Speculative Fiction

Smirk — 2026

“Vicario trades velocity for melody, turning post punk wreckage into garage indie pop.”

Nick Vicario has spent two decades burning through the fast lane of American punk, from Portland hardcore as a kid to a string of LA bands and two Smirk albums built on wiry, treble-heavy speed. Speculative Fiction, his third full length under the name, is what happens when that same guy gets a little reflective and reveals he has more to offer. Vicario shifts gears here, favoring more melody over speed with a collection of hook-rich, midtempo indie that splits the difference between The Shoes and The Exploding Hearts. The record is also 18 minutes longer than his first two albums which really works because Vicario uses that extra time to let several songs really set in with both chorus and repetitive chords. The hooks arrive with a home studio vibe, with guitars that buzz and really highlight Vicario’s flat, somewhat guarded vocal that sits right on top of the mix. The album is in your face with a surging, almost post-punk edge but then will pull back and settle into a foot tapping guitar riff.

The record’s big subject is the wreckage of his old life and the strange quiet of the new one. Vicario has been open about the crashed cars and substance abuse that defined Smirk’s early LA years, and these thirteen songs pick through that history from the safety of the suburbs, where the danger is gone but the ghosts are still here. That tension between indie guitar pop and lyrics soaked in regret gives Speculative Fiction its charge, and it never lets up across the whole run. Honestly, it just gets better after every spin.

“Greetings” opens the record perfectly with a jangling riff pulling you into Vicario’s new world before you know what it costs. “Going Off To Die” is my favorite track with its fuzz-up guitar and the desperation in Vicario’s voice when he sings “like an animal going off to die.” With a runtime of 4:50, “Abide” is one of the most interesting tracks to date for Smirk as it reworks an old British hymn into a eulogy for a friendship that faded without a fight, complete with a vocal and song structure that hits like something off the Melbourne, Australia’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever record. “Cheap Grid” has fantastic tempo shifts with a riff that will hook your ears quickly that turns out to be one of the record’s grittiest three minutes.

Fans of The Marked Men will recognize the sound that Vicario pulls here, pushing his punk energy down into pop songs without losing the urgency. The melody instincts hit like The Nerves and the whole late seventies rock pop lineage. There are plenty of great songs here that feel like they have zero studio polish, recorded fast and left a little frayed much like early Replacements. If you’ve been following the continued wave of Australian punk and indie rock, Smirk fits comfortably alongside bands from that continent like Stiff Richards, Tee Vee Repairmann and Alien Nosejob, but with an even stronger emphasis on melody.

Slowing down a bit was a great move for Smirk, and it turns out to be the one that suits him best. The white picket fence never sounded this restless.