Let Em' Talk: Punching Swans guide us through raucous new album 'GAMESHOW'

 

There's nothing conventional about the Kent/South London-based punk weirdos Punching Swans. The very existence of the band came about by the most unlikely of circumstances. Mutual friends of Greg Webster (guitars/vocals), Joseph Wise (bass/vocals) and Pablo Pagabotto (drums/vocals) - who had played in several different bands - suggested they get together and that they would work well; it was almost like musical blind dating. Thankfully, the awkward first few dates went well and the band clicked, starting to gig not long after they started rehearsing in 2012. 

The new album GAMESHOW is their fourth and was released on July 29th via Skingasm Records.  It's a blistering collection of ever-so-slightly odd Punk Rock that brings to mind the dark-humoured antics of Mclusky, The Jesus Lizard and Pissed Jeans. The album is loosely themed around the band's imagined and sometimes disturbing vision for potential gameshows of a post-capitalist future. The band took time out to tell us more about GAMESHOW track-by-track.

1) 1234 Gameshow

We wrote and gigged most of this album in the before times, but the pandemic hit just as we were going into the studio and we had to sit on it for ages.

'1234' was one of those first pieces and the one that inspired the theme for the album. It just sounded like a game show intro and a natural opener.

2) Family Misfortunes

Also from the first set of ideas around early 2019. Simply a dystopian version of 'Family Fortunes' referencing the Tories 'Fit for Work scheme. Guard Grampa's foot; it could be taken as a forfeit if you get too many wrong answers!

Photo by Tuckshop Community.

3) Noel Edmonds

What happens when life gives you (Ed)Lemon(d)s? Using the presenter as an example, this one's about him going off the rails and starting a cult based on the concept of Cosmic Ordering - Don't drink the Noel Ed-lemonade!

4) Graham's List

Just a list of shit prizes, with us, just pastiching music for a gameshow section. We had in mind the conveyor belt from the 'Generation Game', but commentated on by Graham; The voice of God from 'Blind Date.

We made sure it was 30 seconds like the 'Countdown Clock'. That part was perhaps the most crucial in the making of this album.

5) Put Your Hand In The Box

Uncertain futures. We're all constantly putting our hands into boxes in the hope of turning up a prize of some sort, but knowing in our hearts of hearts we'll probably just get bitten. A simple idea is taken to surreal lengths.

6) Murder Seance

Sometimes Joe just comes up with a killer song title and we build around it. So, born out of a joke and unrelated to the general theme of the album at first - although Ouija boards are sold as board games - we did just that. A murderer invites his victims into his home via the facade of a fake seance.

7) Clown King

'When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace becomes a circus' Who is the clown king? Isn't it obvious? Have you ever watched the news? I didn't vote for him. 

Until we wrote the tracklist for this album cover, this was called 'Microtonal Swan' based on its stupid guitar tone.

8) Swantipede

The oldest song of the lot! Not a game show, but included anyway. If KFC did banquets, how would they present the legs? Sewn together in a giant chicken leg centipede that stretches the length of a table of course!

9) Lost Lovely Assistants

Down with the patriarchal magicians and gameshow hosts! The assistants create their society free of those ideas and the men are the ones who become lost without the support from the women in their lives.

Evolved from an idea we decided to cut for impropriety, involving an uncomfortable swimming pool event and a piece that sounds like Brian Blessed flying through the pink 'Flash Gordon' skies.

10) March of the Clowns

Have you ever felt trapped in a relentless march, ultimately resulting in your demise? Life eh?

This one also imagines a conga of clowns marching through the set of a gameshow, causing havoc, reminding us all that life is funny - and a bastard!

Watch out for the 'Ren and Stimpy' drum break.

11) Know Your Children

Like the Newly Weds game, but to catch out neglectful parents. Although that's merely a smokescreen for the media to get away with child slavery...in the not too distant future.

Originally called 'Wonky Bees' when it was a mega-long jam. Now it's squeezed down into a few minutes so it can be a massive chart hit.

12)  Stroke of Nuggets

Dear Porn, please can you fix it for me to have a wheel of...(insert genitals/body parts)

Like the wheel of fortune. Well, exactly like the wheel of fortune.

'Endless Johnsons deciding your fate

You can follow Punching Swans on social media Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Buy or download GAMESHOW from the band's Bandcamp.