Smith Westerns - Smith Westerns

Smith Westerns
Smith Westerns
(2009, Hazoc Records)
RIYL = The Kinks, The Black Lips, The Strange Boys

So, um, I have been using Sassigrass’s headphones for awhile after I broke every pair that I had and now I’ve broken hers (sorry). And they were pretty nice ones too, albeit fairly old. Anyways, the left earphone isn’t transmitting tunes anymore and a one of the little plastic parts that holds the right earphone on snapped off a couple weeks ago (I don’t know when this happened, I just picked them up one day and the right earphone didn’t come with the rest of the headset). That being the case, my normal listening habits are slightly damaged right now, which is ok I suppose because I have been listening to lots of slightly damaged music as of late. the Smith Westerns being just one of them. The content here isn't particularly groundbreaking in terms of style, just a bunch of super sweet, fuzzed up garage pop. So, The Smith Westerns aren’t the most original trashed out garage rockers, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t one of the best. The band derives most of its luster from the sixties rather than the nineties and their all the better for it. I think the biggest difference in decade worship is in the hooks. The Smith Westerns have some truly soaring hooks in their self titled debut that promises to keep you coming back over and over again. Just listen to lead single "Be My Girl" and tell me you don't want to just replay the song over and over again. And then there is the fuzz. I have no problem with lo-fi music as this blog will attest, but that doesn’t mean that I like writing about it over and over again. How many different ways can I say that something is art damaged? Well, The Smith Westerns aren't really pushing hard on the whole noise thing. In fact, the fuzz they do pick up feels like it came directly from the era of their inspiration. This is just lovely batch of solid pop all the way through. Now, can someone tell me what other two images are mashed up with the Nevermind image on the cover?

-Thistle

First, I love Chic-A-Go-Go. Second, are they not totally (poorly) lip syncing this song? Makes me laugh. Third, where is the drummer? Do they not really have one?