garage punk
A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include:
*Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicl ...
band from
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
, United States, who are signed to
Alive Records
Alive Naturalsound Records (also known as Alive Records) is an independent record label formed in 1993 in Los Angeles, California by Patrick Boissel, specializing in garage rock, punk, psychedelic, and blues rock. It grew out of Boissel's assoc ...
The Sights
The Sights are a rock and roll band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1998. The band has toured in the United States, Canada, and the UK.
Members
;Current
*Eddie Baranek: Vocals, Guitar
*Jarrod Champion: Keyboard, Vocals
*Skip Denomme: Drums
*Ro ...
, and The Cyril Lords.
Career
Taking their band name from their last names, the post-punk trio, SSM, are composed of John Szymanski (vocals, Farfisa organ, synth bass organ, synthesizers, mellotron), Dave Shettler (drums, vocals, drum machine) and Marty Morris (vocals, guitar). They are known for their work with The Hentchmen,
The Sights
The Sights are a rock and roll band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1998. The band has toured in the United States, Canada, and the UK.
Members
;Current
*Eddie Baranek: Vocals, Guitar
*Jarrod Champion: Keyboard, Vocals
*Skip Denomme: Drums
*Ro ...
, and The Cyril Lords, respectively, before forming SSM in July, 2005.
SSM wrote the bulk of their debut, ''LP1'', in one week, and recorded it in two days in Akron, OH with
Dan Auerbach
Daniel Quine Auerbach (; born May 14, 1979) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer, best known as the guitarist and vocalist of The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. As a member of the group, Auerbach has ...
producing and playing slide guitar on the track, ''Dinosaur''. The group played their debut performance at the Garden Bowl in Detroit, and their second public show opening for
The Black Keys
The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing thei ...
in Cleveland at the Beachland Tavern outside
The Beachland Ballroom
The Beachland Ballroom and Tavern (The Beachland Ballroom or The Beachland) is a music venue located in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. state ...
. After that show,
The Black Keys
The Black Keys are an American rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio, in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums). The duo began as an independent act, recording music in basements and self-producing thei ...
invited SSM to be main support on their 2005 West Coast tour of North America.
Working as their publicist, a friend of the group mailed ''LP1'' -- a self-released CD-R with a cover screen-printed on cardboard and a Polaroid of the band slipped inside -- for review to the
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
.
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles (born October 25, 1953) is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of ''The New York Times''.'" and gave it a favorable review:
''"There are two differences between SSM's "LP1" (Shmosz) and countless garage-rock revivals: the sound is scruffier and the songs are smarter. John Szymanski (keyboards, vocals), Dave Shettler (drums) and Marty Morris (guitar), have been playing garage rock in other Detroit bands; after a month of collaboration, they recorded this album in two days. Unruly analog keyboards and dinky rhythm machines define the sound as much as overloaded fuzz-tone guitar, and the tunes slip free of three-chord orthodoxy. The old garage-rock lust is there, but so are tidings of apocalypse and sardonic opening lines like "Sorry I never sent no flowers when she overdosed." Despite the vintage equipment, this is no 1960's revival; it's a warped reinvention."''
Their debut studio album, ''SSM'', was recorded in Corktown, Detroit with C Laszlo Koltay at High Bias Recordings and released on Alive Records in 2006 to much critical acclaim, followed later that same year by EP1. Each cover featured distinctive artwork painted by Matt Gordon. The group toured the US, UK, and Europe extensively, and played with such acts as
The Datsuns
The Datsuns are a hard rock band from Cambridge, New Zealand, formed in 1998. Founding mainstays are Rudolf "Dolf" de Borst on vocals and bass guitar, and Christian Livingstone and Phil Somervell, both on guitar. They have released seven albu ...
,
The Bellrays
The Bellrays (also capitalized as The BellRays) is an American rock group that combines garage rock and punk with soul music, founded in Riverside, California in 1990 by vocalist Lisa Kekaula and guitarist Bob Vennum. They have been with sever ...
,
Mission of Burma
Mission of Burma was an American post-punk band from Boston, Massachusetts. The group formed in 1979 with Roger Miller on guitar, Clint Conley on bass, Peter Prescott on drums, and Martin Swope contributing audiotape manipulation and acting as ...
,
Radio Birdman
Radio Birdman is an Australian punk rock band formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and are now considered instrumental in Australia's musical growth.
Hi ...
Black Diamond Heavies
Black Diamond Heavies is a United States blues rock band originating from Nashville, Tennessee. The band is composed of John Wesley Myers aka Reverend James Leg, formerly of The Immortal Lee County Killers, on bass keys, Fender Rhodes, organ, a ...
The Von Bondies
The Von Bondies are an American alternative rock band formed in 1997.
The original line-up formed at the 1997 Cramps/ Guitar Wolf show by Jason Stollsteimer and Marcie Bolen. They went through a variety of member changes and band names, inc ...
, the band released ''Break Your Arm For Evolution'' in January 2008.
Recorded in 2007 in Akron by
Auerbach Auerbach, German for "meadow-brook", may refer to the following:
Places
In Austria
*Auerbach, Upper Austria, Braunau am Inn district
In Germany
Places:
*Auerbach (Albtal), a village of Karlsbad, administrative area in Baden-Württemberg
* Auerb ...
in his basement studio and mixed in Detroit with Koltay, ''Break Your Arm for Evolution'' was once again reviewed in the Times:
''"The kind of distortion that edges the vocals and most of the instruments on the album “Break Your Arm for Evolution” (Alive) tags SSM as garage-rock or psychedelia, and most of the songs would go nicely with a liquid-blob light show. But this three-man band, John Szymanski on keyboards, Dave Shettler on drums and Marty Morris on guitar doesn't stay within any particular school or era. SSM also toys with electro, progressive rock and punk-funk. What the songs share is a cantankerous rock spirit and, behind it, musings on life and death, from “Let's Make a Baby” to thoughts like “Before long you're gone, so prolong the inevitable” which is tucked into a song called “Start Dancing.”"''
Alive Records
Alive Naturalsound Records (also known as Alive Records) is an independent record label formed in 1993 in Los Angeles, California by Patrick Boissel, specializing in garage rock, punk, psychedelic, and blues rock. It grew out of Boissel's assoc ...
*''EP1'' (2006)
Alive Records
Alive Naturalsound Records (also known as Alive Records) is an independent record label formed in 1993 in Los Angeles, California by Patrick Boissel, specializing in garage rock, punk, psychedelic, and blues rock. It grew out of Boissel's assoc ...
*''Break Your Arm For Evolution'' (2008)
Alive Records
Alive Naturalsound Records (also known as Alive Records) is an independent record label formed in 1993 in Los Angeles, California by Patrick Boissel, specializing in garage rock, punk, psychedelic, and blues rock. It grew out of Boissel's assoc ...
*''SSM'' (2010) Howl Records
Appears On
*Album: ''The Sweet Sounds of Detroit - Volume One''
CD Compilation (2006)
Bellyache Records
Track: ''Candy Loving''
*Album: '' He Put the Bomp! In the Bomp''
CD Compilation (2007)
Bomp! Records
Track: ''Screwed Up''
*Album: ''Human Fly at the Zombie Club''
Human Fly (FR) (2008)
la Croquette de L'Espace Records
Track: ''Zombie Club (with SSM)''