Swami (2022)
I think you can be a casual or occasional reader of this website and still ascertain pretty quickly that I'm moderately obsessed with every band that John Reis has been involved in over the years. From Rocket From The Crypt to Drive Like Jehu to Hot Snakes to Sultans to Night Marchers to Pitchfork to Plosivs and every weirdo one-off done in between, I collect them all and I listen to them pretty constantly. I've said recently that his music has simply made my life better and I'm grateful for all of the noise he's put out into the world.
This record is somewhat different. It's the first time he's released an album exclusively under his own name (there were other projects with Blind Shake and Metz, but those band names were part of the titles for those releases). I can't imagine that anyone who likes John's other bands wouldn't like this. There's definitely similarities in song structure and feel. But it's also different in that the bones of these songs are mostly built around an acoustic guitar and piano.
That doesn't mean that John has gone troubadour and has made a quiet singer-songwriter record. The acoustics provide the foundation, but there's electric guitar, some synth and an upbeat rhythm section that keeps everything definitely in the same punk-adjacent wheelhouse that most of John's other work also resides. He has a sound that's really distinct and I can always hear the common thread from band to band even when the singers change and the tangents veer into different directions.
There are two versions of the record. The standard version available in stores is on green vinyl. The limited version is the one on black vinyl, in this case limited to 200 copies and only sold via the Swami webstore. This isn't the first time the black one is the limited one. It's funny to me since usually people put the premium on the colored vinyl, but I always enjoy the chase.
No surprise, but I love this record. In particular the title track, "When I Kicked Him In The Face" and "Days Of Auld Lang Syne" are the songs that stand out the most to me as being stupendously catchy and where I would recommend folks start if they want to sample these wares. But really, at this point do you need to sample? If you bother reading my dumb website, you should see John's name and just know that record should be part of your collections.
Swami John Reis - Ride The Wild Night:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nXej11afJ1d2xZpXMlpQk6NgInfLHKGAM
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