Crooked Teeth

Single review by Gabrielle Groves

Prior to multiple headlining shows this February, Crooked Teeth, “your mom’s favorite punk band,” have made a fitting adjustment to an older song. The trio of Tyson Evans, Jason Hayes, and Jay Pigott have taken a non-punk song ‘Swing Life Away’ by rock band Rise Against, and “gave it a pop punk duet re-imagining” as they described it on Instagram. ‘Swing Life Away’ was originally off the 2004 album, Siren Song of the Counter-Culture. It has been covered and sampled several times since then, notably by MGK with Kellin Quinn of Sleeping with Sirens in 2012. 

Written by Rise Against’s lead vocalist Tom McIlrath and Neil Hennessy, the lyrics of ‘Swing Life Away’ are poetic and unifying with lines such as “Let’s unwrite these pages and replace them with our own words” and “If love is a labor, I’ll slave till the end.” Crooked Teeth’s cover of the song is done tastefully in each aspect, producing a version that Rise Against would most likely be proud of. Along with Evans singing the main vocals, Pigott sings the backing vocals and a line of the pre-chorus, which makes for a blend of harmonious vocals between the two. 

In an Instagram post teasing the song, the band used the caption “‘Swing Life Away’ but make it sound like blink [-182].” Interestingly enough, Evans also used the Fender Starcaster guitar while recording, which was produced as a collaboration with Tom Delonge of blink-182. Crooked Teeth has made it known how much they are influenced by blink-182, as well as fellow alternative artists like Paramore and Foo Fighters.

Crooked Teeth’s cover has made it onto Spotify’s “All New Punk” playlist and Sirius XM’s “Faction Punk” station. The band is also opening for the metal band Fever 333 on January 23 in Los Angeles, and has several Pacific Northwest shows lined up in California, Oregon, and Washington throughout the first half of February. They will be joined by the recent addition of Livi Dillon on bass.