Wikipedia

Smokers Die Younger

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Smokers Die Younger are a cult four-piece band from Sheffield UK.

They defy categorisation by genre, just as they defy the other norms of the contemporary music industry. Reviewers of their first two singles drew comparisons to Pavement, The Fall, Joy Division, The Pogues, and Dexys Midnight Runners among many others. But when the album ‘X Wants The Meat’ appeared in 2006, expectations were confounded. It opened with hardcore rock and closed with lengthy abstract avant-garde noodling, having taken various styles along the way, including in old-fashioned country music.

Although this extreme eclecticism has become their trademark, their own characteristic sound always manages to shine through their work.

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Smokers Die Younger


Band Members

History

Formed in Sheffield, UK in 2003, the members didn’t get around to entering a studio for nearly a year, and when they did they only recorded four songs. These tracks, produced by Alan Smyth of 2Fly studios, became their first releases.

Their anthem SDY became the debut issue from Detail Recordings, on 7” vinyl backed by Consumer Advice. Almost another year passed before their second release came out through Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation. Again, this was on 7” vinyl, but this time with two A-sides: Five-O and Kermit Song. These limited-edition singles were soon snapped up by the fans they had recruited at their many gigs in Sheffield and Leeds.

Their fanbase had also grown through the irregular live club night they had set up with like-minded musicians Champion Kickboxer and Ape Drape Escape. Occurring roughly every two months or so, in various places, including the Sheffield Institute for the Blind and a squatted ex-steelworks, Electric Blanket soon became one of the most talked about underground nights in the north of England. Their monthly pub DJ night, Duck Butter, on the other hand, was largely ignored.

The Smokers finally released their album in March 2006 on CD. It was co-released by the two labels that had released their singles. The tracks were again produced by Alan Smyth, though extensively finessed by the band themselves. Sheffield's legendary record shop Forever Changes opened at midnight and fans queued in the rain to be among the first to own this long-awaited album. The album had been preceded just one week earlier by a download-only single, which the band insisted was published on "unlimited-edition one-sided etched platinum virtual vinyl".


Pre-History

  • Golf is one of many ex-members of the electro-noise outfit 65daysofstatic.
  • Trout has played in many cult British bands, including AC Temple, Kilgore Trout, and Bear.
  • Neither Rhys nor G-Wiz had lives before the formation of Smokers Die Younger.


Band Facts

  • Despite having three talented vocalists in the band, both their live shows and their recordings often feature extra vocalists. One of the tracks on their album is entirely sung by regular guest Mlle Amy Dutronc.
  • Other regular guests include the brass section of the Sheffield indie band Balor Knights.
  • Having lost control of the Myspace site in their own name, the band decided to forgo legal wrangling for the simple expedient of setting up another in the name of the album. The old one still exists, a relic of a past age when they really genuinely had hardly any friends between them.


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