SMACK DAB is:
Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, Gutterball)
Linda Pitmon (Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3, Golden Smog)
Paco Loco (Australian Blonde, Sangrientos)
Smack Dab is 3 artists who found each other by chance. This is the story of how they came together to write and record these mysterious songs in just a few days in the summer of 2004.
Paco Loco is a legendary musician and producer in the Spanish music scene, working with everyone from Australian Blonde and Nacho Vegas to Cosmic Rough Riders and Josh Rouse. One day many years ago, he was swimming at a Cadiz beach on a hot day and he noticed a man sitting on the sand dressed in black from head to toe. Black jeans, black shirt, black boots, and even a black suit coat. He thought this was odd on such a sweltering day. Paco climbed out of the water, dried off and put his smudged glasses on and started to dress..and as he looked down to see if his pants were zipped (they weren't) he glanced down at the music magazine at his feet. He was rather shocked to see that the mysterious man in black pictured on the cover was the SAME man sitting in the sand only 20 feet from him, reading a George Pelecanos novel and biting a fingernail. The magazine headline raved about the latest recording of former Dream Syndicate star Steve Wynn, and announced his upcoming tour of Spain with his band, the Miracle 3.
Just then, Steves girlfriend bounded out of the water and joined him on his towel. Paco would find out later that she was also Steves drummer in the Miracle 3, Linda Pitmon. She shook the water out of her hair, pulled on a striped T-shirt and started to pack up their things to go. Paco decided to introduce himself before they left. The only problem was that Paco couldnt speak English! Fortunately, Steve knew a little Spanish from growing up in Los Angeles and accepted Paco's invitation to dinner that started a fast friendship between the three of them.
Over the years Paco learned to speak English, Steves Spanish improved and Linda took up photography. The idea to record an album came together one summer when Steve and Linda left their cramped New York City apartment to visit Paco in the spacious environs of Spain. The three of them traveled to Granada to see the Alhambra, one of the most spectacular architectural and artistic achievements of the medieval age. The courtyards, gardens and pools are meant to be a physical realization of descriptions of Paradise in Islamic poetry. So the trio of friends was feeling rather good with the world when...
One yellow, dusty afternoon Steve and Linda wandered off and found a little market on a winding backstreet in the old part of town. There, amongst the bins of tea leaves and saffron, fabrics and hookahs, they came across an old box overflowing with postcards. As Steve flipped through the colorful cards he began to turn them over to read the inscriptions, all of them addressed to the same person. Some were simple greetings, but others hinted at larger, more complicated stories with resolutions that could never be known. Lost loves and stray gambling partners. This got him thinking that he'd like a chance to write those endings.and he started to form an idea. He was anxious to get back to Cadiz.
It was getting late and they had to find Paco, but Linda had taken an interest in the cards -and one in particular caught her eye. It showed a young girl diving from a cliff into the sea. Her hair was plastered against her head and an expression of cool ecstasy on her face as she plunged head first towards the cold water. She was frozen forever in flight, just below the words, Venice Beach, California is for lovers. The message on the back said, with a slightly ominous tone, Smack Dab in it! Love, Monkey
Linda looked up at Steve and grinned wide. He bought the whole box.
Back in Cadiz, the three or them spread the cards out on the floor of Paco's studio and started to write songs. Sometimes the inspiration came from the picture on the front of the card, and other times it was the cryptic message scribbled on the back. The songs came fast.one person would come up with guitar chords or a piano melody and then, typically, Steve would run off to a corner and write out the story in his head. The three of them would grab the nearest instrument (whether they knew how to play it or not!) and start blowing, pounding and strumming. Sometimes a song would be written around a tambourine rhythm! The moods and melodies filled in the songs like colors on the postcards.
Each morning for 2 weeks they would eat their toast and contemplate the cards. Birds would sing outside of the studio window while the cards inside were whispering and sighing, but always holding on tight to their secrets. Each song is as individual as the postcards. Fuzzy California narcotic, icy New York disco. Funky Southern Spain sprawl and a swaggering cover of Never Been To Spain, a #1 hit in the U.S. for Three Dog Night in the early 70s.
Once they were back in New York they put the Smack Dab songs on the shelf and concentrated on touring for Steves brand new cd with the Miracle 3, "...tick...tick...tick". For the next 18 months Smack Dab was just a fond memory of those days in Spain with their friend Paco, and the box of cards that started them off on a journey. Even so, they never forgot about it and one night they put on the Smack Dab tunes for their friends. The dance party started, and after a few drinks the decision was made that they should put it out under the name SMACK DAB. They called their friend John Agnello to mix it (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., The Kills) and NOW its finally ready to be heard.
The Smack Dab record is their shoebox to share with their friends.
