The Chief Smiles – Great For Terrible Times
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Tour Dates 02/18/08 The Annex New York City
03/13/08 Arlene’s Grocery New York Album Discography
Band Members
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The Chief Smiles is playing tomorrow (Feb 18th) at The Annex in New York, so check them out if you’re in the area.
Christopher discovered them via movie via boing boing and they were nice enough to provide some music for me to review.
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Having listened to their sophomore album several times today, I would have to say that “The Dance Went On Too Long” is probably most distinctive song among all the tracks because of its almost weeping violin parting (accompanied by a Madder Rose-esque vocals by Sarah Trimpe.)
What was surprising is that they re-used the same music in “Ghost Hunger”, but this time, the soundtrack is interpreted a little differently – it’s more pumped up and doesn’t feel sad.
I also liked “You Little Fool”, which starts off with a line lifted from a fowled-mouth Winnebago salesman. Even though the Winnebago commercial was a series of f-cked up, this song sounds perfect.
I did end up downloading a few songs from their first album, Help Us Help You. Of songs I checked out, the best one is “Even Albatross Wept” which features an interesting technique of what sounds like violin scratching and screeching. I believe Alex is mostly singing on this song, and he sounds especially like Matthew Sweet on this track.
Trivia: While researching The Chief Smiles, I found out that Alex (guitars), Sarah (violins, vocals) and Amelia (manager) are related to Herb Trimpe somehow. If you grew up on Marvel Comics (particuarly G.I. Joe, Shogun, and Spitfire and the Troubleshooters), you’ll recognize the Trimpe name.
02/17/2008 23:07:43 vu my♥posts 
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