One of the greatest things about punk rock for me was the leeway allowed in terms of guitar sounds. Sure, The Ramones, and The Sex Pistols had the traditional "Rock guitar" sounds- you know that midrange buzzing thing you get from a guitar pushing a Marshall amp through 4 12 inch speakers? Yeah, that never excited me. I much preferred stuff like Joe Strummer's clinky Telecaster into a solid state Fender, or Andy Gill's cheap Stratocaster into an H&H solid state, or Greg Sage's mutant SG pushing some odd amp he made himself, or Greg Ginn's Dan Armstrong into a Peavey Solid State PA Amp- sounds that "professional' guitar players looked at as being "bad tones". I still prefer tones and guitar sounds that aren't considered "good" by the tasteful crowd.
So, I do not care that Swingin' Utters ( or as they'd have it "Swingin Utter$") play "pop punk" or that their lyrics aren't all thatdeep- they're one of the few bands that can still play on the Warped tour, but seemingly love unusual guitar sounds- they sound hissy, tinny, and energetic, and coil-sprung, just like a Punk Rock guitar should. They sound like steel strings being struck really hard, and vibrating a piece of wood. That's exactly what I like. So, yeah, I like it. Like Johnny, their singer puts it:
They sort of go for a cheap sound and I kind of like that. I don’t like having polished-sounding guitars and that sort of shit. I think the strings should be heard. Every string should be heard when you strum a guitar.
