distortion of their prolonged isolation from the world beyond their self-imposed exile. For all that can't be solved or thrown away here's a thick coat of Navajo White to cover your tracks as if to say 'we were never here and this never happened.' This is the fifth Swami John Reis album and features Jason Kourkounis (Hot Snakes, Delta 72, Night Marchers) on drums as well as contributions from Rick Froberg (Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, Obits) on guitar, Gar Wood (Hot Snakes, Tanner, Night Marchers) on bass, Joe Guevara (Jejune, Swami and the Bed Of Nails) on piano and keyboards and Rob Crow (Pinback, PLOSIVS) and Jacob Turnbloom (Mrs. Magician) on backing vocals. Taking musical cues from later period Wipers, the more low-key Saints songs, early recordings of The Church as well as The Damned on their Black Album, Navajo White pits sentiment vs the unsentimental. Recorded by John Reis at City of Refuge, San Diego with additional recording and mixing by Ben Moore at Singing Serpent and mastered by Dave Gardner at DSG Mastering. This record is dedicated to house painters everywhere."
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LP
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SWA 169LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 5/22/2026
"Sultans Ghost Ship LP was originally released on Sympathy For The Record Industry in 2000. While RFTC looked for a new drummer, Speedo (armed with an 8-track tape machine and three microphones) devised yet another alias as 'Slasher' and concocted this primordial ooze of moped scuzz, punk rock and roll. Ghost Ship was met with enthusiasm by those seeking blistering relief from the weak, whiny, wretched and wimpy wannabes du jour. The sound is full on, straight ahead with only starting gates and finish lines between songs. The band played some shows around California and would slightly evolve on their second LP Shipwrecked. Ghost Ship is Sultans at their most thuggish and hairiest. Taking inspiration from Australia's Chosen Few, Ramones, bootlegs, Misfits bootlegs and then challenging themselves to be as thrifty and impatient as possible, the songs are intentionally brief, similar and burly. After this was recorded these tapes lay dormant in a shed for over 20 years. When the tapes were recently unearthed it revealed unreleased songs recorded after Ghost Ship yet before the band's follow up LP Shipwrecked. Some of these songs would later be absorbed by RFTC and re-recorded. These songs are included here as bonus tracks and offer no relief to the record's unrelenting pace."
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LP
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SWA 168LP
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"San Diego's Mrs. Magician has always bent surf music and punk into something delightfully off-kilter -- sun-soaked, hook-heavy power pop with a lyrical fixation on life's darker undercurrents. Their 2012 debut, Strange Heaven, was a nihilistic pop statement that grew into a cult classic. The 2016 follow-up, Bermuda, sharpened the edges with punchy, nervy songwriting. Both records were produced by John Reis (Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu), cementing the band's place in Southern California's underground lineage. Now, Mrs. Magician reemerges with their long-awaited third LP, Spiritual Hangover. Recorded at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 and Singing Serpent Studios with producer Christian Cummings, Spiritual Hangover finds songwriter Jacob Turnbloom trading youthful nihilism for something more reflective. Where earlier records wrestled with existential dread through anthemic defiance, this new collection embraces uncertainty -- an admission of ignorance in the face of the human condition, paired with a genuine longing for connection and understanding. The humor remains. The hooks are sharper than ever. But the perspective has shifted. These songs feel less like a declaration of dominance and more like a celebration of fragility -- an acknowledgment that life is fleeting, confusing, and still worth enjoying. The album features Andrew Montoya (drums) and Mark Rivera (bass) of The Sess, Ian Fowles (guitar) of The Aquabats, and John Reis (guitar). Spiritual Hangover channels the bright urgency of late-'70s power pop through a distinctly Californian lens -- warm, melodic, and irresistibly alive."
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CD
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SWA 165CD
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"Over four years in the making, Yell At Cloud is the follow up to the PLOSIVS critically hailed debut. Why so long between releases, you ask? Nov. 2020 the band was invited to be the first guinea pigs at No Fun Club recording studio in Winnipeg, Canada and baptize the brand-new facility. The band would live and record in the studio and be densely immersed in the forming of this new record. Most of what you hear on Yell At Cloud was recorded in the dark or by candlelight in below freezing conditions. It wasn't as romantic as it sounds. Due to Canada's regulations for foreign travelers during the pandemic, the band had to forge out on foot once a day in blizzard-like conditions to a clinic a mile away where they had to be swabbed nasally, between the toes and in the groin area in order to be tested for COVID so they could be allowed to stay in the country for another 24 hours. This had a massive influence on the material and the way it was captured to tape. Finally the sessions became so intense the band members could no longer sustain focus to completion and decided to return home to finish the record at a later date. Months turned to years. Drummer Atom Willard was now the full-time member of the Alkaline Trio. Guitarist John Reis focused on Hot Snakes and his solo recordings and shows with Swami John Reis. Singer and guitarist Rob Crow continued with Pinback and a myriad of projects both musical and visual. Bassist Jordan Clark reconnected with his band The Frights and began touring and recording with them once again. There was such a massive emotional dust cloud kicked up during the recording of Yell At Cloud that it took four years to settle. Finally, Ben Moore (who recorded and mixed the band's debut) stepped in and mixed Yell At Cloud. In order to a create seamless continuity with the original tracks, Ben mixed the majority of these files in the dark with the brightness of his screen turned to the lowest setting. The result is a claustrophobic album that searches for an oasis within. From lurching dissonance to uplifting harmonic convergences Yell At Cloud is a stark, black and white departure from their debut."
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LP
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SWA 165LP
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LP version. "Over four years in the making, Yell At Cloud is the follow up to the PLOSIVS critically hailed debut. Why so long between releases, you ask? Nov. 2020 the band was invited to be the first guinea pigs at No Fun Club recording studio in Winnipeg, Canada and baptize the brand-new facility. The band would live and record in the studio and be densely immersed in the forming of this new record. Most of what you hear on Yell At Cloud was recorded in the dark or by candlelight in below freezing conditions. It wasn't as romantic as it sounds. Due to Canada's regulations for foreign travelers during the pandemic, the band had to forge out on foot once a day in blizzard-like conditions to a clinic a mile away where they had to be swabbed nasally, between the toes and in the groin area in order to be tested for COVID so they could be allowed to stay in the country for another 24 hours. This had a massive influence on the material and the way it was captured to tape. Finally the sessions became so intense the band members could no longer sustain focus to completion and decided to return home to finish the record at a later date. Months turned to years. Drummer Atom Willard was now the full-time member of the Alkaline Trio. Guitarist John Reis focused on Hot Snakes and his solo recordings and shows with Swami John Reis. Singer and guitarist Rob Crow continued with Pinback and a myriad of projects both musical and visual. Bassist Jordan Clark reconnected with his band The Frights and began touring and recording with them once again. There was such a massive emotional dust cloud kicked up during the recording of Yell At Cloud that it took four years to settle. Finally, Ben Moore (who recorded and mixed the band's debut) stepped in and mixed Yell At Cloud. In order to a create seamless continuity with the original tracks, Ben mixed the majority of these files in the dark with the brightness of his screen turned to the lowest setting. The result is a claustrophobic album that searches for an oasis within. From lurching dissonance to uplifting harmonic convergences Yell At Cloud is a stark, black and white departure from their debut."
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LP
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SWA 157LP
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"Swami Records is excited to glom onto Chicago punks Meat Wave for the release of their fourth album Malign Hex. Ryan Wizniak (drums), Joe Gac (bass) and Chris Sutter (vocals, guitar) strip back the 'Windy City Sound' and expose a more jagged and turbulent frame. The ten-track album, which features singles 'What Would You Like Me To Do' as well as 'Ridiculous Car' and 'Honest Living,' was recorded by Gac in 2019 and serves as the band's most cohesive, dynamic and ambitious work to date. 'Our sound in the beginning was consistently very driving,' says Gac. 'Now, that characteristic is merely a tool we can reach for. I don't think it completely defines what we're doing.' Meat Wave spent the last half of 2019 chipping away at Malign Hex. 'We recorded it the same way we always have -- live in a room together,' says drummer Ryan Wizniak. 'But we allowed ourselves to embellish more and take more chances with extra instrumentation.' While Malign Hex does incorporate synths, organs, and walls of guitar, it provides only nuance and atmosphere and does not displace Meat Wave from their meat locker. The album's lyrics center around themes of lineage and explores a litany of subjects and circumstances: addiction, greed, unreliable memory, obedience. All through a surrealist, collage-like lens. 'Everyone wears a backpack full of hexes,' Chris Sutter explains. 'It's heavy and familial. And it's yours.'"
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CD
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SWA 129CD
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"In the tradition of the fine Swami reissues of Crime and Testors comes a primordial belch of pathos crushing punk ineptness. The Penetrators' Basement Anthology chronicles this criminally overlooked Syracuse bands recordings from 1976-1982. Their sound was firmly rooted in the tradition of the rebellious rock n roll of the 60's and branded with generous amounts of the attitude and style that marked the first wave of American punk bands. Basement Anthology is a time machine back into an age that chronologically is not that long ago but culturally is beyond reach. The Penetrators liberal use of gigantic bumble bee guitar rip, paper tommy gun snare attack, sure echoed vocal proclamations of eternal rock n roll lore. In a time when eyeliner and synthesizers were listed as ground breaking musical influences The Penetrators upstate isolation bred a band worthy to hold the torch of garage blasting during what was then considered dark times. Until now only championed by the Killed By Death set (is there such a thing?), Basement Anthology rectifies elusiveness and puts these legendary noise makers on the radar."
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