The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - SWMRS

SWMRS are a surf punk band with strong pop punk roots that sally forth from Oakland, California. They are related to punk royalty in that Billie Joe Armstrong, front man of Green Day, is the drummer's father. SWMRS have just finished a west coast tour doing fluffer duties for Wavves and Twin Peaks. 

The band got attention for their tribute to punk rock queen Miley Cyrus, Miley (Sept'15). The first single release from the bands third album, albeit first after a name change, is Figuring It Out (Nov'15). 

Figuring It Out  is their best work, a massive crowd singing, indie rock banger. Noisey Vice called Figuring It Out a “poppy foot-tapper filled with skate-gang vocals,” and Little Indie Blogs praised it's “propulsive energy and vibrant riffs.”

SWMRS broad influences are The Ramones, The Clash and The Beach Boys. More diverse influences include Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Pavement, Weezer, and Nirvana.

Broadway World said SWMRS music in general “combines the caustic broadsides of The Clash, the amphetamine bubblegum of the Ramones, and the searing lyrics, propulsive energy, and raw honesty of Public Enemy.” 

Inner Speaker Magazine had some good words for the new album Drive North saying it is “energetic, angry yet light-hearted” and “emotional, rebellious, and at times reflective.” Of the tune Figuring It Out the blogger Drink Cold Soda hit the nail on the head with the simple yet accurate “anthemic.”  

Throwing out the haymaker early doors massive ‘whoahs’ form the chorus and introduce the track in a hair on the back of the neck build up to quiet verses with a Ramones-eque delivery and lyrics describing a universal need to find your place in the world. The song pulls it all together for a bouncing off the walls rock out at the end. Figuring It Out rocks harder than a prison rapist coming and is one of the best indie songs of 2015

“We like getting drunk now

 Jimmy flunked out pants undone”

Shit you need to know:

The band released two albums and a string of short players as Emily’s Army before changing their name in 2015 reflecting a change in the bands musical direction from punk to a beach pop style.

Punk icon Billie Joe Armstrong produced all the Emily's Army albums.

The band are childhood friends who started making music in 2004 after watching School Of Rock.

Figuring It Out is the first single from the bands fourth album Drive North (Feb’16).

The album Drive North was produced by Fidlar vocalist Zac Carper.

The singer Cole Becker said Drive North is thematically about “cultivating your own creativity within the world that you live in and basking in your individual identity.”

Broadway World said Drive North is “suffused with coming of age jams, subversive anthems to Miley Cyrus, and a sense of freedom forged out of modern-day confusion.”

The band self-release their music on the label Uncool Records.

SWMRS have been described as a beach-punk band, a punk-rock band, a surf-punk-pop band and surf rockers.

The bands original name Emily's Army was in honor of Max's and Cole's cousin Emily, who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis.

SWMRS have toured the world on fluffer duties for bands like Rise Against, Soundgarden, Gerard's Way and Pennywise.

Other SWMRS songs to keep the party going strong are Ammonia and Bleach, Miley and Kids Just  Wanna Dance.

Sloppy seconds is courtesy of SWMRS tour mates Wavves. The San Diego indie rock band have a killer here with the second single from their fifth album V.  Don’t waste your time. Listen to Flamezesz (July’15).

“It’s suicidal hurt

The way you walk around”