Swim Lessons is Christopher Lintner from California. Lintner plays (I quote:) the guitar, bass, drums, bells, percussion, beatbox, keys and field recordings, and also does the vocals. Lintner recorded his debut album Winged and Wounded at (again, I quote:) The Cave in Long Beach (CA), The Old Schoolhouse in Highland Park (also CA), Terry and Robin’s in La Jolla (still CA), on the beach, in a car, in a bathtub, at a park, on a mountain top, in various motel rooms, and a few dozen other places scattered through the U.S.
I’ve reproduced all of this from his Bandcamp page because it feels a suitable way to convey my thoughts on the album. Much of the garage/indie rock on Bandcamp is quick and loose, glorious in it’s sloppiness, the transient goodtime of a laidback slacker summer encapsulated in lo-fi music. The name (vaguely summer-y) and artwork (quite summer-y) meant that I judged this as another of those albums. What I found was something different. Something tighter, more careful. Something that seems a labour of love rather than a throwaway let’s-have-a-good-time-while-we-are-alive pop-punk record.
The result is what I’d imagine a genetic experiment involving Justin Vernon and Josh Arnoudse (of You Won’t) might produce. Heartfelt lo-fi rock with a folky edge, songs simple enough to sing along to but nuanced enough to demand you return.
(If I sound like I’m waxing lyrical then I don’t much care).
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/147105051″]
The album was released on tape via Thundercloud Records, although that was back in April and they have all been sold. Blame us for being so late. You can instead pick up a digital copy for whatever you can afford right here.