Mezcal Head is one of the best albums of the 1990s and you probably haven't heard it. Inaccurately categorized as shoegaze - and I love many 4AD and Creation artists - Swervedriver channeled psychedelic pop into a tight yet heavy and expansive sound that has scarcely been bettered. Heavy Ben presents a 2-hour deep dive on Swervedriver ahead of their August 20 performance at the Bronson Centre. RIYL laser-guided melodies through tangles of distortion-drenched guitar. https://bronsoncentremusictheatre.com/events/event/swervedriver/ Swervedriver inhabit a funny spot within the pantheon of classic shoegaze bands. Forged in the same late-1980s/early-90s Oxford milieu that produced Ride and, later, Radiohead, they were grouped under the shoegaze umbrella largely because of their record label and sound, not their attitude. While many of their Creation-era peers seemed content to disappear behind shimmering layers of feedback, guitar pedals, and lyrically opaque songs, Swervedriver were more interested in ripping. Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge married their guitar haze to poppy psychedelia, American film noir, and a fascination with fast cars, projecting a tougher, more kinetic image. The genre's more ethereal practitioners like Ride, Curve, Lush, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine seemed intent on capturing the look of a vapor trail in their guitar tones; Swervedriver sounded more interested in simulating the rocket ride that produced it. They could write a hook and sounded great on a car stereo. In that respect, Swervedriver had more in common with American guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr., Soundgarden (with whom they toured), and Smashing Pumpkins than with the English shoegaze bands with whom they were forever lumped. Their guitars certainly fed back through the requisite bank of effects pedals - the band's classic T-shirts featured effects pedals rather than the band members themselves - but instead of shrinking into the feedback, Swervedriver used it as fuel for muscular, melodic songs. They seemed better equipped to break through in North America than many of their contemporaries, yet despite releasing four excellent albums between 1991 and 1998, they never got their due. Label trouble, lineup instability, bad timing, and a shelf's worth of EPs and singles contributed to their failure to achieve the wider recognition their music deserved. They eventually called it quits in 1999 (temporarily, as it turned out) leaving Swervedriver as one of the most compelling and unfairly overlooked bands of the era. Fast forward 17 years, Swervedriver returned in 2015 with the well received full-length "I Wasn't Born To Lose You", harkening back to the early 90s approach of "Raise" and "Mezcal Head". Extensive touring included a stop at Ottawa's Zaphod Beeblebrox. "Future Ruins" followed in 2019, then an EP "The World's Fair" in 2025, substantiating the so-called comeback. (intro text synthesized from Pitchfork articles) Swervedriver will perform their debut album in its entirety next week, Thursday August 20, at the Bronson Centre, as part of the "raise at 35" tour. The remainder of the show will feature highlights from the band's career, and I hope it's stacked with cuts from Mezcal Head. New York band Slow Fiction will open the night. https://slowfictionnyc.bandcamp.com/album/dollhouse This will be my third time seeing Swervedriver. How many bands have you seen multiple times? May 6, 1992 @ Le Spectrum in Montreal: Soundgarden, Monster Magnet, Swervedriver May 5, 2015 @ Zaphod Beeblebrox in Ottawa: Swervedriver, Gateway Drugs, PINE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swervedriver https://adamfranklin.bandcamp.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Records https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Moulder An epic guide to every Swervedriver album in the band’s own words https://www.loudersound.com/music/albums/a-guide-to-every-swervedriver-album (to embiggen the show icon, right-click and choose "Open image in new tab")