Movin' on up

The Jungle Room is rapidly filling with tough-looking, leather-clad bikers from the Memorial Ride, and The Swell lead singer John "Johnzo" West is laughing and saying that people are already accusing him of selling out. He wishes that every one of his accusers could see his house before they tell him that he's only in it for the money, and if he's cranky, it's probably because the band drove to rain-soaked Chicago last week to play an unpaid 45-minute show, which West calls "the definition of a bad gig."\nThey may not yet be cavorting in boat-sized tour buses, but this Saturday night at Bluebird the Swell has a victory to celebrate: in 12 months they've progressed from a novel idea to become one of the most visible and, like them or not, most talked-about original band in Bloomington. In September 2003, they took the stage (with since-departed drummer Travis Ellison) at a house party held by fellow Bloomington band Blue Moon Revue; a year later their debut album Love Grenade is going on sale following their performance.\nWest and bassist Nick Wyatt have a lot to say about what's transpired since their founding, but more than anything else they have a lot of people to thank: the friends that encouraged them, the tight-knit business associates that support them, the producer and friend that lent a career's worth of experience to develop them and a town full of what West calls "some really, really gracious people" that have so quickly embraced them. Or rather, a town mostly full of them -- West and Wyatt both agree that being put into the spotlight has garnered them their own share of detractors.\n"Let me phrase it this way," West says. "There needs to be more support for one another in terms of local bands and local music. There needs to be more appreciation for the fact that we're all trying to do the same fucking thing and we need each other. This place is too small to be scene-specific and be tweaked on, you know, a particular genre."\nStill, they both agree that Bloomington has been very good to them, and this release concert is a celebration of that. It's a great place to be from, it's "a really cultural, friendly place," West said. "The Bettys are beautiful. It's a place you go from; you start here and expand.\n"We've worked hard to represent Bloomington. Every time we're in another town we're fucking loud and proud about the fact that we're from an awesome place."\nOne of the most fruitful relationships that the Swell has fostered in town is with producer Russ Castillo, a professor of telecommunications with 25 years of producing experience who has worked with bands like Steely Dan and Pink Floyd. According to West, Castillo was "really excited about our project, really passionate about it and really wanted to be not just a guy we hired just to be the guy that fucking recorded our record but someone who'd help us, work with us, develop us, be a positive supporter. That really meant a lot to us."\nIt's a relationship that's had a great result, too: regardless of whether or not the music strikes your fancy, the first thing you notice when listening to the CD is that it does not sound like it was recorded in Bloomington, but it was -- the band laid down the tracks at Castillo's Castle Creek studio over the course of last spring break.\nThis dash into the spotlight belies years of musical experience. West, a former drummer, got a taste of the live-music circuit as a junior playing opening-act solo acoustic shows; drummer Justin Shaw got a degree in jazz studies and eschewed graduate school to stay in the band; Wyatt, who played the tuba and received a degree in music performance, has known that he wanted to play in a band for a living "since the age of five."\n"I even knew what kind of haircut I wanted," Wyatt said. "I told my mom that I was going to be in a band and have a red Mohawk." \nThough Wyatt's current Mohawk is blonde, it's another case where he and his bandmates have kept on schedule.\n"Our whole existence has been a series of goals that we set out," West said. "This time last year we said, 'Well, a year from now we need to have a fucking record out, be playing out of our state, we need to be meeting other bands, we need to be playing big nights, playing with national acts,' things of that nature, and that's exactly what's happened as far as schedules are concerned."\nThey've progressed to playing outside the state -- the shows in Chicago last Wednesday and another last Friday at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign are examples -- and West claims their reception has been warm. When asked about going up against bloodthirsty Chicago crowds, West is unperturbed. \n"I don't care if you're in LaPorte, Ind., or New York City, man," West said. "There's a craving and a desire for new and fucking interesting shit."\n"On the flipside, we do get the new-band complex a lot," Wyatt interjected. "We've played some awful shows, we've played for just the other band and their girlfriends, and that's just what's gonna happen. (You're) playing in something that you think is getting really big and then you have one night where you play for, like, six people, and that's just the breaks. It adds the element of humility, which is necessary."\nBefore they finish their cigarettes and clear out for the motorcycle crowd, West and Wyatt detailed what they've accomplished so far. They won the 2003 IU Battle of the Bands and have opened for acts like Dicky Belts of the Allman Brothers and Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise; come Saturday, they'll be selling copies of Love Grenade. More impressive: they're not a cover band and yet they're on the rise in Bloomington.\nWhen asked how he feels about how fast things have happened, West is pragmatic: "We were given an opportunity, and we just embraced it," he said. "We took the ball and ran with it." \nHe and Wyatt hope that Saturday's show makes everyone realize just how far they've managed to run.