Swami

Meat Wave

Malign Hex

Swami

Swami Records is excited to glom onto Chicago punks Meat Wave for the release of their fourth album Malign Hex. Ryan Wizniak (drums), Joe Gac (bass) and Chris Sutter (vocals, guitar) strip back the “Windy City Sound” and expose a more jagged and turbulent frame. The ten-track album, which features singles “What Would You Like Me To Do” as well as “Ridiculous Car” and “Honest Living,” was recorded by Gac in 2019 and serves as the band’s most cohesive, dynamic and ambitious work to date. “Our sound in the beginning was consistently very driving,” says Gac. “Now, that characteristic is merely a tool we can reach for. I don’t think it completely defines what we’re doing.” Meat Wave spent the last half of 2019 chipping away at Malign Hex. “We recorded it the same way we always have—live in a room together,” says drummer Ryan Wizniak. “But we allowed ourselves to embellish more and take more chances with extra instrumentation.” While Malign Hex does incorporate synths, organs and walls of guitar, it provides only nuance and atmosphere and does not displace Meat Wave from their meat locker. The album’s lyrics center around themes of lineage and explores a litany of subjects and circumstances: addiction, greed, unreliable memory, obedience. All through a surrealist, collage-like lens. “Everyone wears a backpack full of hexes,” Chris Sutter explains. “It’s heavy and familial. And it’s yours.”

Plosivs

S/t

Swami

Plosives—denoting consonants that are produced by stopping the airflow by using the lips, teeth or palate, followed by a sudden release of air, the misspelling of PLOSIVS is intentional. In audio recording it refers to the loud, vocal pop created by the hard consonant that overwhelms the microphone and causes it to distort. So what does this have to do with a new, angular and melodic punk band from San Diego? Perhaps their affection for this anomaly is celebrated and is symbolic of their appreciation for imperfection. Or maybe the word just sounds cool to them. Although PLOSIVS is a new outfit of very young, handsome men, personally, they have accomplished much in their early careers. Vocalist / guitarist Rob Crow is known for being in Pinback, Heavy Vegetable, Thingy, Physics and hundreds more. The length of drummer Atom Willard’s résumé rivals a CVS receipt and is a who’s who of alternative rock royalty: Against Me!, The Offspring, Rocket From The Crypt, Danko Jones, Social Distortion and Angels And Airwaves. Jordan Clark played bass with Mrs. Magician and guitar for The Frights and The Soaks. And prior to PLOSIVS, guitarist John Reis was and still is associated with Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt, Night Marchers, The Sultans. Together, they independently isolated during what then seemed like the height of the pandemic (October 2020). After a short duration of ideas passed back and forth, they convened as a group for the very first time at Singing Serpent...

Swami John Reis

Ride The Wild Night

Swami

Swami John Reis celebrates his 100th year in rock ’n’ roll with a brand new band and record! Neither similar nor dissimilar to his previous bands (Hot Snakes, Night Marchers, The Sultans, Rocket From The Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, etc) yet immediately familiar (like an old friend asking to borrow some money). The music is an amalgam of ’60s folk punk, ’70s punk, and pre-Vietnam War rock ’n’ roll with only one or two new ideas introduced to the form. The sound is built on stentorian bedrock of savage drumming by J. Sinclair K. of Hot Snakes and the pounding piano of Joe Guevara. Swami John Reis commits audio crime with his throaty basso and then weaponizes the files with electric guitar roar, acoustic strum and bass guitar. Hear his defiant, croak howl in protest in what might be his most autobiographical work yet. Music critics and fans alike have long referred to Reis’s signature voice as “The Velvet Yawn” and never has that description been more apt. Ride The Wild Night was recorded at City Of Refuge (Night Marchers, Black Lips, The Spits) on an 8-track tape machine and mixed by Ben Moore (Hot Snakes, Diamanda Galas) at Singing Serpent. Repressed on black vinyl!!!

Swami John Reis

Ride The Wild Night / I Hate My Neighbors In The Yellow House

Swami

The debut of the new Swami John Reis band! With Jason K. Sinclair on drums and Joe Guevara on piano. Indulge yourself with these 2 terse gems rife with manic acoustic strummering, piano and synth hammering and booming drums. A little’s a lot! From the upcoming LP “Ride The Wild Night”.

Mrs Magician

Bermuda

Swami

Bermuda is the latest effort by San Diego’s dismal-pop outfit Mrs. Magician and their second full-length release on Swami Records. The album offers a concise collection of punk songs inspired by the big sounds of classic ’60s pop and rock ’n’ roll, with structures more associated with ’70s and ’80s power pop. Thomas Garcia’s blissed-out backwash guitar tones and fuck-it fuzz attack juxtapose the band’s dry and thudding foundation, creating a tropically depressed grog. Cutting through the lacquer with a glossy shimmer, producer Swami John Reis (Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes) coaxes a tightly wound, rigid backdrop for vocalist Jacob Turnbloom’s morose-pop delivery.  Lyrically far more non-linear than their 2012 debut album Strange Heaven, Bermuda echoes the familiar self-deprecating humor that is heavily present in the band’s prior work, but focuses less on interpersonal relationships, favoring broader inspirations of alienation and melodrama. Themes of gentrification, addiction, religion and the intoxicating aroma of modern day conspiracy theories wrestle against a bright and tight sonic terrain. This is the ghetto of Kokomo.  Bermuda has a boozy and breezy island malaise on the surface. But once submerged, the listener is exposed to confusion, nihilism and the notion that even with all of our technology and omnipresence of big brother, essentially we are all still very lost.

V/a

Hardcore Matinee

Swami

Hardcore Matinee is an ode to the budget, punk rock/hardcore compilations that proved to be informative in the early years of Swami Records head honcho, overlord, John Reis. Some of these budget, compilation LP’s were highly disposable, LP’s that shunned the concept of quality favoring instead the quantity of bands it included. 40, 50 sometimes up to 60 unknown groups were crammed onto these records that crackled and popped with tinny sound and infantile graphics. Over time, this cut-rate aesthetic actually weathered quite well. Call it nostalgia or perhaps it is a testament to how truly ugly the world has become, but some of these records can now be enjoyed as curious oddities of a bygone era. So, it was with this inspiration that Hardcore Matinee was assembled.   Hardcore Matinee features 22 of San Diego’s most exciting groups and covers the wide range of current punk music. From well-established bands such as Hot Snakes (with their first new recording since 2004 and featuring both drummers on the same recording), Pinback (their final recording before disbanding and then reforming) and Gary Wilson (off his recent collaboration with The Roots) to up and coming bands Octagrape (ex-Truman’s Water), Death Eyes (Hardcore supergroup with ex- Rat’s Eyes and ex-Death Crisis) and Schizophonics, this record’s varied styling is a jarring ride. The Swami Records harem is represented by the reformation of The Sultans (first recording since 2003), Beehive and The Barracudas (first new recordings since 2008), Mrs. Magician (an outtake from their soon...

Metz & Swami John Reis

Let It Rust / Caught Up

Swami

Metz teaming up with Swami John Reis is a collaboration easy to wrap one’s head around.  When Metz found themselves on tour in San Diego with a couple of hours to spare, Reis immediately booked some studio time in the hopes of capturing this union’s glorious noise. The four of them came up with these two songs and now they are friends for life. The sound is reminiscent of an army of seagulls attacking a blind sushi chef inside a burning Benihana of Tokyo.

Mrs Magician

Forgiveness

Swami

First single from the upcoming album “Bermuda”, to be released on May 20th. Produced by Swami John Reis (Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes).

Vincent, Sonny And Rocket From The Crypt

Vintage Piss

Swami

***BACK IN STOCK!!!  Vintage Piss is the baby whose seed was planted on the 2003 Rocket From The Crypt US tour, which also paired some members of the band with legendary 1970s New York outta control rock ’n’ roller Sonny Vincent. After the Swami release of Vincent’s previous band Testors’ Complete Discography, Speedo (John Reis), Ruby Mars (Mario Rubalcaba) and The Notorious ND (Andy Stamets) served as the man’s backing band and slashed through his Testors repertoire resulting in a primo barrage of 1970s neo-proto-punk. After one particularly meaty performance in Chicago amidst high fives and ass slaps signifying a job well done, the inspiration to write and record new songs struck. Back in San Diego, late 2003, the group incubated in Drag Racist Studio (where Rocket From The Crypt recorded Live From Camp X-Ray and Hot Snakes Suicide Invoice). They employed a steam-of-consciousness approach to making noise by recording songs and ideas live in the studio without rehearsal. With Vincent’s voice and blazing, James Williamson-esque Les Paul attack leading the way, the band followed him into the punk abyss, emerging with a record that is both Sonny Vincent and Rocket From The Crypt. Unfortunately, the studio and Swami Records became buried by transition. It was to be the last thing recorded at Drag Racist before the studio shut its doors. The recording lay dormant, unmixed and unfinished. With the 2013 reformation of Rocket From the Crypt and the continued rerelease of Sonny Vincent...

Swami John Reis And The Blind Shake

Modern Surf Classics

Swami

***BACK IN STOCK!!!  Death by kowabunga bunga! Swami John Reis and the Blind Shake pay tribute to the classic surf and rock n roll instrumentals of the 1960’s and update the genre for today's more extreme, modern surfer. 13 original, modern surf compositions create this tidal wave of booming tom toms, skronking saxophones and a chaotic surge of guitars. Let this south swell topple you and may you be pinned in its undertow of reverb.   Swami John Reis uses a similar aggro guitar approach as his playing in Hot Snakes and Night Marchers but allows the influences of Omar Khorshid, The Ventures, Link Wray, Randy Holden’s Fender IV and many other forgotten, instro combos rise to the surface for air. Joining Swami is Minneapolis’ The Blind Shake (Goner Records, Castle Face). The Blind Shake is a bombastic, power trio consisting of guitar, baritone guitar and drums and whose sound can be described as “muscular psych punk”. This collaboration generates a symphonic wall of twang and amplifies a cinematic sense of drama and tension with the addition of saxophone, doumbek, piano, riq, vibraphone and piano. To capture the essence of this vibe, some of the initial tracking of this material was recorded under Crystal Pier (San Diego) by Ben Moore who utilized a mobile recording VW van.   Because of the intense rhythmic velocity achieved on many of these tracks, this record can also be recommended to those interested in BMX, roller skateboarding, snowboarding/toboggan, fighting, yoga, car...

Night Marchers

Allez Allez

Swami

Isolated by their exquisite taste, Night Marchers exude a barbarous neglect of current trends. They resemble a group of dapper, elderly Tarzans or well-groomed, unfrozen cavemen detached from today’s nightclub society; their actions are just as confusing and alien to us as we to them. This must be taken into account when listening to the band’s unconventional wail or observing them rub their long dicks on doorknobs. Allez Allez is frantic protest rock ’n’ roll against being unfrozen, against being lured from the jungle by poontang on a string. They know they can never go back so they relinquish to the insulation of manic shredding and good times. Night Marchers consist of three quarters of Hot Snakes—John Reis (Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Sultans), Gar Wood (Beehive and the Barracudas, Tanner) and Jason Sinclair (Delta 72, Mule, Bardo Pond)—accompanied by Thomas Kitsos (previously of Montreal rock ’n’ roll destructionists CPC Gangbangs). They sound remotely like the combination of the aforementioned acts. This is their second record.

Mrs Magician

Strange Heaven

Swami

***BACK IN PRINT!!! Mrs. Magician hails from the pilings of various San Diego piers. Like those pilings, their sound is encrusted with salty hooks and drenched in waves of reverb. Strange Heaven is the band’s first LP and magnifies the cacophonous lullabies of their four previous singles. The record is for connoisseurs of fuzz, distortion, echo and reverb who prefer their noise to be tempered liberally with minor-key, bubblegum and sometimes haunting melody. These hoodads’ pop songs are massive and exude a beach-shack, bummer-of-the-summer posture. Strange Heaven was produced by John Reis (of Hot Snakes, Rocket from the Crypt, Night Marchers and Drive Like Jehu) in the way of the old masters in order to achieve a more musical hiss and crackle. The result is a timely and timeless artifact. Mrs. Magician plays the US with Hot Snakes in March and with Cults in March, April and May.

Drive Like Jehu

Yank Crime

Swami

***A reissue of the fan-favorite Yank Crime album originally released in 1994 on Interscope from San Diego rock-action heroes DRIVE LIKE JEHU. Includes all the tracks from the original release, along with three bonus tracks—"Bullet Train to Vegas" and "Hand Over Fist" from the out-of-print Merge single, and the original version of "Sinews" from the Head Start to Purgatory compilation.

Dan Sartain

Dan Sartain Vs The Serpientes

Swami

Cpc Gangbangs

Mutilation Nation

Swami

Heartaches

Too Cool For School

Swami

***“The second album from retro garage-punk enthusiasts THE HEARTACHES brims with such unpretentious snot-rock giddiness that it's close to impossible for sympathetic listeners not to get swept up in its three-chord fun. Stripped-down primal punk tunes like ‘Teenage Hypochondriac’ and ‘King Kong's Party’ are delivered with attitude instead of style: this isn't an attempt to perfectly re-create the sound of the Nuggets box, but the work of five kids channeling the spirit of the Standells, Chocolate Watchband, and other Beatles-booted mid-'60s teenagers into the pop-punk sound of today.”—Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

Sartain, Dan

Join Dan Sartain

Swami

***NOW AVAILABLE!!! The debut long-player from twenty-three-year-old Birmingham, Alabama songsmith DAN SARTAIN. A fine collection of garaged-out recordings that blend Dan's great crooning with revved-up rock'n'roll freakouts, jagged guitar wailing, smooth melodies, and memorable songwriting skills. Produced by LIAM WATSON (WHITE STRIPES).

Demolition Doll Rods

There Is A Difference

Swami

***The fourth full-length album from Detroit garage rock favorites the DEMOLITION DOLL RODS. Thirteen tracks of feedback-wrapped soul, punk, blues and gospel rocking.

Husbands

There’s Nothing I’d Like More Than To See You Dead

Swami

***Blasting out of San Francisco, THE HUSBANDS unleash their second full-length. No more getting slapped around, these three girls spit blood in the face of the non believers and pummel groins with barbed wire bashing. 1960s girl group innocence drowns in the sound of big city grime as the band create a punk, garage, soul, R&B, and rock’n’roll mutation. Recorded by PHIL MANLEY of TRANS AM and the FUCKING CHAMPS and head Swami JON RIES.

Hot Snakes

Peel Session

Swami

***San Diego rock champions HOT SNAKES recorded live October 11, 2004 at BBC studios for the late JOHN PEEL—Peel’s final guests, as he died a week later while vacationing in Peru. Four tracks that perfectly capture the band’s rougher edges and spontaneous energy. STREET DATE - 04/26/2005

Penetrators

Basement Anthology

Swami

***A collection of tracks recorded between 1976 and 1982 by Syracuse legends the PENETRATORS. The band’s liberal use of gigantic bumble bee guitar rip, paper tommy gun snare attack, echoed vocal proclamations of eternal rock’n’roll lore, creates an irrefutable artistic statement that has been lost to the ages until now. STREET DATE - 04/26/2005

Crime

San Francisco's Still Doomed

Swami

***An expanded reissue of the legendary San Francisco's Doomed album from legendary 1970s police-uniform-clad punk rockers CRIME. Includes all the tracks from the original album, along with two unreleased bonus tracks (alternate takes of "Hot Wire My Heart" and "You're So Repulsive"), unpublished photos, updated liner notes, and better mastering. STREET DATE - 08/31/2004

Rocket From The Crypt

Circa Now

Swami

***A reissue of the 1993 sophomore album from San Diego scene-firing revolutionaries ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT. A romp of post-hardcore, post-punk, and next-style rock action, blasted with baritone skronk over a twin-guitar assault. Includes four previously unreleased bonus tracks that were left off the original release. Remastered off the quarter-inch transfers, and packaged with additional photos.

Demolition Doll Rods

On

Swami

***The third ass-shaking album from Detroit's decade-running danger squad the DEMOLITION DOLL RODS—DANNY (ex-GORIES), MARGARET, and THUMPURR. Twelve building-leveling tracks of hi-flying rock'n'roll, blasted into the stratosphere with dual guitars, keys, harmonium, drums, and Diddley Bow. LP version to follow. STREET DATE - 04/20/2004

Sultans

Shipwrecked

Swami

***After a two-year hiatus The SULTANS deliver another album loaded with explosive, compact tracks of raw punk and rock'n'roll. Led by JOHN REIS (ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, BACK OFF CUPIDS, HOT SNAKES, DRIVE LIKE JEHU). Recorded at San Diego's world renowned Drag Racist Studios by SWASIMODO.

Beehive And The Barracudas

In Dark Love

Swami

***The third record from San Diego rock and pop party squad BEEHIVE AND THE BARRACUDAS. A modern day psychedelic experience rocked with plastique guitars, pulsing bass and synths, percussive commotion, and male and female vocals.

Husbands

Introducing The Husbands

Swami

***The debut album from this San Francisco female trio is primed and ready to burn down the world with a juicy blend of punk, soul, R&B and rock'n'roll flavors. Primitive beats get down with slicing guitars, soul-and-moan vocals, and an attitude that fluctuates between let's-party and let's-destroy. Produced by head Swami JOHN REIS of ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT and HOT SNAKES.

Testors

Testors Complete Recordings

Swami

***A collection of the complete recordings 1976-1979 by New York City punk pioneers the TESTORS. Led by SONNY VINCENT, the band played a firestorm of raw, loud, and don't-give-a-fuck rock'n'roll. Thirty-seven tracks in all—ten of which have never been heard prior. SONNY VINCENT will tour as the Testors to support this with ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT serving as his backing group.

V/a

Swami Sound System 1

Swami

***Swami Records showcases unreleased tracks from their current roster including ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, HOT SNAKES, THE HUSBANDS, THE SULTANS, BEEHIVE AND THE BARRACUDAS, DAN SARTAIN, LOINCLOTH , and MANNEKIN PIS.  

Pitchfork

Eucalyptus

Swami

***A reissue of this choice slice of San Diego punk history from this band that eventually evolved into DRIVE LIKE JEHU and ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT. Led by RICK FORK and JOHN REIS, the band rocked the '87-style with a potent mix of post-punk angularity, suburban frustration and melodic punk rock. Includes all the tracks from the original release (Nemesis Records), plus the three tracks from the band's debut Saturn Outhouse 7-inch.

Beehive & The Barracudas

Plastic Soul W/ The White Apes

Swami

***BACK IN PRINT!!! The second release from these San Diego-based "Plastic Soul" punk rock power-pushers comprised of members of RED AUNTS, HOT SNAKES, TANNER, and ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT. A hypnotic blend of raw, pounding rhythms, soulful vocals, relentless energy, and a passion for fresh sounds and frequencies. Evolution, baby, one tune at a time.

Rocket From The Crypt

Hot Charity / Cut And Play

Swami

***A collection of two of ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT's most elusive vinyl-only releases now available together on one thrilling CD. 1995's Hot Charity (out of print) and 1999's Cut And Play 12-inch in all their frantic, guitar-and-horn-driven majesty.