Swiftumz (Noah)

There’s something delightfully sleazy about Swiftumz. With a the sort of lo-fi aesthetic we’ve grown so uncomfortably used to in the Bay Area, Swiftumz takes the notion of bubblegum pop – bright melodies, an upbeat bass-line, a sort of PG bit of hip shake matched with lyrics about love and what-not – and squishes them under the thumb of dimly lit back rooms and poor fluorescent lighting. It’s almost cute and it’s almost endearing, but there’s something about the sneered endings of his words, the tinnier rattle of the pop-pop bass, even the sight of Swiftumz (a large man, often times decked out in an even larger hooded sweatshirt) that makes take a step back as if you’ve found a hair on the bumpy surface of your ever-lasting gobstopper, and check again what you’re listening to. It’s no surprise that Swiftumz, Chris McVickers at birth, would serenade the world with this enjoyably off-putting blend of garage and pop, he’s a longtime recurring character in the world of Hunx and His Punx(ettes) (yet another SF band who plays in a dirty sandbox of saccharine tunes) and his newest album, Don’t Trip, was recently a part of Burger Records Tape A Day, OK!? promotion. Burger Records of course being the cracked wall headquarters of all pop tunes riding the thin line between grime, grit and gleaming, shiny goodness.

Don’t Trip is out on cassette on Burger Records now. It can be found, all about the internet, in both digital and wax formats.

:Swiftumz – 4EVA: