The Swellers
The Swellers are set to release ‘Ups and Downsizing’ on April 12 via Fueled By Ramen Records, the album is preceded by the single ‘Fire Away’ out on April 5. The Flint, Michigan-based band have also announced their first ever UK shows - the band are confirmed for the Give It A Name Introduces Tour which kicks off on April 26 in Oxford and includes a date at London’s Kings College on May 6, they will also be playing a string of their own headline shows.
Out late last year in the US ‘Ups and Downsizing’, was recently named one of the best albums of 2009 by both Absolute Punk and Punk News. “The Swellers have topped their Everest and written an album that might just be the perfect balance of melodic & pop punk since [Green Day’s] Dookie,” gushed Absolute Punk, while Punk News raved it’s “without a doubt, the best thing FBR has released since the days when the Stereo, Jimmy Eat World and the Impossibles dominated the label’s landscape.” In addition, Alternative press awarded the album 4.5 out of five stating “The only question you’ll have, even after just one listen, is why on earth aren’t this band already huge. It’s just that good.”
Brothers Nick and Jonathan Diener started The Swellers as a trio in 2002. The group molded its sound—a cross between classic punk and ’90s rock—at the Vehicle City’s local music incubator, the legendary Flint Local 432, an all-ages, volunteer-supported club. After cutting their teeth at “The Local” for a few years, the band hit the road to support their first release, a 2005 EP entitled “Beginning of The End Again”. In 2007, the band released the critically acclaimed “My Everest,” their first full-length album. To record “Ups and Downsizing,” the Diener brothers were joined by new band members Ryan Collins and Anto Boros, solidifying the band’s current line-up.
In true punk tradition, ‘Ups and Downsizing’ is the outraged cry of a band that has seen its world on the precipice. The album’s title song, and much of the album, was inspired by what had been happening in Michigan long before the recession hit elsewhere—dwindling jobs, people moving out of state, a bleak future—and how it hit the Diener brothers at home.
Like so many of their fellow Fueled By Ramen artists, The Swellers have proven themselves to be an aggressive and hard-working live act. The band have been on the road nearly non-stop over the last three years, playing with the likes of Paramore, H2O, Motion City Soundtrack and Less Than Jake along the way, and gaining an army of fans and support from other bands with their reactive music and tireless work ethic.
Be sure to catch the band when they hit the UK for the Give It A Name Introduces tour and their own headline dates, full info below:
THE SWELLERS TOUR DATES
Sun 25 Apr - Leeds The Cockpit - HEADLINE
Mon 26 Apr - Stoke Sugarmill – GIAN tour
Tue 27 Apr - Birmingham Academy 2 – GIAN tour
Wed 28 Apr - Bristol Academy 2 – GIAN tour
Thu 29 Apr - Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach – GIAN tour
Fri 30 Apr - Liverpool Academy 2 – GIAN tour
Sat 01 May - Manchester Academy 3 – GIAN tour
Sun 02 May - Glasgow King Tuts – GIAN tour
Mon 03 May - Newcastle Academy 2 – GIAN tour
Wed 05 May - Southampton The Joiners – GIAN tour
Thu 06 May - London Kings College – GIAN tour
Fri 07 May - Tunbridge Wells The Forum - HEADLINE
Sat 08 May - Kingston The Peel - HEADLINE
Sun 09 May - Nottingham Red Room @ Rescue Rooms - HEADLINE
Mon 10 May - Exeter Cavern - HEADLINE
The Swellers are - Nick Diener (lead vocals/ guitar), Jonathan Diener (drums/ backing vocals), Ryan Collins (guitar) and Anto Boros (bass/ backing vocals)