Petroleum Spirit Daze＜限定盤/Gold Vinyl＞

When Swervedriver formed in 1989, they approached shoegaze not from the dreamlike liminal states as some of their peers but from a swirl of heat and roadside dust, bending their layered guitar tones around driving, hallucinogenic songs about cars and nihilism. Even in their small circles of reverb-coated noise pop bands, Swervedriver was a breath of fresh air and not quite like anyone else. They made their debut on Creation Records in 1990 with the four-song Son of Mustang Ford EP, but shortly before recording the sessions that ultimately resulted in the first sinewy, multicolor rock the world would hear from the band, they tracked and abandoned versions of the same four songs, deciding that the performances werent up to par for whatever reason. Petroleum Spirit Daze is the first public release of the very first Swervedriver recordings, an identical track listing to what appeared on Son of Mustang Ford, but a sound different enough that fans (or those with an ear for shoegaze in general) will want to compare and contrast. While the band is still playing with the energy and excitement usually present in the early days of a new project, theres something a little restrained about these versions, like they know the songs but hadnt grown completely confident playing them yet. While the titular "Son of Mustang Ford" was included on their 1991 full-length Raise, the Petroleum Spirit Daze version puts the drums a little more in the foreground, extracting some of the chaos from the guitars and generally taming the bands sound. This is true for the entire set, with "Juggernaut Rides" sounding almost like jangly college rock, whereas the version included on the debut turns up the fuzz and pushes the guitars into an overpowering psychedelic tidal wave. Its interesting to hear these songs recorded in a way that focuses more on the songwriting than the power of the groups sound. Instead of shoegaze otherworldliness, here we have a document of a tight band just starting out, ready to dial in the details on a foundation of great tunes. ~ Fred Thomas