Is Smoosh Your Next Indie Rock Favorite?

We humans, we love our prodigies, don’t we? With many of us being stuck in the drudges of mediocrity, we love to applaud the quick learners who display knowledge beyond their years in the hope that they can somehow give something back to us to lift us from the sludge. Yet how much of what a prodigy accomplishes is unique? I would argue almost nothing, because while they may be wonderful at what they do, especially for being so unusually young, the best a prodigy can be in their early stages is simply an imitator. The true talent eventually rises above this, but rarely on a objective level is it anything but.

So then how does one go about giving an opinion on Smoosh, a band with a silly name but serious ambitions? Here is an act made up of three young sisters, Asya (18), Chloe (16), and Maia (14), but they are no Hanson or Jonas Brothers. Their music education stems from the superb Jason McGerr, the drummer for indie darling Death Cab for Cutie, and are also signed to the same label as the band, Barsuk Records. Right away in their latest effort, Withershins, you can sense McGerr’s teachings in Chloe’s drumming. Like him, Chloe has an understated way of moving the music along, using simple sounding yet technically difficult beats that give a welcome pulse to the airy, wafting music being created by her sisters.

The Smoosh girls don’t release their last name to the public, and it’s just as well – with names as cool as theirs they don’t need the Jonas Schtick, and function much better as individuals of a cohesive unit. That they do right, but are they worth listening to? In short, no. Not yet. I come from the belief that there is good music, film, art, and then there is everything else. Smoosh I think gets the benefit of the doubt because of how young they are, and if you think 14 year old bassist Maia is young, just imagine back to when they first started, with Asya, the singer and songwriter, being just 12 when they released their first disc, She Like Electric. Yes, their skill is impressive; Asya has a gorgeous voice, and they hit all the notes like the best of them. But the best of them they are not, as they resemble too much of what their influences are, and instead of coming off as a band that will further your own personal discovery about yourself, music, and anything else you get out of popping headphones over your ears, Smoosh deserves a pass.

You can easily pick out what goes where. Death Cab on the drums here, a bit of Jenny Lewis there, but mainly, the biggest offense is the presence of possibly the greatest band in the world (yes, the world) currently making music: Sigur Rós. The Icelandic band, which is spawning imitators everywhere, simply owns post-modern music, using every instrument possible to craft ethereal, moving pieces that don’t always necessarily resemble songs per say, but images of the mind and desires of the heart. Their 2005 release, Takk…, when listened to on their 200 gram vinyl pressing, is the best musical experience you will ever encounter, and they bow to no one, least of all prodigies. There is so much of Smoosh that echoes Sigur Rós that it’s sad, because while they are talented young women, subtlety is not their strong suit. There is having influences and paying homage, and then there is thievery. Smoosh takes everything they like, which is clearly no older than the year 2000, and, yes, smooshes it together, and while their taste in art is refined and their technique even better, they simply aren’t there yet. This is not to say that the band won’t get better, that they won’t take over in a few years as they hit their stride of who they want to be and what their music stands for and why, but the only reason why you should pay attention to them now is if you care about your own personal street cred, claiming to have “listened to them when.” There’s a reason I recently passed up a pretty rare vinyl record of Death Cab’s first album, Something About Airplanes, at Underground Sounds in Ann Arbor the other day: because they weren’t good back then. But Smoosh has a lot of time to grow, and I hope they do. Once they become their own persons, free from the shackles of their bright eyes youth, they could one day be worth the ten bucks for an iTunes download. Just one word of advice for the act: if you’re going to try and sound anything like Sigur Rós, you will always be in their shadow. Always.

The good news? The only thing that listening to their new album will cost you is time.

Withershins is available for free download at http://smoosh.bandcamp.com

Written by :

Phil Sieb