The Hippodrome

Streak Download

Dan Smart lives up to his name—intelligent literary, poetic, and artistic references are abundant in his solo work. As a member of Probably Vampires, Smart adds keyboard textures to songs inspired by “real, true, unwavering 60′’s pop sound,” but as a solo artist he thankfully allows himself the chance to indulge in heavier themes in music that includes “overlapping elements of country, folk, rock and roll, electronic, and experimental art music, sometimes all rolled into a single song.”

Freed from the constraints of live performance that define the parameters of Probably Vampires, Smart says his solo work is conceived as “‘recorded music’ … dictated more by what I feel that the songs ‘want’ or ‘need’ more than on what they ‘have’ to have.” He enjoys taking risks and experimenting, just out of curiosity to see what will transpire without having to worry about “hooks or dance-ability or something like that.”

Smart tells me that the the The Hippodrome’s feature song, “Streak,” was “actually composed for a modern dance project by the same name for a University of Illinois student. It was loosely based (both the dance and the music) on John Steinbeck’s Dust Bowl novels, but it is also a song about making the biggest, longest, loudest, and most colorfully noisy streak on this planet in the time that you have, because that’s all you can do.”

Indeed, the song lives up to the artist’s description. It begins with hushed vocals that quickly billow into an ecstatic choir, all while smeared (you could even say “streaked”) by fantastically long delay tails. This spacious introduction sets up the entrance of a country-sounding acoustic guitar right out of left field; this is quickly joined by sequenced drumbeats that support the wordless and ever-lifting vocal motif. The precision and professionalism evident in this recording might incline listeners to envision Smart working in some grand, complicated recording studio somewhere, but this is not the case. Smart home-records all parts for his solo material himself, and says he “did not use Pro Tools or any computer programs to record this music, apart from an MPC 1000 to sequence some of the samples.”

At Smart’s own MySpace page, you’ll find “Greyed Rainbow,” a song based on Smart’s poem inspired by a Jackson Pollock painting of the same name. You’ll find samples from “weird, religious cassette tapes that [he] found in truck stops and at thrift stores.” In his lyrics, you’ll find themes of religion in relation to death, communication, and relationships, even though Smart says “I don’t consider myself to be religious in a strict way whatsoever.” If you’re well-read enough, you might even be able to draw parallels between Smart’s music and his professed inspirations: “a lot of modernist and post-modern writers/thinkers like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Eliot, and even Woolf.”

With sharp songwriting and copious academic references, Dan Smart proves there is intelligent life on the internet. Check it out for yourselves.

Special Rider Blues Download

In a world where fancy home studios and software plugins reign supreme, the sound of Zak & His Unhappy Guitar is a breath of fresh vacuum-tube analog air. When he’s not the resident electric guitar virtuoso for the gleefully perverted rockabilly band The Alley Dukes or tremolo picking in the surf-rock group The Treblemakers, Zak conjures up the voodoo magic of prewar blues with just his voice and an acoustic guitar.

Zak generates his raw analog sound by capturing his live performances with authentic vintage instruments and recording gear, just like they did in the days when the idea of “multitracking” was decades away from invention. “I see this as no-frills music,” he says, “and I feel that it should be recorded live, the way it is intended to be performed.” All of Zak’s gear is much older than he is, often by over 50 years. His main axe is a National Duolian acoustic guitar from 1931, but some of the other guitars in his arsenal date to the 20s or even earlier. Zak finds vintage instruments incredibly inspiring to play because “these old guitars have a soul and there is so much music in ‘em waiting to be unlocked.”

Performing as a solo artist presents Zak with unique challenges. “With a band it’s easy to make people pay attention; sometimes all you need is volume and an outrageous stage act, but as a solo acoustic act it is definitely a different world, especially when faced with an audience that is completely unfamiliar with the pre-WWII blues idiom,” he says. However, Zak relishes the chance to display the kind of music he loves to people who might not have encountered it before. “If I manage to turn just one person on to Fred McDowell or Bukka White or Charley Patton or whatever, I’m happy.”

Such reverence for his musical forefathers is characteristic for Zak & His Unhappy Guitar: “Humility would stop me from comparing myself to any of my influences. I don’t pretend to be the torchbearer of some extinct tradition,” he states when asked to compare himself to other artists. Listening to a tune like “Special Rider Blues,” you hear that veneration for history committed to tape. The brash, metallic tones of the guitar and Zak’s soulful growl of a voice conspire to create a timeless sound that could have been recorded any time between the 1920s and yesterday.

Be on the lookout for a full-length solo CD with accompanying shows from Zak & His Unhappy Guitar in the near future.