Sarah Collins Loves The Smith Westerns at Pitchfork

By Venus Zine Staff
Published: July 17th, 2010 | 8:45am

The scraggly kids in The Smith Westerns remind me of the guys I dated in high school--shaggy hair, slacker attitudes, stupid sense of humor (they told Pitchfork they chose their name “just to be retarded"). They seem like the type of guys who knew where to get beer before they knew how to drive, and they’re definitely the type to think stealing Nirvana’s Nevermind art for their debut LP, The Smith Westerns (HoZac), is funny. There’s only one difference between them and my high school flames: Their band doesn’t suck.

Rather than a relying on AC/DC and Metallic for inspiration, like most 17 year-olds do, the trio (with a rotating drummer) dug into garage rock, revisiting Nuggets and T. Rex. These influences make for a more muscular, fuzzed-out version of the garage pop that’s cropped up everywhere lately. While they don’t make the kind of music that thrives in open-air and sunshine, bars also aren’t a great venue option for these under-21 rockers. Their Pitchfork set will show how they stand up next to the fathers of fuzz-rock (Pavement) and the current champs (Titus Andronicus). And if they aren’t up to the challenge, they can always remind Stephen Malkmus that they’re young enough to be his sons.

The Smith Westerns perform at 4:45 p.m. Saturday at Stage B

Sarah Collins is a contributing writer to Venus Zine.