Kiss, Hasil Adkins, Homer & Jethro, Blind Willie McTell, Faster Pussycat, Johnny Mercer, Lonnie Johnson and/or Victoria Spivey, Buck Owens, Flat Duo Jets, George Grosz, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, H. Warner Munn, Russ Meyer, Elmer Batters, Jack Kirby, Thin Lizzy, Fredric Brown, Tod Browning, EC Comics, Nat King Cole, the Alice Cooper band, Philip K. Dick, Lenny Bruce, the Bible, Sexton Ming and/or Billy Childish, Ella Guru, Bruce Brand, Tubs Johnson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Marx Brothers, Boris Karloff, Link Wray, Nick Tosches, Val Lewton, String Bean, AC/DC, Robert Siodmak, women's lingerie, Bessie Smith, Harry Partch, the Gories, Slim Gaillard, the Sonics, Sam Fuller, David Bowie, Henry Faulkner, William Faulkner, Anton LaVey, David Goodis, H.P. Lovecraft, Marc Bolan and T. Rex, Audrey Totter, Nona Rae, Raymond Scott, Dan Duryea, alcohol, Harry Stephen Keeler, Charlie Chaplin, Richard Widmark, Little Richard, Richard Pryor, the Barbarians, Cab Calloway, tobacco, Sweet Evening Breeze, Ken Nordine, Sun Ra, Robert Mitchum, Sophocles, Fritz Lang, the Skillet Lickers, New York Dolls, Edward D. Wood, Jr., Gloria Grahame, ? and the Mysterians, Robert Wise, Berni Wrightson, Max Fleischer, the Cramps, Man..or Astroman?, Louis Jordan, Nicholas Ray, Otto Dix, the Hee Haw tv show, Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Jim Thompson, Bela Lugosi, Spade Cooley, Lil Green, Big Bill Broonzy, Dario Argento, Jeffrey Scott Holland, Ferlin Husky, Leon Theremin, Ratt, Lon Chaney, Sr., Hubert Selby, Jr., Ed Hieronymus, Hieronymus Bosch, Emmett Miller, Vladimir Nabokov, Roosevelt Sykes, Art Young, Fats Domino, Warren Oates
Sounds Like
Delayed teen angst. Sexual anxiety. Bad comedy and/or bad attitude. The search for and the loss of God. It's a rockin' GEEK house party. In eyeliner. And in a suit and tie. Who brought the chicken?
An immortal psychic werewolf and an ethylene huffin' Old Testament prophet walk into a bar...and they play a giltter-billy rock and roll show. We are the Smacks! We are from Kentucky. And what we really wanna know, 'cause we're so tired of saying it, does cross-dressing count as lycanthropy?
"Man, there’s some strange brew in those Kentucky stills. Smacks! is a two- man gang from Lexington who play almost comically primitive gutbucket garage slop. It’s scary, desperate stuff that more often than not devolves into ugly, abusive noise. So, of course, they call themselves a ‘glitterbilly’ band. Hell, the guitar guy even wears make-up! This gloriously weird album is divided into chapters (and subchapters), much like some ghey European power metal band would. Except Smacks! are not ghey, they are terrifying. Some of the songs (or sub-songs, whatever) seem to be mutated Kiss and Bad Company covers (I swear I heard Black Diamond in there somewhere, and “Sex Apple” IS “All Right Now”), and when the dudes get around to singing, it all starts to gel, in an early Redd Kross kinda way. Mostly, though, it’s a mudbath, and I like it. It’s exactly what would happen if a couple of retarded guys in a Harry Crews novel formed a band in between burning down the barn and fucking a goat in the ass. Glitterbilly forever!"--Sleazegrinder.com
"...songs that range from the painfully noisy to the devilishly inspired. A little ode to insanity called 'Locked in the Cellar' is the kind of lo-fi gem Dr. Demento would wet his pants over. Moving easily between rockabilly, incomprehensible punk, and ingeniously wrongheaded lyric-driven madness, this duo can make you shake your head with despair and your ass with joy all at the same time."--Chris Herrington, the Memphis Flyer (from a review of the "You Won't Believe Your Thighs!" cdr)
"The Smacks! are the grunting sound around the corner; the last gasp of vaudeville...When Mr. Manley asks 'Where Are the Drugs?!!' you'll know that it's already too late. And what about this 'Sex Apple' biz-ness anyhow? Once the Smacks! take their brand of hickey rock down AC/DC street there's no turning back. Who else could/would rhyme lunch, munch and crunch in song without shame or fear of retribution?" --Jesse Saxon, Nougat Magazine (from a review of the "Serpents" cd)
I'm throwing this idea out to a bunch of bands and labels to see what may come of this promotional tactic. I'm trying to sell my art. This consists of me doing band flyers, t-shirt designs, cd covers, inserts, backings, lettering, custom paintings and photographs for money. I'm a cheap whore and I won't bust heads, especially with Louisville natives. If you need art for something, look at my paintings and/or photographs and then contact me if my services are needed.
So how was your Halloween? We're playing at the Pour Haus on 11/22 with Wodka and the Makebelieves (a seriously kick-ass band from Athens, OH)...hope you can come! Flyer coming soon...
are
