SWEAT’s new album, “Love Child,” is a gritty, raw, and unapologetically honest snapshot of life, as seen through the eyes of a band that’s lived it. Straight out of Southern California, SWEAT is not here to sugarcoat or sell you an image. They’re here to tell it like it is, with all the rough edges and unfiltered truth that comes with the territory of punk.
“Love Child” is a rough, yet melodious journey through ten tracks, each one a chapter of its own, telling stories that range from personal battles to social commentary, a mirror to the world, reflecting the good, the bad, and the ugly.
From the dark corridors of big pharma to the intimate moments of grief and loss, from the frustrations of a rigged system to the simple, pure joy of dancing, this album covers it all.
The band, feat. members of Graf Orlock, Dangers, Ghostlimb, and Dogteeth: Tuna Tardugno on vocals, Justin Smith shredding the guitar and bass, and Anthony Rivera killing it on drums, have poured everything into this. Their experiences, their struggles, their moments of clarity and confusion, it’s all in there. Working with producer Jack Shirley, they’ve managed to capture the essence of what it means to be alive in these tumultuous times.
The band will celebrated the release of “Love Cild” in Los Angeles at The Echo on March 17th, followed by a European tour. Full dates below. The album is out now via Vitriol Records.
Love Child track by track commentary, by vocalist Tuna Tardugno
1. COMMERCIAL PLEASURE:
This song is primarily about corruption around profit over people, especially in big pharma. Keeping us sick for the sake of keeping customers, rather than helping us find health. “Prosperity is the disease.”
2. GIVE ME ACTION
This song is about salvation through those 20 minutes of bliss we get to play a show. There’s a shout out to my friend Big Nick at the beginning as well, who passed away right before we recorded this. He was the epitome of actions speaking louder than words- he always had your back, and was a man of few words, most notably being able to carry a conversation with just one word- Alright.
3. PAIR OF DICE
This one is about the dangled carrot ‘work hard and we’ll take care of you’ bullshit mentality that corporate places sell you.
4. PURE DISPLAY
This one is about making something really meaningful with everything you’ve got, and someone else coming in and claiming ownership, and being ‘difficult’ for asking questions or being intentional with execution.
5. WHITE NECTARINES
This song is especially important, it’s about the grocery store shooting that took place in Buffalo NY in May of ‘22.
It’s about how i would go shopping with my grandma on the weekends, and how much i love grocery shopping now. And how Pearl Young was probably buying stuff to make sunday dinner and because of this fucked racist world we’re in, she never got to do that.
It’s about the struggle to be black and exist in the world. It also happened the day after Kendrick’s Mr. Morale album came out- which got a lot of shit reviews because ‘it wasn’t a banger’.
And that album is such a vulnerable look at what it’s like to be a struggling black body in the world, how much harder it is to exist because every movement could be your last, because to be black in the world means you have to be exceptional, you can’t just be.
And how the world can only be ‘united in grief’ but don’t grieve too long. And don’t make anyone feel uncomfortable. We’ve got so fucking far to go.
6. BAD TASTE
This one’s about the world’s moral compass, the various ‘bads’ (good bad, badass bad, not good bad, etc), and how every decision is wrong and every decision is right and what even matters.
7. LOVE CHILD
This one’s about the desire to want to feel ok, recognizing it’s not ok, and the attempt to push through to find feeling that makes the world a little less shitty. The spark. It’s about chasing the spark despite the trauma.
8. PHYSICAL
This one is a love letter to dancing. Any form. Any capacity. It just feels good to move. Try it. You’ll see.
9. A REAL GOOD TIME
This one’s about figuring out when to listen and when to speak, and the assumptions that come with both sides of the coin.
10. PRED$ISPOSED PARANOIA
This song’s about when I was robbed at my house. Someone took the screen off of the window and stole my phone while i was asleep. It was super violating, and made me feel surveilled, and incredibly paranoid. Recording this song really felt like the nail in the paranoia coffin and moving forward from the situation. Thanks sweat. It’s the ultimate negativity shining in this very ugly world, that most people are just surviving and have to do desperate things to exist. And somehow finding the beauty in the world and the freeing mindset that nothing actually matters and everything is temporary.
SWEAT – Upcoming Shows:
3/21 Tommy House, Berlin DE
3/22 Storte, Hamburg DE
3/23 Vera, Groningen NL
3/24 Baracke, Muenster DE
3/25 Oetinger Villa, Darmstadt DE
3/26 Juha West, Stuttgart DE
3/27 Venster 99, Wien A
3/28 Koper, TBA SLO
3/29 007 Praha, CZ
3/30 Veranderbar, Dresden DE
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