Sunnysmack - The Mezzanine Girls
ARTIST.....: Sunnysmack
TITLE......: The Mezzanine Girls
LABEL......: Fuzzy Blanket Music
URL........: www.sunnysmack.com
RIP DATE...: May-29-2005
STORE DATE.: May-00-2005
GENRE......: Indie
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 101,4 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Valentine 03:25
02 - Geronimo 03:52
03 - Now Everybody Knows 02:27
04 - Quicksand 05:16
05 - Mezzanine 04:23
06 - Sara's In Slow Motion 04:34
07 - Seven 03:16
08 - Moviestar 06:00
09 - Tom Courtenay 02:39
10 - Red Tattoo 02:46
11 - Isn't It Wonderful? 03:59
12 - The Spaceship 04:08
13 - It's On 03:39
14 - Giant 10:51
─────
61:15 min
Release Notes:
www.fuzzyblanket.com
A Brief History of Sunnysmack Recordings...
It started as an accident. Jason Eddie Nowak and the mysterious
bass player E. Rhodes were going to college in Wisconsin and
playing songs together. E. Rhodes had a brother, Joe, who played
drums and worked at a recording studio in Minneapolis. Jason and
Eric went up one weekend to record a 6 song demo, not thinking
that Joe would want to play on it. He did, and Sunnysmack was
born.
The boys ended up recording a total of 13 songs during weekends
and breaks from School. The result was "Watching Stanley" (1997).
It was charted in CMJ and had a song featured on MTV's Dennis
Rodman World Tour show, which amused them all to no end.
After graduating, Jason and E. Rhodes moved to Minneapolis -
living together in a small spare bedroom Joe had. There, they
spent 2 years working on "A Soundtrack for Sara" (2000), which
recieved college airplay and kind reviews. E. Rhodes moved back to
Milwaukee to marry his sweetheart, and Jason and Joe began playing
as a two-piece acoustic punk/pop thing. They were fortunate to be
invited to perform on Radio K, and we're even more fortunate to
have a song included on their fantastic compliation CD "Stuck on
the AM #3" (2001).
The latest Sunnysmack record, "The Mezzanine Girls" (2004), was
recorded, again, over the span of another 2 years. With the help
of talented musician friends contributing everything from record
scratching and banjo, to accordian and string sections, the album
is plush and emotive. Michael Rusteck (arsonwelles) has filled the
shoes of E. Rhodes, playing bass and opening beer bottles with his
teeth for Sunnysmack.
Sunnysmack was fortunate to have many other Minneapolis musicians
add their mark on The Mezzanine Girls. Slug (Atmosphere) added
vocals to the dark song "Moviestar", while Ant (Atmosphere), added
fun record scratching on the upbeat song "Red Tattoo". Chan
Polling of the Suburbs composed the string arrangements on "Sara's
In Slow Motion", and Yo La Tengo gave their stamp of approval to
the Sunnysmack cover of their song "Tom Courtenay".
The Mezzanine Girls represents a period of growth and maturity on
the part of Sunnysmack, as a band as individuals. It also
showcases a quantum leap forward from the pack of indie/emo/alt-
rock bands you've heard before. Since its beginnings in long-lost
demos and shows from 2000 and 2001, this album has been
reconditioning and redefining the musical tastes and attitudes of
those lucky enough to hear it.
This is an album whose peculiar genius truly needs to be heard to
be understood- and now weÆre all fortunate enough to have that
chance.