Sean joins Concert and Vinyl’s Record Club for an hour of music and conversation. Listen to the session and explore the companion playlist.

Sean Kirkpatrick playing drums onstage

Ahead of Swell’s 2026 European tour, Sean Kirkpatrick talks about revisiting *Well…?*, his distinctive drum sound, and the emotion of playing David Freel’s songs. Plus, painting, solo music, and what he’s listening to lately.

tour 2026

The San Francisco band Swell are heading to Europe as “Members of Swell”. Originally conceived by the late David Freel and Sean Kirkpatrick in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, Swell became a cult name known for its cinematic, raw, and unmistakably melancholic sound.

Swell Collector Series

For 2026, Swell is offering a Collector Series – 4 lathe-cut, limited edition 7″ records with never-before-released musical goodness. The first, released in February of this year includes two songs from Swell’s live set at The Royal Theatre in Victoria, BC, July 21, 1993. Swell was on tour with the band The The. From Monte: Band was DF MV SK and Niko Wenner. Nothing too sordid to report. Saw some Orcas on the ferry ride from Seattle, after soundcheck went to a strip bar called Monty’s on the ground floor of our hotel.

Welcome to ’90s Overlooked Underheard! An in-depth look at fifty underrated albums from the 1990s… Indie, Alternative, Shoegaze, Grunge, Punk, Lo-fi, Post-Rock, Math-Rock, Hardcore, Industrial, Americana, Ambient, Avant Noise, Hip Hop and more.

41

Late March 1994 (The 22nd), thirty years ago, the Ricans of Swell exhibit their third opus, the magnificent 41.

A meeting between one of the participants of the tribute around “41”, and the members of the group on the eve of the European tour tribute to David Freel, who died on April 12, 2022.

SWOLLEN

In 1991, I was designing THRASHER magazine at the time I was in SWELL. SWOLLEN Issue 1 was the first zine I ever made on the computer. I quit THRASHER to go on the first tour. Enjoy this piece of SWELL history.

This was a rare and special event for fans of Swell, a San Francisco cult band who haunted the peripheries of ’90s underground rock and gradually drifted away. It was part of a reunion tour, yes, but the inspiration for it was anything but typical. The members regrouped for a four-date West Coast trip to pay tribute to their late leader, David Freel, who passed away last year at age 64.

For Swell — the post-punk pioneers who will play a special reunion show at the Independent on Dec. 5 in memoriam of late singer David Freel — their band origins can be traced back to a small, remote village in Spain, thousands of miles away from their homebase of San Francisco.

Welcome to ’90s Overlooked Underheard! An in-depth look at fifty underrated albums from the 1990s… Indie, Alternative, Shoegaze, Grunge, Punk, Lo-fi, Post-Rock, Math-Rock, Hardcore, Industrial, Americana, Ambient, Avant Noise, Hip Hop and more.

SWELL’s original members playing songs from those good ole bad ole days in San Francisco, in memory and tribute. Only U.S. Shows – First in many moons.

OXBOW

Swell’s Guitarist Niko Wenner and vocalist Eugene S. Robinson of experimental rock band OXBOW discuss their new album Love’s Holiday.

SWOLLEN Issue 6

SWOLLEN Issue 6, the 2023 David Freel Tribute Tour Edition is now available as a complimentary download. The first Zine production executed by JDL since the first edition of SWOLLEN.

David and I used to joke about where we were going to have our ashes scattered. He wanted to be made into a bullet or dropped off somewhere in France : )

THE HOMECOMING…The Independent is a premier live music venue in San Francisco that opened its doors to Bay Area music lovers in February 2004.

The American indie band Swell was not in the studio, but on stage at Muziekgieterij, in front of the audience. Swell’s music is elusive. The band navigates between punk, psychedelia and folk and lards its music with cinematic elements.