Standout Track No. 3, “Colossal-Sized Picassos,” a dirty, homemade punk anthem to get your day moving. On the group’s forthcoming single from Yeah Gates!, Foul Swoops zero in on a no-bullshit power-trio aesthetic, for which Devin and Sean Connell trade guitar and drum duties from song to song, while Steven Cresswell holds it down on bass. But “Picassos” suggests there’s more to Foul Swoops than scuzz: The track ends with a simple yet discordant guitar solo from Devin that toys cleverly with tension and release. “Devin’s a great guitarist,” says Sean, “and we try and include guitar solos as much as possible.” Musical Motivation The single is as rough as they come, with no pretense of production, and it’s no mistake. “We had an opportunity to record with someone else, but it was important to us to do our first release on our own,” says Sean. “It was something we could do, and a lot of bands we grew up liking did it a similar way.” Sean cites a few favorites: “Silver Jews, The Clean, The Desperate Bicycles, Messthetics, Killed By Death compilations, and random one-and-done punk bands that formed out of nowhere in the ’80s that had like two weird songs.”

A Family Affair The band keeps its lyrics simple, as well. Devin says the song is mostly “just some words that I strung together.” Sean says the song’s title “is actually a quote from ‘All About The Benjamins’ by Puff Daddy and The Family…it’s not not a statement on Picasso.” Foul Swoops is a more literal family operation than Puffy’s ’90s crew. “I think we’re gonna keep playing music forever, [Devin] and I,” says Sean. “We’re brothers, and we plan on existing whether or not anyone is listening.”