Philly band swims through debut

The Swimmers have a rather strange and wonderful tale of formation. You might know Steven… The Swimmers have a rather strange and wonderful tale of formation. You might know Steven Yutsy-Burkey and Rick Sieber from the former One Star Hotel, another Philadelphia band that has parted ways. However, the band mates, including the Swimmers’ keyboardist Krista Yutsy-Burkey, who is married to the front man, met at college in Indiana. Scott French and Steven worked together tuning organs, of all things.

Fighting Trees The Swimmers MAD Dragon Records Rocks like: Spoon, The New Pornographers

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Here we are in 2008, and the result of these chance meetings is a fresh and harmonious melding of musical minds.

The Philadelphia local band recently released its debut album, Fighting Trees. The record was released on MAD Dragon Records, Drexel University’s student-staffed label. Its namesake is an acronym for Westphal College of Media Arts ‘ Design combined with the university’s mascot. It is not often that you hear a new band, only to find it is ascribed to a student-staffed label. How many student-run labels are out there, anyway? Not that many. As one of only six clients, the Swimmers are a wise edition to a growing label.

The educational institutions of the area are helping these musicians along, and the Swimmers are gaining attention via the local University of Pennsylvania radio station, WXPN. The station featured the Swimmers in an installment of its Y-Pod podcast, featuring an interview and acoustic performance. With its stripped-down vocals and instrumentals, there is not much difference between the live performance and the album recordings. That is really something to be said for music that sounds just as crisp and cool in either form.

The Swimmers bring a fun, fresh, pop-rock sound that could rival some of its famed influences to the table. The musicians approach the craft with a keen eye for compilations that successfully showcases vocals and instrumentals in perfect harmony. There is not a track that does not teem with soulful, personal lyrics and thoughtful accompaniment.

Gaps between the freshman band’s music and that of bands like The New Pornographers are about as far apart as you and this newspaper. Both are heavy on male-female harmonies and acoustic guitar, so comparisons are bound to be made. Especially in “St. Cecilia,” the harmonies play a major role. As an added twist, the twangy guitar and agile piano take these harmonies from bare to beautifully adorned.

Still, just as many connections can be made to Spoon, with those piano notes that open songs like “Someone Something.” The same feeling rings true with the Swimmers’ “Heaven.” If it were not for the highly personal lyrics or those extremely distinctive vocals, distinguishing the two could be problematic. That is the beauty of influence in the music community, a fusion of everything that listeners love about their favorite bands shown in a new light.

Fighting Trees continues to stream on the band’s website, and iTunes features a version of the album with three bonus tracks. As either version is well worth a listen, the Swimmers are off to a strong start with this impressive release.

With a sound that is familiar without becoming generic, and with musical cunning that pervades every track, these musicians have done the world a service with Fighting Trees.

Finally, there is an album that is so effortlessly cool in offering an unpretentious display of musical and lyrical talent. The Swimmers have earned their place in the Philadelphia music scene, and it is safe to say that the lively, poetic tunes are here to stay.