Between us we have: Guns N' Roses, The Ramones, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, Tori Amos, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Billy Joel, Ours, Jane's Addiction, PJ Harvey, Green Day, Faith No More, Shudder To Think, Alkaline Trio, Tomahawk, The The, Burning Airlines, Buckcherry, Black Sabbath, Jawbox, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Kiss, TSOL, Depeche Mode, Metallica, The Used, Jeff Buckley, Fugazi, Garbage, Nine Inch Nails, Morrissey, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Muse, Iron Maiden, The Pixies, Willie Nelson, Soundgarden, Jimmy Eat World, New York Dolls, Hole, The Mission UK, Def Leppard, Rush, Concrete Blonde, Social Distortion, Rage Against the Machine, AFI...
And of course we might also be influenced by early 20th century poetry, good novels, the stars, alcohol, crushes, love, hate, sex, jealousy and the occasional drug.
Sounds Like
Discography
Hotel Rooms and Heart Attacks (2008) The Swear's first full-length album is an 13-track affair produced by Matt Goldman, Ted Niceley and Jeff Tomei. Mixed by Eli Janney and mastered by Howie Weinberg, the record features cover art by Dennis Campay.
Every Trick's A Good One (2006) The Swear's debut recording is a six-song EP produced and mixed by Russ-T Cobb at Butch Walker's Ruby Red Productions in Atlanta. It was mastered by Howie Weinberg and also has cover art by Dennis Campay.
"Sometimes you just dig a good pop song where the guitarists are punching and jabbing through the melody and groove in a way that truly lifts things up. In this regard, Elizabeth Elkins and Jeremy Zamora are rock warriors with total command of meaty riffs, feedback swells, dynamics, and churning, crunching chords."-Guitar Player
"Some of the most literate rock ever produced in Atlanta. [The songs are] verbose, contemporary epics that could easily double as provocative, stand-alone poetry." -Lee Valentine Smith, Georgia Music Magazine
"Elizabeth Elkins leads The Swear with a thundering certainty." -Paste Magazine
"The Swear is terrific. Memorable guitar riffs and a thundering rhythm section careen behind Elizabeth Elkins' forceful vocals. The songs paint vivid portraits of envy, jealousy and the things we do for love and lust."-The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Elizabeth Elkins possesses a rare gift of supreme tonal inflection. One minute she can be melodic, even vulnerable; the next a thunderous commander. This sheer vocal presence, juxtaposed with skilled band mates, makes The Swear one of Atlanta’s most exciting mainstream prospects." -Metromix
"A top music pick of the day. The songs stand on a concise but attitude-driven riff-rock foundation, singer Elizabeth Elkins offering a sliver of Distillers snarl doused in a bucket of '80s-prog vibrato."-The Nashville Tennessean
"It's dark, it's real and it hits home. Elizabeth Elkins is a top songwriter on the verge of big things."-Kip Schaumloffel/Lollapalooza, Chicago
"Elizabeth Elkins is a good singer - tough, assertive, expressive. 'Vampire' is a sort of speeded-up-girl-doing-Geddy-Lee-prog-punk, hence reminding me of old Boston art-core pinkos the Proletariat albeit more melodically. 'Shuttered Off Christine' is forboding but banging. The Swear's music is not especially joyful, to my ears. Odd thing is, I kind of like it anyway."
-Chuck Eddy, Rhapsody.com
"Although, at first glance, they appear to be in a niche akin to The Sex Pistols, they are, in fact, a sensible bunch of instrumentalists with as much flare for song as any Nashville staffer. Everything about them screams loud but they are not noisy and could pull off an MTV Unplugged as gracefully as Nirvana." -Lior Shamir, The UK Singer/Songwriter Awards
The Swear's debut EP was chosen as one of the year's best by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Creative Loafing, Georgia Music Magazine and the UK Street Voice. Also check out The Swear on The Sunday Paper's "It" List and in Creative Loafing's Best of Atlanta.
The band is a Grand Prize winner in the rock category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition, received an honorable mention in the UK Singer/Songwriter Awards, won first prize in the Converse Get Out of the Garage Music Contest, has been chosen for the Billboard/Discmakers Independent Music World Series twice, was chosen by MySpace as a finalist for the Taste of Chaos contest, was chosen by Rolling Stone as one of five finalists in the Ray-Ban Never Hide Your Music competition, had a song on an Aware Store compilation, had a song selected by Ford Motor Company for their Edge of Celebrity Tour, was an Arizona Jeans' Radio Free Arizona artist, was a Top 50 qualifier in the American Music Awards presents the Coca-Cola New Music Award, was in Guitar Center's Producer Project Top Ten, won Ernie Ball's Battle of the Bands 7, has been a spotlight artist at Garageband and Sonicbids, and is one of the few unsigned bands to have charted in the top 20 on commercial speciality show charts at both FMQB and Clear Channel.
You may have heard The Swear on these TV shows: Smallville (The CW), Rescue Me (FX), Beyond the Break (The N), Roswell (The WB), Reunion (FOX), Life As We Know It (ABC), Wanted (TNT), Outward Bound (The Discovery Channel), Tool Academy (VH1), Cribs, Parental Control and My Super Sweet Sixteen (MTV), Atlanta Tonight (UPN), CNN, YouTube's Lonelygirl15 and Comcast On Demand.
In these films: Surreal (2007 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival), The Delivery Boy Chronicles, Cross Country and By Chance.
And live on these stages (partial list): Vans Warped Tour, SXSW, CMJ New Music Marathon, RedGorilla Music Festival (Austin), Pianos (NYC), Arlene's Grocery (NYC), Snitch (NYC), Trash Bar (Brooklyn), Mobfest (Chicago), BMI's "8 off 8th" at Mercy Lounge (Nashville), Exit/In (Nashville), Gaylord Arena (Nashville), Bluebird Cafe (Nashville), Georgia Theater (Athens), 40 Watt (Athens), Jack Rabbits (Jacksonville), Fred's Speakeasy (Asheville), The Nick (Birmingham), New Brookland Tavern (Columbia), Five Points Pub (Columbia), A1A Music Hall (Lexington), Blue Cats (Knoxville), The Handlebar (Greenville), Music Midtown (Atlanta), The Grammy Block Party (Atlanta), Atlantis Music Conference (Atlanta), Center Stage (Atlanta), The Masquerade (Atlanta), The Roxy (Atlanta), The Loft (Atlanta) with bands such as Paramore, Foo Fighters, The Living End, Bowling for Soup, Crossfade, Courtney Love, Concrete Blonde and The Subways.
The Swear is proud to be endorsed by:
Costly Sunglasses talks to The Swear about the new record, includes interview and live clips from The Nick in Birmingham, Alabama
Elizabeth acoustic at the 2008 CMJ New Music Marathon
and I just had my first audition last night. they loved me, so I'll be performing (my acoustic stuff) for an hour on august 21. you've been a great inspiration!
Hey Elizabeth, haven't talked to you in forever! great stuff. My giving your professional opinion on my stuff? It'd also be great if you could spread the word about my acoustic stuff. If you want the link just ask. hope all is well!!
Elizabeth, you are the greatest. Thanks for the Alastor cd, The Late Night Plays. I loved the cd terribly. I'm sorry I don't have any cds from The Swear, I'm pinching my money these days, but I love all the songs on the playlist.
I don't live in Atlanta anymore. The most important thing I miss about Atlanta is the local music scene. I saw Elizabeth Elkins, when she was a member of Alastor, perform at Dark Horse Tavern. I miss the local music. Alastor was my favorite local band even though I only have 1 cd of them. Other bands I saw at Dark Horse were; Persona, Audio Bridge, Metroscene, Fair Verona, Sing Sing Prison, ect. I do have a couple of cds from some of the music groups I saw there.
