Anyway Indierock | Alternative 3 Items

Jenny MAE made only two full length records, both released just two years apart in the hey-day of ‘90s indie-rock where small labels rose up like mushrooms in a tropical forest and like so much of the music from that time was easily overlooked and disappeared. Jenny’s music found a small, devoted audience and her music was covered not only by many fanzines but also by Rolling Stone, Spin, Interview, even Entertainment Weekly. She played shows and some tours with Guided by Voices, Magnetic Fields, Neko Case, Chris Knox and more but to see her live one never knew what one would see, perhaps on a good night, a deeply moving set sung in her sweet midwestern voice or maybe a woman who could barely stand, her keyboard falling off a bar table she set up on stage as she usually didn’t have a keyboard stand. "Jenny lived life how an engine swallows gasoline, hot and quickly except her gasoline was alcohol which she used to quiet her undiagnosed schizoaffective disorder and by the early 2000s she went from living in Coral Gables to living on the streets of Columbus, Ohio in a matter of weeks. She remained homeless for nearly three years in Columbus and Miami with various stints in jail or the many hospitals she would visit until her predictable death in 2017, which of course, was in a hospital surrounded by her family and friends. "Her music was sweet, catchy and at times bawdy—some songs as short as Bob Pollard‘s who championed her and others lush electronic that was closer to My Bloody Valentine or OMD. She was a fan of the Beach Boys and Beatles growing up in rural Ohio and started writing songs in high school. Eventually she started recording on a borrowed Tascam 4-track in the late '80s, songs as innocent as Daniel Johnston’s or the Marine Girls. Some of these earliest recordings are gathered here on this compilation that stretches from 1988 through 2016, where her last recording, the devastating ‘Not Another Bad Year’ was recorded months before her death. It includes many of the songs she made in the years before she died, including the ode to her good friend, Jim Shepard as well as songs she created as she pined for Ohio while going off the rails in Miami. Side two contains some of the singles she recorded for various indie-labels that have not been available since the mid-nineties and several unreleased songs from a never materialized third record. She was a force for everybody who knew her, and she was one who lacked ambition, or maybe the organization to do what folks around her thought was 'normal', she wasn’t made for a traditional life."—Bela Koe-Krompecher, 2022

Since forming in 2004, Ohio rock band Smug Brothers have enjoyed a relaxed, almost nonchalant, approach to writing and recording, with most albums being minor Big Bangs - instant and electric. New LP In the Book of Bad Ideas, on the other hand, was a struggle against entropy - the disorder caused by plagues and departing personnel.

Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Kyle Melton wrote the majority of the tunes in "bunker fashion" during the miserable pandemic summer of 2020, then slowly started recording them with bassist Kyle Sowash, lead guitarist Scott Tribble, and drummer/Smug Brothers co-pilot Don Thrasher in 2021. That November, his contributions partially completed, Tribble decamped the band due to a new job and new demands. The exit was amicable, yet left the group in a lead guitar lurch. Melton had little choice but to enter the ring and play solos on some songs.

"That was both fun and frustrating," Melton admits. "Other than a handful of tracks over 15 years, I've not really done much lead playing with Smug Brothers. When Scott left, I was initially like 'Great. What now?' It took me a few weeks to psyche myself up to just go for it."

Finally, belatedly, both In the Book of Bad Ideas and its sister EP Emerald Lemonade were finished in the spring of 2022. And against the odds, the two-year slog produced pleasantly surprising results. On In the Book of Bad Ideas, the band's typical, semi-60s sound - boasting biting leads and breakneck jangles - is now fully integrated with synthesizers and crafted with a cool gloss, anachronistically creating the first Smug Brothers album of the early 80s. While all songs pop with Pac-Man vibrancy, tracks such as "Helium Drag" and "Enceladus Lexicon" could be lost classics by The Cars.

As Melton reveals, "I'm not sure it was a conscious move, honestly. We've been expanding our sonic palette significantly since [2017 LP] Disco Maroon; Scott had a lot to do with that push, especially with his keyboards. I just kept running with those moves. I was thinking more in terms of a 'slicker' sound on the tracks, adding more polish and really trying to get a better overall production."

Clearly the perseverance paid off. But album highlight "What Starts Out as Fun" begs an obvious question. "Yes, it's all still fun," Melton says with a laugh. "It's just more work now. We're really pushing ourselves, exploring new approaches. We are already working on new material, so we will just keep going forward and make it up as we go. Hopefully, In the Book of Bad Ideas gets a favorable reception that can give us a good headwind into the future."