SWEET KNIVES was formed in 2015 when past Lost Sounds members found themselves once again living in close proximity to each other. Memphis black-wave synth punk band Lost Sounds (formed in 1998) had called it quits in 2005 after being kicked out of a house in Stuttgart in the middle of a long long night. Sweet Knives began replaying songs from the Lost Sounds 4 album catalog but soon moved to all new material.

The band draws ambience from the Memphis area musical history, 80’s new-wave, hardcore, and 90’s indie rock with sonic effected layered guitars.

FUN FACT: Lost Sounds (1998-2005), added analog synths to punk during the garage rock revival of the late 90’s. Influenced by the post-apocalyptic entropy of Memphis, they created a new sound in punk rock n’ roll dubbed “Black-Wave”, a mixture of black metal and new wave. With Jay Reatard’s death in 2010 the Lost Sounds could not reunite, so the sound carries on in Sweet Knives.

On their west coast tour 2019, Sweet Knives got to visit with Henry Rollins who has been a huge promotor of Alicja’s music on his saturday night KCRW (Los Angeles) radio show. Alicja received a lot of support for her 2021 solo album “Howlin”, which was on WFMU’s (NYC) high rotation list for 2021. Rollins has played a track off Sweet Knives’ new album SPRITZERITA (2022 fdh records) every week since March 5th on KCRW radio Los Angeles (see beginning of hour 2, around 1:01 each week). https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/henry-rollins After a long Covid-19 hiatus the band booked a tour for 2022 to go the the east coast. This July 2023 Sweet Knives is going to tour the midwest. Currently SPRITZERITA is on the WFMU Heavy Rotation Playlist.

BAND MEMBERS: Alicja Trout, guitar and vocals, writes and records her own music at her home studio, The Tronic graveyard. Lori McStay, synths, has played for over 25 years with Alicja as The Ultracats doing rocked up girl group cover songs and is part owner of Shangri-La Records, a “Destination Record Store” in Memphis, TN as dubbed by Jello Biafra. Eli Steele, doesn’t drink but works at a liquor store and plays guitar. Andrew Geraci is the bass player of Memphis. Recognizable by his big black wavy hair, he plays everything from metal to mariachi. Graham Winchester, an amazing Memphis multi-instrumental musician, joins Sweet Knives on drums as Rich Crook takes off for the year.

Some band history for Alicja Trout:
The Clears - Smells Like Records (Steve Shelley’s label) 1997-1999
Lost Sounds - In The Red Records 1998-2005/empty Records/Goner Records
River City Tanlines - Dirtnap Records 2003-present
Sweet Knives - fdh records, Big Neck Records, Red Lounge Records (Germany) Savage Records (Sweden) 2016-present
Alicja-pop - Certified PR records/Black & Wyatt Records 2003-present


Listen/Stream:
New album: https://fdhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/spritzerita
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Ne7TmReibcNB5XcoGLqEg

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vloP6_oZxJg

Social:
https://www.instagram.com/uleeshuh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicja_Trout
https://www.instagram.com/sweetknivesband
https://www.facebook.com/sweetknives