Skip to main content[GUARDED POST-PUNK] When Swim Swam Swum played to a pretty full Towne Lounge on the Thursday before last, the trio's set felt like two shows, with two separate audiences, taking place in the same room.
In a half-circle around the tables near the front of the stage were a couple dozen people standing with knees and heads bouncing: These folks were tuned into Clinton Cunningham's loud, treble-heavy, crystal-clear and looping bass lines, and their bopping mirrored drummer Randy Bemrose's motions as he flopped his dark mop in time with the ruckus of his fills. But there were also the seated followers of frontman Matt Taylor, who performs somewhat bashfully, his closed eyes hidden behind glasses, his vocals taking on a slightly affected, candied-yet-strained high pitch. It was a post-punk show with a singer-songwriter nucleus: at once loud and reserved, rocking and intimate.
Afterward, when I got a listen to SSS's self-titled EP—which was recorded by Point Juncture, WA's Skyler Norwood (who's also worked with Talkdemonic and Horse Feathers)—Taylor's voice struck me as cleaner, though no less removed in its demeanor. And when I met up with him and Cunningham for beers at My Father's Place, I found Taylor, a 29-year-old Salt Lake City transplant and former auto mechanic, no more forthcoming in person. Thrifty with his words, Taylor told me that his lyrics are mostly "stuff that rhymes, stuff that sounds good."
It wasn't until I actually asked him if he was down about something that he and Cunningham both laughed and opened up. They told me how out of place they felt playing a show at Rock N Roll Pizza last year with a couple of more mainstream-pop-sounding high-school bands ("I thought we were gonna get beer bottles thrown at us as soon as we started," said Cunningham). They also shared the story of how, at My Father's Place a couple weeks earlier, Bemrose (who is also the frontman in Junkface) overheard their conversation about SSS's previous drummer quitting abruptly via only a MySpace message; right then, Bemrose joined their table and volunteered to play, cementing the band's current lineup.
Probing deeper into Swim Swam Swum's music might also unearth interesting anecdotes, but further investigation is by no means necessary: As that recent Towne Lounge performance showed, Swim Swam Swum is plenty interesting as an enigma.
Swim Swam Swum plays with the Shotgun, Shiloe and the Hermans Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Tonic Lounge. 9:30 pm. Cover. 21+.
WWeek 2015