Ever heard of a band called Swirl? Yes that’s right I said a band and not some style of tasty dessert which is rather what it sounds like. Well, neither had I until I was recently contacted through The Meister’s Facebook Page and sent the seven song EP for review considerations. Sometimes a gem just falls into your lap and that’s exactly what’s going on here.
The lead song on this EP is “Fourth of July”, an up tempo bluesy kind of rocker, laden with catchy hooks and guitar solos that charges out of the gates running. Swirl had my attention right off and I certainly didn’t miss the irony as July 4th was the very date that I had cued it up for a spin, it was like fate! By the time the funky bass lines of the lead in to “Spell” were halfway through I was scouring the internet for info about this great new band. Turns out that they have been around for more than ten years starting out in Seattle, before relocating to Los Angeles. This EP is not the first Swirl output with their initial CD, titled Out of Nowhere, being produced by Carlos Cavazo, guitarist for the classic era of Quiet Riot and Matt Thorr of Rough Cutt/Jailhouse. In the third song of the current collection we find the beefy riffs of the guitar driven lead single “Rise Up”, possibly the best of the compilation with an insanely catchy chorus that could certainly be heard on today’s rock radio. “We Are Alive” has a little more thrashy style overtones to it that had my fist in the air during the chorus. Swirl has a motivational “Message” for us that rings true in this track loaded with the emotion of this hungry independent band. The membership of Swirl consists of 50% being held by brothers Duane
DT Jones (guitarist and founder) and Brian “Bam Bam” Jones (drums) with Alfred Ramirez handling vox and Shane Carlson the bass. Back in 2008 Duane T. Jones and Alfred Ramirez teamed up with Fred Coury, drummer for multi-platinum selling 80’s hard rock act Cinderella. The result of this pairing was two songs, “Time to Fly (Adrenaline)” and “Mad Disease (Sleepwalker)”, on both of which Coury plays drums as well as produces. Swirl have included these two cuts as the closers to the seven song EP that frankly just ends way too soon. On the band’s website (Swirl) there are listening samples of five other songs, presumably from Out of Nowhere, but the actual CD does not appear to be for sale……..the search is on!
Swirl have toured in the US and Japan setting the stage for such heavy hitters as Extreme, Ratt, Slaughter, George Lynch and more. The band is now located in Pasadena, California and they issued this EP in 2013 to overwhelming reception from their fan base dubbed “The Swirl Society”. I certainly hope the boys of Swirl have more gas in the tank and look forward to their next, hopefully, full length effort…..I guess I’m now part of the Swirl Society, and you should be too!
Cheers,
The Meister
