Check out this super-dramatic, nerdy love poem to Silversun Pickups that one of our editors just submitted to go along with the Leak of their new record, Swoon.
"Silversun Pickups are high on the list of reasons to love Los Angeles. They should run for mayor. Not only are their evil but breezy vocals a telling reflection of immaculately sunny L.A.'s sinister underbelly, but their overall sound is such a perfect sonic approximation of smog, that it makes the city's low-lying sepia mist look almost lovely. Swoon, their second full-length, was recorded in their private studio. A place they call "The Dark." And you can hear that dark in every song, waltzing with the California sunshine, striking an elegant balance between violence and beauty. Swoon hits shelves Tuesday, April 14, but you can listen to the whole thing, RIGHT NOW, only on The Leak."
Man oh man, Swoon is right. What a softie! If I hadn't previewed the Leak or watched the seizure-inducing (in a good way) video for first Swoon single, "Panic Switch," and found all this raving to be dead-on, I'd wonder if a member of the band had been hired as an MTV writer. But I listened and I watched and, lo and behold, the vocals ARE evil! The fuzzed-out guitar onslaught actually DOES sound like smog! And you know what else? It really is a violent collision between the pretties and the uglies. And the pretties win.
The "Panic Switch" video was directed by James Frost, the same guy who turned Radiohead's "House of Cards" into front-page news with his nutso sci-fi laser beam imagination. He does Silversun Pickups equal justice below with multi-colored strobes and wicked editing. Watch the video and keep an eye out for that much touted Swoon leak, popping up on MTV any minute now!