The Swimmers

"I, I'm standing where my, uh, living room was and it's not here because my house is gone..."

According to their bio, The Swimmers are "a band based on a story. It’s not the story of how the Philadelphia four-piece met or of how they came to music or even how they shook off their alt-country tendencies; it’s the story of a young man who swims home through the backyard pools in his affluent suburban town only to find his home abandoned and ruined."

The story being referred to above is in fact “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, a symbolic tale of money, happiness, American suburbs, and the age-old fact that you can never go home again. These are the seeds of creative influence which begat The Swimmers and the themes feature prominently on their debut LP Fighting Trees.

Here is a band presenting an album full of blended duality. An album as likely to inspire happy foot tapping as it is to elicit introspective melancholy. Dive into the song "Heaven" and you'll hear enough of The Beatles to make you want to keep swimming listening. Let "All the New Sounds" lead the way and you just might decide to have the music of The Swimmers feature prominently in the movie you're writing about your own quarter-life crisis. There's something irresistibly personal in this music and I'd highly suggest keeping an eye on this band if you're a fan of music along the lines of The Shins or The New Pornographers.

You can never go home again, Oatman, but I guess you can shop swim there.

Listen:
"Heaven"
"All the New Sounds"

Visit The Swimmers on MySpace.

See The Swimmers live (more dates HERE):
7 Feb @ the Khyber in Philadelphia
8 Feb @ Sin-é in New York