Swimming With Sharks is the second album by Get Smart!

Get Smart! (band)

Get Smart! was a three piece band formed in Lawrence, Kansas in 1980 consisting of Marc Koch, Lisa Wertman Crowe and Frank Loose.-Career:The band formed while at University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS in 1980 and, along with bands like the Embarrassment and the Mortal Micronotz, they were prominent...

, released on Enigma Records

Enigma Records

Enigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, which it split-off from in 1985 to become its own company...

' "Restless

Restless Records

Restless Records was started in El Segundo, California in 1981 by Enigma Records and primarly released alternative, metal and punk records. Restless also licensed and released records from Bar/None Records, Metal Blade Records and Mute Records...

" imprint in 1986.

Info

Live versions of "Back Into The Future" and "World Without End", recorded at CBGB

CBGB

CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...

, had previously been released as a single.

"Gold To Rust" was released in Spain as a split single

Split album

A split album is a music album which includes tracks by two or more separate artists. There have been singles and EPs released in the same nature, which can be referred to as split singles and split EPs respectively...

, coupled with "Home" by Gone Fishin' (from their Can't Get Lost When You're Goin' Nowhere album) by Enigma Europe.

The album was produced by Iain Burgess

Iain Burgess

Iain Burgess was a British record producer and audio engineer. He helped define the sound of the Chicago post-punk music scene in the 1980s and early '90s, working with a number of key underground bands, including Big Black, Naked Raygun, The Effigies, Get Smart!, Ministry, Bloodsport, Pegboy,...

 at Chicago Recording Company

Chicago Recording Company

Chicago Recording Company, or CRC, is a recording studio in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1975.Boasting twelve studios and a DVD authoring suite, CRC is the largest recording company in the midwest...

 in Chicago in 1985.

All songs were written collectively by the band.

Track listing

Side 1:

1. "To The Nines" - 3:04
2. "Sleeve" - 3:29
3. "Looking Out For #3" - 3:27
4. "Nothing I Can Do" - 2:59
5. "World Without End" - 2:58

Side 2:

1. "See Who's Laughing" - 1:59
2. "Gold To Rust" - 3:39
3. "Every Road That You Go Down" - 2:06
4. "Room w/a View" - 1:50
5. "Back Into The Future" - 2:30

Personnel

• Marc Koch - vocals, guitar
• Lisa Wertman Crowe - vocals, bass
• Frank Loose - vocals, drums

Reception

• "Swimming With Sharks finds Get Smart! progressing along nicely. The trio speedily works its multifarious way through ten songs in various idioms, offering sketchy poetic lyrics along the way. They're still rough around the edges — drummer Frank Loose gets stuck in patterns that limit songs' appeal — and neither bassist Lisa Wertman nor guitarist Marc Koch is that great a singer, but workable ideas and cool sounds bubble up regularly enough to make Swimming With Sharks a safe and rewarding experience." (Ira Robbins, Trouser Press
  Trouser Press
  Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...
  
  , 1986)
• "Their new LP, Swimming With Sharks, is full of tense, carefully crafted miniatures that meld unvarnished noise with unexpected pretty vocal harmonies" (Renaldo Migaldi, Chicago Reader, 1986)
• "A definite improvement over this heady Chicago's trio's last wax. Get Smart! have yet to find the right bridge to the vicinity of the mainstream; still, this is a tasty aural treat for those who like to think and rock at the same time." (Jeff Silberman, Rock It, Fall 1986)
• "Swimming With Sharks finds Chicago's premier modern trio at their relentless best, serving up 10 tunes' worth of edgy, intense, and occasionally quite lovely hardcore folk" (Moira McCormick, Illinois Entertainer, September 1986)

External links

• Lyrics at Wikia