Ahead of New Album Speculative Fiction
Out Next Friday July 3 via Smoking Room
Announces East Coast Tour: NYC, BOS, PHL & More
Photo By Emily Vicario
Smirk mastermind Nick Vicario slows it down on his nihilistic single and album centerpoint, “Going Off To Die”. The moment Vicario’s vocal comes in, you can feel his dread of lost youth as a suburban reset looms around the corner. “‘Going Off to Die’ is about leaving Los Angeles in a sort of quiet defeat,” says Vicario. “It comes from a place of shame and deals with reckoning with who I was and accepting that leaving was the only way forward.”
Across Smirk’s upcoming album Speculative Fiction, out next Friday via Smoking Room, Vicario deals with a new twist on an age-old theme for punk rock: unrest in the suburbs. Instead this version of unrest deals with looking back on past indiscretions and dealing with their repercussions– disruption of the old life, settling into the new and the reflection that comes with it. These thoughtful lyrics and themes, when paired with Vicario’s guitar pop confection, makes for a unique juxtaposition.
Listen / Share / Playlist "Going Off To Die"
Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music
Growing up in Portland, OR in the early 2000s, Vicario was engrained in the scene that birthed Poison Idea and Wipers, playing in bands at an early age and hob-knobbing with members of Tragedy and Criminal Damage in cover bands and even on the gridiron. At age 12, his first band The Diskords were the toast of Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll illuminati, leading to several releases and The Exploding Hearts taking them under their wing. Playing in hardcore bands like Cower eventually led him to indie pop band Wild Ones, who released two records across eight years, the latter of which landed on Topshelf Records. After stints with Public Eye, Cemento, Crisis Man and others, in addition to touring with Surfer Blood and Dreamdecay, Vicario decided to focus his energies on his solo project, Smirk, dropping two albums S/T in 2021 and Material in 2022.
On Speculative Fiction Vicario is restarting personally and musically. For the latter, Smirk is taking a more measured, power-pop approach, and straying away from the speed-y punk that marked earlier releases. The result is decidedly more mid-paced, reflecting the works of Big Star and The Paul Collins Beat as much as early Stiff releases, but filtered through the DIY spirit of Guided by Voices.
Written entirely by Vicario, Speculative Fiction is Smirk’s third full-length album overall and calls upon some old friends to help round out the record – names like Ross Farrar (Ceremony), Max Smadja (RIXE), Ryan Mangione-Smith (Advertisement), and current members of the live incarnation of Smirk, who play in bands like Hotline TNT, Poison Ruin, and Pardoner. Recorded mainly in his home studio, Vicario enlisted Ian Rose to record a few tracks from the effort at Daisy Chain studios in Brooklyn while Andy Oswald handled mixing for the bulk of the record.
With Speculative Fiction, life imitates art. Smirk slows things down, retools and gets meticulous– making deliberate decisions with respect to songwriting, approach, and collaboration to execute a new vision for Vicario. The result is a refined, focused and less chaotic approach to punk with an eye on pop-sensibility, mirroring Vicario’s new lifestyle outside of the fast lane and behind a white picket fence.
Pre-Save / Pre-Order Speculative Fiction
Live Dates:
Jul 29 – Philadelphia, PA - The Pouch
Jul 30 – Richmond, VA - Cobra Cabana
Jul 31 – Baltimore, MD - Ottobar Upstairs
Aug 01 – Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool
Aug 02 – Kingston, NY - KBK Studios
Aug 04 – Turners Falls, MA - Rendezvous
Aug 05 – Boston, MA - Deep Cuts
Aug 06 – Providence, RI - News Cafe
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