(photo by Jon Chamberlain)
Sweet Talk are an Austin based quartet fronted/founded by former Uptown Bums guitarist/vocalist Stephen Svacina, who a few of you might know from his additional guitar work alongside Mark Ryan in Denton, TX’s Mind Spiders. Flanked by Wiccans/Video/Brain Attack bassist Harpal Assi and southpaw guitar wiz/Ft. Wayne transplant Mitch Frazier (Church Shoes), Svacina’s Sweet Talk were likened by a peer to something that “combined the best parts of Cheap Trick, early UK power pop and the dual guitar work of Thin Lizzy.”
Lofty praise, sure, but in the last year, Sweet Talk have become one of the best live bands in a region that isn’t exactly hurting for good ones. I’d say they’ve made the leap from crazily-catchy to downright transcendent in record time, but it’s not like I’ve been standing around with a stopwatch. If Sweet Talk aren’t in your town before long, I’d seriously consider moving.
Sweet Talk’s debut album, the Evan Kleinecke co-produced ‘Pickup Lines’, comes out January 22, 2013 on LP and CD.