The Swim has found a place among the popular local acts and is ready to have an official CD-release show at Plush.

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It's hard to believe that just last year The Swim was called a newcomer to Tucson music.

The poppy alt-rock act has fast become part of our musical landscape. In the past year, The Swim has opened for its heroes Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, played both the HoCo Festival and Club Crawl, and performed the music of another big influence, Guided By Voices, at the annual Great Coverup event.

Since The Swim has never had an official CD-release show in town, consider Friday night's show at Plush its official welcoming party.

The Weezer-recalling four-piece is introducing its second full-length CD, "Random Walk," and if things keep up, there should be plenty more on the way.

Caleb Christopher, 25, singer, guitarist and songwriter, talked about his surge of songwriting during a recent interview at Downtown's Grill restaurant.

Christopher wrote the "foundation" for all the songs on "Random Walk." On Christmas Day 2007, he also self-released a 12-song solo album, "Draw 50 Vehicles," and he's already lining up tracks for the next album by The Swim. "I've just been trying anything lately," he said as he worked his way through a plate of eggs, toast and tater tots.

Although some of the material on "Random Walk" has been on the shelf for four years, the majority of it was written in the past year or so.

The do-it-yourself band is self-releasing "Random Walk" and self-recorded everything on the album except the drums, which were done at OG7 Studio here in town.

"Random Walk" isn't going to alienate anyone who has seen The Swim at any number of local venues over the past year. It's full of hooks and melody, notably in the sunny, horn-assisted swinger "Unravel," which seems to narrate the existence of bumblebees.

The Swim was formed after Christopher moved to Tucson from Prescott around 2006 with songwriting partner Colton Ryan Harris, who contributes guitar and vocals. Bassist Nathan Ziebell and drummer Justin Bernard are the other Swimmers.

Christopher said "Random Walk," which will be available for sale at Friday's show, is a little more aggressive and raw than 2006's "We're Green."

This summer, Christopher said, he'd like the band to tour, but he plans to keep on writing as much as possible. He credits his current creative streak partly to a new realization he had about songwriting.

"You can do whatever you want," he said.