Somebody at a show mentioned there were some older songs that they would love to have on vinyl that had only previously been issued on CD, and that got me thinking about looking back at the 20-year mark to put something together for people that were maybe just tuning in to Smug Brothers over the past few years. Bryan Hammill from Best Brother Records had been following us for several years and had kindly featured us on his blog The Ash Gray Proclamation, and he had expressed interest in doing a project with us on his label, and this seemed like a fun thing to do. As far as the sequencing, the vinyl edition was focused on the singles we had issued over the years. It jumps back and forth, chronologically, but it’s pretty easy to hear the sonic thread of what we’ve been up to all this time. The CD version is much more sprawling, although the vinyl version served as a basis, and I just had fun going through the catalog and sequencing more of a deep dive with non-single tracks that I really like. The front and back collages were called up from my earliest attempts at doing collage that were contemporary with the founding of the band, so that was a pretty cool feature for me, as I’ve been looking at those for all these years waiting for their moment to come.

I don’t think it changed the way I felt about any of the music we’ve done, but it certainly gave a different focus and perspective to the catalog. We’ve only ever gotten around to playing a fairly small selection of our songs in our live shows, so I spend a lot of time with those songs and that’s what people hear us play out in the world. But diving into those albums and EPs, there’s a pretty fun listen waiting to be discovered by anyone willing to take a swim.

If you liked the Gravity comps, Pinhole To Vortex feels like the next step in the evolution of what we’re doing. It sounds like a Smug Brothers record, but the songs and the sequencing, for me, take it to some different areas we’ve not quite hit on. I worked through hundreds of titles to get to Pinhole To Vortex; list upon list of titles that just didn’t quite make it until I got this one that seemed to really connect with the vibe of the album and stick in my head when I read it. I just trust my gut when it resonates that I’ve got the title.

“From Crack to Shatter” has a lot of good sections and chord things that are new for me, and a great concluding section. “Drive Open in the Delicate Streams” is one that I’ve had for like 20 years that finally found a place on a record. “Blitz Meridian” was one I finished writing right toward the end of working on the album, and that has some really good lyrics I like. “Back At Earth” was one that I wasn’t sure was gonna make the final cut for the album, but Ryan’s guitar part on that elevated it to that perfect spot in the sequence that turns the album toward its conclusion.

Urgent, inviting, exuberant.

I got turned on to collage art as album cover art through GBV’s Mag Earwhig, which is just so iconic. It took me a while after that to try and do anything myself, but when Don joined Smug Brothers he had some things and encouraged me to use what I had; my first one was the “Interior Magnets” single in 2009. We’ve all contributed collages, and have worked with some great third-party artists over the years. I think we all just like how collage looks as album art and adds another layer of creativity to the presentation of the music. And certainly when you see them in stores or even online, that kind of imagery pops out to people looking for something new and unique. “What the hell is THIS?!?!” You know? We typically will have an album pretty much done by the time we start looking for the album art, so we don’t really make the art specifically for the album. I’m always keeping an eye out for good art to use, whether it be something I’m working on or if someone else sends me something I think would fit well with the album. For Pinhole To Vortex, I had about a dozen images I was looking at as possible album art, and a few of those ended up as the art for the singles from the album.

A lot of the usual suspects of influences and inspirations: GBV, Breeders, Sloan, the first couple Strokes albums, a little Wolf Parade, 60s British Invasion and garage, but it always filters through the system in different quantities and combinations. Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot more prog like Gong and Van Der Graaf Generator, a “lost” album from The Action called Rolled Gold, and getting a lot of inspiration from contemporary bands like 2nd Grade, Kiwi Jr., Sharp Pins, and Good Flying Birds. There’s a lot of good music happening right now that I’m enjoying.

More work. We’re already busy on a new album, and I’ve been working on my own with the Tascam 4-track that seems to have revived itself, so that’s been a lot of fun. Our guitarist, Ryan Shaffer, will be departing at the end of our fall touring schedule, so we will have a new lineup in 2027. But we hope to keep churning out more songs for you to enjoy in the new year.