Track of the Week: Swell Maps: Read About Seymour (1978)

Brothers Nikki Sudden (guitar, vocals) and Epic Soundtracks (drums) formed Swell Maps with a couple of school friends in about 1973. Despite not knowing a thing about playing their instruments, they regularly recorded jam sessions on beat-up tape decks, going as far as to design covers for imaginary albums afterwards. And they would likely have stayed an imaginary band, were it not for the release of Spiral Scratch by the Buzzcocks and the early Desperate Bicycle singles. These records were self-recorded and self-released, and proud of it. Realising that anyone could book studio time, not just big bands on major labels, the Maps pooled their pocket money and recorded and pressed their first single, 'Read About Seymour', at their local studio.'Read About Seymour' is defiantly chaotic and amateurish - the punk rhetoric about not being able to play your instruments was often not strictly true, but here, from the flurried drum entry to the messy guitar lines, it sounds like the Maps rehearsed the song all of one time before going into the studio. Despite the scrappy playing and Sudden's hopelessly off-key vocals, the band's pop instinct is clear - the nagging guitar line and shouty vocals are incredibly catchy. The song just about holds together for the first minute, before collapsing into a joyous mess of noise for a further thirty seconds, then its over.The Swell Maps integrated noise and playful experimentation into pop-punk, thus paving the way for Sonic Youth, Big Black and a host of other indie/altenative bands who have acknowledged their debt. They also proved that all you need to make a great record is the imagination and the will. The Swell Maps disbanded in 1980 after two equally eccentric yet wonderful albums and a series of non-album singles. Believing that bands were spoiled when they got to the stage where they relied on making music and touring for their income, the Maps decided to break up before this happened. Nikki and Epic both had equally chaotic solo careers before their untimely deaths. However, to this day their music remains both wildly entertaining and a source of inspiration for anyone who wants to make music on their own terms. Here's a chord, here's another one, here's another one. Now form a band.