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Concert Tue Nov 13 2007
All Smiles Tomorrow Night
Sometimes I cringe when I hear an artist is playing a solo acoustic show, particularly when their recordings feature a poppy wall of sonic layering. But I have a feeling All Smiles, the solo project of former Grandaddy guitarist Jim Fairfield, will be able to pull it off. His debut album, Ten Readings of a Warning, is a collection of simple and lovely melodies backed by a variety of flourishes and an army of different drummers (from bands like Sleater Kinney, Modest Mouse, Menomena). But the noisy inflections don’t necessarily make the songs, they make them better. The tracks have a stark but uplifting quality and the record, according to Jim, “sounds like the places it was recorded. You can hear the walls, and the floors, and the ceilings, and you can hear the cars, and the trees, and the guys selling drugs outside.” It’s this commitment to authenticity that makes tomorrow night’s show at Martyrs’ a must-see, electric, acoustic or otherwise.
Ed Gray and Kasper Hauser open for All Smiles tomorrow, November 14th, at Martyrs’. Show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $7.
