Smug Brothers

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 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.