Swarme of Beese and the grunge built life and death of "Angel on Wings of Steel"

 

"lord they give me nothing for the pain / lying here just wanted something whispering your name..."

If 20 gauge shot gun pellets hadn't penetrated Kurt Cobain's head on April 5th, 1994 and if he was able to severe himself from the drugs and people that made him ill, he would be 56 today. I thought about this when listening to the shuffling grunge tinged "Angel on Wings of Steel" by Austin Texas based Swarme of Beese because it is the kind of song a 50 something Cobain might of penned. It is a circular confessional of pain, maybe addiction and loss of someone special who maybe be alive or dead (at least that is my take). The circularity of it makes it one of those songs that you can play on repeat for an eternity, a meditation on life and death.  

The track is from Swarme of Beese's new album "Fruits of the Golden Land" and as press notes share: [is a collection of sonic postcards from a metaphorical road trip through the back roads of the American landscape, with detours to haunted places where memories & dreams intersect. The pastoral journey meanders along the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp, across the prairies & cornfields of the heartland, and through the Ozarks, the Piedmont, & the coal fields of southern Appalachia. The tales woven into the shadows of these places are razor-edged and real, steeped in history & imbued with spirit of place, with an American gothic undercurrent. Honest vocal performances are enveloped in textural harmonies and atmospheric arrangements to form the band’s mutant folk sound.]

By the way, I pulled out the 72 Guild jumbo body and playing along AND it feels fucking good. 

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068893428853

https://open.spotify.com/artist/12a134jTe0qfX3lwoUpp0G

https://swarmeofbeese.bandcamp.com/album/fruits-of-the-golden-land


Swarme of Beese, from Austin, Texas, weave subtle layers of instrumental texture and hints of psychedelic folk into the minor keys and stripped-down underpinnings of the band’s hillbilly noir aesthetic, creating a mutant folk sound with a strong American gothic undercurrent. A source close to the band has described it as “hillbillies who got lost on their way to the moonshine still and stumbled upon some mushrooms.”

Swarme of Beese, Austin Texas, psychedelic folk, psych rock, freak folk, grunge tinged, grunge, rustic, southern blues rock, folk indie, "Angel on Wings of Steel", new album "Fruits of the Golden Land",