MEET THE BAND
FOUNDED: 2007
MEMBERS:
Darryl Robins: guitar, percussion, keyboards, tambourine, overdub master, engineer (studio)
Kyle Melton: guitar, vocals (studio and live)
Don Thrasher: drums (studio and live)
Bryan Baker: guitar and backing vocals (live)
Jason Short: drums (studio)
Marc Betts: bass (live)
ALONG THE LINES OF: Guided by Voices, Replacements, Pavement, Swearing at Motorists
WEB SITE: www.myspace.com/thesmugbrothers
Meet Don Thrasher.
He contributes stories to this publication, covering countless local bands.
Thrasher’s also a drummer. His latest project, Smug Brothers, is a three-piece indie-pop outfit that played its first show at Bellbrook Jamboree on July 18. This weekend the band travels to Denver to play at The Denver Post Underground Music Showcase.
According to John Wenzel of The Denver Post, the EP series Smug Brothers systematically released over the course of early 2009 is “some catchy ... stuff.” Or, to borrow the words of local music blogger Kris Neises, Smug Brothers is “catchier than the swine flu.”
The band released the EP series in anticipation of their full-length release, “Fortune Rumors,” dropping this August.
All this band buzz and new album plans came as a surprise to Thrasher, who remembers that “(Smug Brothers) kind of just started as a recording project.”
“Kyle Melton and Darryl Robins started (Smug Brothers) a couple years ago as something just to mess around on,” Thrasher said. “That’s when the name (Smug Brothers) came on, just a joke more than anything else. When they decided to do a second recording, that’s when I came in.”
The trio aren’t the sole contributors to Smug Brothers, Jason Short played drums on a few songs in the studio; there are also Marc Betts, the live-show bassist, and Bryan Baker (of Astro Fang and Grizzzzy Bear fame) who played guitar and did backing vocals at their first show.
Thrasher — a former member of Guided by Voices (GBV) — definitely hears some GBV influence in Smug Brothers’ sound.
“I know Melton and Robins are definitely fans of GBV, but I don’t know if that’s what they have in mind,” Thrasher said.
The band’s album might not have gotten released had it not been for Tony Gilbert, label manager of local Dayton music label Squid’s Eye Records.
“We’ve had the album put together, but it sat around for a few months” Thrasher said. “Then we decided to put out the EP’s, and Gilbert from Squid’s Eye contacted Melton to see if we wanted to put (the album) out — and of course we did.”
On June 23, Squid’s Eye Records released Smug Brothers’ first single, “Interior Magnets,” along with four non-LP tracks to help spread the word.
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