Smug Brothers

Smug Brothers

Stuck on Beta

Anyway

"...when I say that Smug Brothers sound like Bee Thousand-era Guided By Voices had a baby with Chronic Town (the debut EP by R.E.M., not the band itself, don’t ask me how that works) and went to pre-school with Big Star, Spoon, the Strokes, Wire, and Deerhoof, well, is that illuminating? Does that tell you anything? Not really (rhetorical question, sorry), because music is a magic trick that no one has ever mastered, except by accident, and even then not for long. By definition you cannot properly describe a magic trick, especially if you don’t understand how it works to begin with." - Jim Greer, 2025

Smug Brothers

Another Bar Behind the Night

Anyway

Forgoing grand musical statements, magnum opuses, or even fashion, every release by Smug Brothers is a little box of hooks, each riff or refrain rolling around like a colorful pebble or marble. You can practically hear singer, guitarist, and songwriter Kyle Melton say to the listener: Look what I found. Pretty neat, huh? This innocent perspective shines throughout the Ohio indie-rock band’s canon, but it reaches summer-moon brilliance in latest EP Another Bar Behind the Night. Parading cheery guitar arpeggios, Don Thrasher’s stomping drums, and a kids-show mellotron line, opener “Javelina Nowhere” immediately sets the mood, brimming with all the natural joy and confidence of a toddler marching toward a merry-go-round. The pep continues onto the poppy, playful “Seamus and the Younger,” which flaunts a surprising psychedelic smear in the middle. Additional lightness is provided by "The Seven-Year Inch” and “Cricket Blessings,” both of which are built upon uplifting, ascending chord sequences. Yet brightness needs contrasting shadow. With Kyle Sowash’s Carlos D.-like basslines, “Alexander for Two” suggests a Midwestern Interpol. Lastly we come to “Shedding Polymer,” the sole song on Another Bar Behind the Night that reveals bite and menace, courtesy of newcomer Ryan Shaffer’s lead guitar. An appropriate artistic choice because the whole tune shape-shifts, the final 40 seconds flowering into pure indie-rock perfection—a hook so right and good it hurts. Classic Smug Brothers. What a way to end an EP. Pretty neat, indeed.

Smug Brothers

In The Book Of Bad Ideas

Anyway

Since forming in 2004, Ohio rock band Smug Brothers have enjoyed a relaxed, almost nonchalant, approach to writing and recording, with most albums being minor Big Bangs - instant and electric. New LP In the Book of Bad Ideas, on the other hand, was a struggle against entropy - the disorder caused by plagues and departing personnel. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Kyle Melton wrote the majority of the tunes in "bunker fashion" during the miserable pandemic summer of 2020, then slowly started recording them with bassist Kyle Sowash, lead guitarist Scott Tribble, and drummer/Smug Brothers co-pilot Don Thrasher in 2021. That November, his contributions partially completed, Tribble decamped the band due to a new job and new demands. The exit was amicable, yet left the group in a lead guitar lurch. Melton had little choice but to enter the ring and play solos on some songs. "That was both fun and frustrating," Melton admits. "Other than a handful of tracks over 15 years, I've not really done much lead playing with Smug Brothers. When Scott left, I was initially like 'Great. What now?' It took me a few weeks to psyche myself up to just go for it." Finally, belatedly, both In the Book of Bad Ideas and its sister EP Emerald Lemonade were finished in the spring of 2022. And against the odds, the two-year slog produced pleasantly surprising results. On In the Book of Bad Ideas, the band's typical, semi-60s sound - boasting biting leads and breakneck jangles...