Photo by David Milan Kelly
Swapmeet’s anticipated debut album has landed after a whirlwind year for the Adelaide four-piece. Mount Zero is out now via Winspear following it’s placement as Feature Album on triple j this week. This weekend, the group are touring the East Coast for a series of intimate in-store performances and signings. Tickets are on sale now for their headline world tour. LISTEN / PURCHASE MOUNT ZERO HERE + BUY TIX HERE.
Mingling airy sweetness with jagged surrealism, Mount Zero transmutes so many of the regrets and uncertainties of young adulthood into a burgeoning, newfound confidence. Named after the road sign passed across many interstate drives, it would become a beacon to another portal for Swapmeet. A place they’d never visit, but indicates a shifting landscape. “It became a symbol for people we’d see but never meet. When you’re always in a different city and trying new things, there are a lot of experiences you observe but never get to fully explore,” says Maxwell Elphick.
Circling common themes: first loves, first heartbreaks, first embarrassments, first disasters – the ways that the early years of adulthood can shatter your expectations about how life is supposed to go. Mount Zero bottles the tooth-gritting intensity of feeling yourself change at the cellular level under reality’s unyielding pressures, it’s a tribute to all the lives that can never be lived, all the paths that will never be followed – and an ode to the one that lies just ahead, too.
‘I Know!’ lets precise fingerpicking buckle beneath hammer swings of bass on the giddy ‘2 C U’. ‘Halfway’ drapes its cinematic imagery and pointed witticisms in overlapping, mixed-fidelity guitar figures, while the delectably catchy ‘Bonny’ molts its suntanned skin to crescendo in a noise burst. Mount Zero caps off an unprecedented period of elevation for Swapmeet.
Since setting the year ablaze with their Winspear label signing, Swapmeet played 13 showcases in Austin and were anointed “the winner of SXSW”; their triple j-playlisted single ‘I Know!’ landed AMRAP charting on debut at #2 nationally and #1 on Rock/Metal following over a hundred rabid spins in its first week – a reaction that never let up with each new single and labelled globally as Rolling Stone’s Artist You Need To Know, Unearthed’s Feature Artist, NME’s Radar Artist, Stereogum‘s Band to Watch and Apple Music‘s Up Next artist.
Swapmeet have accumulated a staggering list of DSP editorial playlisting and cover placement worldwide, quietly matching the organic reach of their breakout ‘Ceiling Fan’ on the heels of a million streams. Theirs was also the most coveted Phoenix Central Park ballot entry to date. This all culminates in a debut world tour later this year, including Pitchfork Festival Paris and London, and dates supporting Wolf Alice at Sydney Opera House Forecourt and Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens.
Mount Zero firmly establishes the moment the Adelaide four-piece come into their own. Look through a keyhole, and you might see something on the other side of the door you can’t quite reach yet. Just as the beacon an uncanny plaque would come to represent, Swapmeet’s journey through Mount Zero attests the transformative power of that potential. See all in-store signings and tour routing info BELOW.
Mount Zero LP is out now, buy/stream it here.
TRACKLIST
I Know!
Mount Zero
Bonny
Halfway
2 C U
Seeds
Sand
Personal (Don’t Take It)
My Heart Breaks II
SWAPMEET IN-STORES
Fri 17 Jul – SoundMerch – Naarm / Melbourne
Sat 18 Jul – Music Farmers – Dharawal Land / Wollongong
Sun 19 Jul – HUM On King – Eora / Sydney
Mon 20 Jul – Abicus – Mulubinba / Newcastle
Tue 21 Jul – IMA x Glitter Records x Somersault Magazine – Meanjin / Brisbane
WORLD TOUR DATES
Fri 4 Sep – Rhino Room – tarntanya / Adelaide
Sat 5 Sep – The Lansdowne – Eora / Sydney
Fri 11 Sep – Black Bear Lodge – Meanjin / Brisbane
Fri 18 Sep – Northcote Social Club – Naarm / Melbourne
Thu 8 Oct – El Cid – Los Angeles, CA
Fri 9 Oct – Neck Of The Woods – San Francisco, CA
Sun 11 Oct – Baby Yaga – Seattle, WA
Mon 12 Oct – Polaris – Portland, OR
Wed 14 Oct – Schubas – Chicago, IL
Fri 16 Oct – Monarch Tavern – Toronto, CA
Sat 17 Oct – Toscadura – Montreal, CA
Thu 22 Oct – Baby’s All Right – New York City, NY
Fri 23 Oct – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA
Sat 24 Oct – Songbyrd Music House – Washington, DC
Fri 30 Oct – London Calling – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sat 31 Oct – Les Nuits Botanique Weekender – Brussels, Belgium
Sun 01 Nov – Merleyn – Nijmegen, Netherlands
Mon 02 Nov – Badehaus Szimpla – Berlin, Germany
Tue 03 Nov – Yard Club – Cologne, Germany
Thu 05 Nov – Pitchfork Music Festival – Paris, France
Fri 06 Nov – The Hope & Ruin – Brighton, England
Sat 07 Nov – Pitchfork Music Festival – London, England
Wed 11 Nov – The Abbey – Manchester, England
Thu 12 Nov – Nice ‘n’ Sleazy – Glasgow, Scotland
Sat 14 Nov – The Grand Social – Dublin, Ireland
Tickets available at swapmeetband.com
Stay connected with Swapmeet:
23 Profile | Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Bandcamp | triple j Unearthed
