Philly‘s DIY rockers, husband-wife duo INSTANT SMILE are back with brand new single GIVE ME TIME. Probably their most accessible track so far, although their own peculiar approach of rockabilly is all over the place. Drummer Erin Berry who wrote/sings the song said she was actually inspired by “my repeated failure to manage my time well. Also, there’s a certain time of day into the evening here in the summertime when we do porch beers out front as the sun sets, and I sit there wishing it could last forever. Which got me thinking about chasing the sunset.”
Despite the song’s wishful content and nostalgic edge ‘Give Me Time‘ bounces from riff to riff with an energetic sonic urgency creating an intriguing vibe along the way. Experience the truth-searching fever right here…
Clips that will have an impact on your eyes and your ears…
18 August 2018
Wayward Philly rockers, husband-wife duo INSTANT SMILE released their newest
single TILTAWHIRL at the start of this very hot summer. A sticky start/stop groove
with its fickle pace going up and down, vertical and horizontal, fast and slow, forth
and back. Imagine The Cramps were a 2-piece, Lux Interior and Poison Ivy, living on
the countryside instead of living in hell, behaving like humans instead of bats.
A few weeks ago the pair launched this clip for ‘Tiltawhirl‘.
Prepare for a swirling and dizzy roller coaster trip…
Artist: INSTANT SMILE Home: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US Who:husband-wife duo, with guitarist Greg Phoenix producing an unmistakable twang that he honed picking on his 1963 Guild Starfire in rockabilly bands early on, he was also in New Jersey-based psychobilly outfit ‘Speed Crazy’. Spouse Erin took up sitting behind the kit at the inception of the duo back in 2013 after being the vocalist in various bands… Track: VANISH – brand new single Score: The first half of this quite special new track electrifies you with a kind of ‘forth-and-back’ groove and after the symphonic bridge, the chill-out sequence comes as a ‘what the fuck is going on ‘ surprise. An intriguing experience indeed. One you’ll repeat immediately…
Drummer/co-singer Erin explains what happened: “It started with me singing “doo doo
doos” into my phone voice recorder walking to the train, and evolved into our most expansive sounding song to date. It’s almost two songs in one, with heavy influences from Blue Cheer and Yes. Some you might recognize, and some may just exist in our heads. I bought Greg a MEL-9 pedal for his birthday. We have neither the technical aptitude nor the desire for heavy lifting that a real Mellotron would require, ha. I’m sure Rick Wakeman would understand (note TUTV: Wakeman was the famous keyboardist of legendary prog rockers YES who, btw, I will see next month in Belgium).
Sonic vibrations that thrill us in a way we want to scream out loud…
S
29 November 2017
Artist: INSTANT SMILE
Home: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Who: husband-wife duo, with guitarist Greg Phoenix producing an unmistakable twang
that he honed picking on his 1963 Guild Starfire in rockabilly bands early on, he was also
in New Jersey-based psychobilly outfit ‘Speed Crazy’. Spouse Erin took up sitting behind the kit at the inception of the duo back in 2013 after being vocalist in various bands…
Track: SPECTACULAR TIME – It’s the pair’s 3rd single of the year. They took timely inspiration from Guy Debord’s 1967 book The Society Of The Spectacle (a Marxist philosophy critique), contemplating the pervasive obsession with ‘the image’, which has grown exponentially since Paris 1967 with modern social platforms and technology. From the first riff beginnings, to the mastering, to the final video edit, the entire package was created by themselves in their own house…
Score: ‘Spectacular Time‘ is a seducing, teasing and flashy psychobilly resonance, sounding actually like sonic foreplay. Lyrically it reflects today’s grim reality perfectly, it emphasises the troubled times we live in. I guess the orgasm will not be as euphoric as we expected. Here are the images…
You’re watching the great decline
You can’t even close your eyes
for a minute just in case the lies start to fly
and one might get by
The next thing you know, it’s all done
Ten seconds of fame, and there you are alone again
The spectacle now abounds
We walk with a lonely crowd
Our pictures the only thing left that’s allowed
No waking up now
The next thing is here, we’re all done
Two minutes of fame, then here we are alone again
What you’re looking for, you’ll never find
What you’re searching for, you’ll never find
What you’re waiting for, you’ll never find
Machinery’s all in place
Real life gone without a trace
of the actions that made us who we used to be
It’s all what we see
and not what we do, that’s all done
A lifetime of fame, but still we’re all alone again
And what good is fame, when only images remain
