Sealed With A Kiss

we're mentioned 37 minutes in - In All Caps

Last Saturday I went to Potion Cafe in Brooklyn, NY to see S.W.A.K. and The Black Tie Party, and let me tell you, it's been a long time since I've had so much fun at a show! First of all, the venue is tiny, so the forty-something (rough guesstimate... I'm bad with those things) people that were there filled it to its breaking point.

SWAK went on first amidst torrents of feedback and squeals that they said was their soundcheck....
Let's just say the entire night was LOUD! It was their first show ever (they formed in December 08') and they blew the fucking roof off the place. Pure energy. Anthony pounded the drumkit with a fury that, frankly, I dont think the fisher price toy was ready for. Every so often youd see pieces of it flying off, and Anthony using any free limb he could spare fixing the drums while playing them, what coordination!
Reggie layed down some solid, fuzzy, loveable bass lines... and WHA? all with a broken hand... that's some punk shit right there.

Sydney, apparently quite the smartass, made the show seem like less of a show, and more like you were busting in and partying your ass off at one of their practices (not that it's a bad thing). You could barely hear the vocals, and all you could see was a barely discernable angry looking guy screaming behind a wall of hair over his face. Only things I could understand him say were "LOUIE LOUIE!" and "nah,... fuck that I dont want to play that song... let's do the next one"

this may sound like I'm shedding them in a bad light, but trust me, their philosophy of energy above quality really works for them. I couldn't help dancing my ass off to it all night!
They ended with a Stooges cover (T.V. Eye) and somewhere at the end of the song, we all lost Sydney, who was going apeshit screaming and strumming his guitar in a reckless manner. Then he lost it too, diving into the drumset and ending the song, and the drum hardware.

The Black Tie Party came on soon after the thinning of the crowd after SWAK's set, and beefed it right back up again. They had us all dancing and moshing to what sounded like 60's underground garage hopped up on amphetamines from outer space!

It's was their first show in four months, and we're all glad they're back on the scene.
Jay's catchy guitar hooks seemed a lot less poppy coming from a heavily distorted seemingly busted amplifier. And his Jack White esque vocals made the music that much more energetic and frantic!

Adam, not bound by his mic, unless he was chiming in with Jay, had more of a chance to run around, jumping off his amplifier and showing off that reckless abandon that you only had the balls to do back when having scraped knees was a playground battle wound!
Jesse... I have to give Jesse props... not only for amazing drumming at his first show with Black Tie Party, but being able to drum period. On the set that had been in tatters only ten minutes before his set, he somehow fixed it up and made it obey his every whim... sometimes you just have to beat these things into submission I guess.
The kit however, didnt want to cooperate on their last song.
Sydney (remember him?) went to fix it,
And somehow, him, Jay, and Jesse all wound up swimming in a sea of broken drums and feedack.

this is more a warning than a review: Lock up any valueables you have, when any of these guys are around... they love breaking things. - THE ROCK N ROLL FREAKSHOW

"New York has all the credentials for fast paced Punk Rock, the city and surrounding states served the time and can proudly claim being the birthplace to U.S Punk with all it..s nonchalant anarchy in the mid-seventies.
S.W.A.K. are looking like the..re up for the bumpy ride. Armed with the cheeky youth card and a handful of very busy demos, this powerful three-piece is going to be impossible to keep low key." - Mojophenia

I was completely unprepared for the high voltage rockin' that was waiting for me on the other side of this link to SWAK's mySpace page. For me, if anyone uses the phrase "SWAK", or "sealed with a kiss", my mind immediately leaps to that 60's hit performed by Brian Hyland of the same title. So I was daydreaming with the lonely summer ballad, waiting for SWAK's page to load, and suddenly the first track on their music player starts up and it sucker punches me in the face with a fistful of bad-ass. It was like a wake-up call telling me to kick my sappy music aside and to get my shit together.

That's probably what Syd, Pete and Julian did when they got together in the last month of 2008 to form SWAK. Now after just six months, they've left their New York City home with a handful of strong demos to embark on a DIY tour of the States. Why more people haven't taken notice is beyond me. They're pretty hard to miss with the wailing vocals and speeding guitars, all heavy on the distortion.

SWAK is a much needed reminder of what American punk music is in its most classic context. None of that guyliner-induced so-called musicthat kids seem to think is "punk" these days. That's not punk! SWAK is punk.

And just as a sidenote, I can totally imagine myself rockin' out toHead in the Sand (Stand Up) on a little plastic guitar in front of a TV screen, via Guitar Hero. That song is absolutely perfect for the game.

Again, they're on a DIY tour around the US, so catch 'em if you can. They're still looking to book a couple of venues in some of the cities that they're visiting and are open for suggestions, so head over to their mySpace for the dates. - Impressionable youth