In a time when homogenized platitudes and corporate homogeny rule the mainstream airwaves, Seattle's Smokey Brights return with an incendiary shot of pure adrenaline, "All In Who You Know," the first single from their forthcoming fifth full-length "Dashboard Heat," available September 26 on Share It Music. With this cut, the Seattle band serves up a synth-heavy indie rock rallying cry that's all about envisioning a brighter future one small, defiant act at a time.
"All In Who You Know" throbs with intent. Smokey Brights blends the high-flying hooks of indie pop with the grit and guttural punch of rock and roll alongside seismic choruses and explosive guitar riffs while their textural synths and keyboards pulsate with modern urgency. But beneath its glossy surface is a more pointed message. It's protest music for the checkout line, a rallying cry for anyone quietly resisting capitalism in their daily decisions.
The Smokeys dance through the resistance. The track slyly pokes at egg barons and celebrity culture with a wink and a keyboard riff, a reminder that rebellion doesn't have to be joyless. Loud and melodic with all the heart. Longtime collaborator Travis Trautt directed the music video, which, fittingly, embodies this ethos. Set against the bonkers world of the Moscow Renaissance Faire, the band goes on an epic journey to retrieve a mythical artifact, a figurative way of saying re-acquiring power through numbers. It's whimsical, it's weird, and it's beautifully Smokey.
Meanwhile, the group's two-night sold-out stand at Seattle's Rabbit Box Theater showed that their new stuff isn't just studio gold and it's equally electrifying on the live front. And with a national tour on the horizon, fans from both coasts will have their opportunity to plug into the band's incendiary message. "Dashboard Heat" is every bit as ambitious. The cover art of the vinyl, courtesy of Brazilian surrealist Bruno Cesar, is a sacred map of the heavens, chocked full of Easter eggs, with a comic book sending the band on its intergalactic mission. "All In Who You Know" is a call to find power in being connected, in being creative, and in not laying down in the face of this weird, weird world, Shauf said in a statement announcing the new project. Smokey Brights are going for broke, and they're taking us with them.
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