Following the release of an EP in 2010 and after a year spent coming together as a live force to be reckoned with, Stephen Paul Smoker emerge with a harder, darker edge on their upcoming debut LP, Ripe Fruit, out March 20 via Kilo Records. The first track from Ripe Fruit, "Green City." Incessant stomp, gutter guitar that evolves to squall, psychedelic canyon vocals and elements of disco all appear in "Green City" by Chicago act Stephen Paul Smoker. This is dirty music for dirty times...

A Lancaster, PA native, musician Stephen Paul Smoker began his career at an early age, honing his craft as a touring musician and hired gun for bands like MewithoutYou and the Mint. Smoker relocated to Chicago to join and perform with childhood friend Grace Kulp and continued to tour with other acts such as the Loto Ball Show.

Inspired by the bright sun light in his Pilsen attic which doubled as his bedroom, Smoker created what would eventually become his debut EP , Violent Sun / Violent Fun, a no-frills, psychedelic DIY take on indie pop.

After releasing Violent Sun / Violent Fun, Stephen formed band and began to perform his music live. Teaming up with local Pilsen musicians Michael Kostal, Evan DePue, Bethany Smoker, Paul Roots, as well as Gerald Baily (Trumpeter/Black Bear Combo) and Emma Hospelhorn (Flute/Hollows) the group began performing live in late 2010, and spent 2011 preparing for their first full length release, RIPE FRUIT, which will be available March 20th, 2012 on Kilo Records. 

Netherfriends is Shawn Rosenblatt (pictured right posing as Harry Nilsson), a cheeky bugger from Chicago who puts together albums worth of song samples strung together to create tracks for his original melodies and vocals.

I have always had deep doubts about the whole sampling thing, not that I don't admire the creative ways it can be handled, it just doesn't seem to me to be a legitimate contribution in terms of moving any art form forward. If one, for instance, took a photograph of a Picasso and then cut it into asymmetric patterns and pieced it all back together in some vaguely logical manner different from the original, would that be anything?

Well, it might be entertaining, and that's pretty much what you get with Rosenblatt, who is a whirlwind of creative impulse looking for any available outlet and finding it in this sampling thing. Still, when I heard he was futzing about with Harry Nilsson, whom I revere as a standard of Pop world vocal excellence, I was under enthusiastic to hear his work. Rosenblatt is clever, but he doesn't really sing, at least in the same world once inhabited by Harry Nilsson. You can use this link to have a listen and download and judge for yourself. Along the way, you may discover the following video, which is a Herculean effort to make a stop action film with the help of a few friends and an extraordinary amount of patience from everyone involved. Rosenblatt reports that it took him a month, and for my money it is time better spent than picking the bones of poor departed Harry Nilsson. The video below reveals Rosenblatt to be a character in his own right, a star of his own inner movie, the producer of his own imagination, and the engineer of his wilder dreams. This video is great fun!

Netherfriends is a touring act and the link provided above to Rosenblatt's Website will put you in a theater seat near him soon. - RAR