First, let me start by saying that Smartbomb (nc) was one of the last of a wave of bands that came and went, silently before the internet changed everything. When Wade Rittenberry and I, who were roommates during my last 1.5+/- or so of my time in Boone, NC, both found ourselves without the social clout or creative support of a band in which to play, we made our first real desperate move to keep the dream alive and decided to start our own band.
That band needed a name. I recall the process of naming the band being fairly quick stuff, as Wade was pretty agreeable about most things. Anyway, when Wade and I were all "band name" this, and "band name" that, we only had the kind of collective awareness of the universe that was possible before cell phones and google™ and YouTube®. We were both in the figurative darkness of life before Al Gore willed the internet into being, as well as the literal valley of isolated weirdness that held the wonderful hidden freaky '90s oasis of Boone, NC. We had NO IDEA there was another smartbomb that was rocking a much better sponsored and well-supported ride through post-post grunge into pre-proto-punksville. We were just turning up loud and screaming like kids. All of us just as fogged and sogged as kids can get and still bang their heads like that without falling down or throwing up; both of which I did my fair share of sadly as well. But the alcoholism that comes from pre-adult obliviousness aside...
I had spent the long cold winter of '93 holed-up in my bedroom with a bong and a four-track cassette machine, some headphones and a guitar; and I had a good bit of pent up angst, so I came out of it with some heavy stuff that wound up being really kinda fun to play.
I had met Gary Guthrie at some party or another. These were the days of bonfires and splitting your gloves with friends so you both can have one hand with which to drink while the other was warm in your pocket. These were the days of strange mountain rental house parties and even stranger apartments and duplexes, most into multiple decades of constant freak and student occupancy.
One night we were out and I asked him to play with Wade and I. He said yes. Further, he said we could practice in the basement of the house on Wood Circle he shared with members of The Husbians, who were really on fire at that moment. It was a pretty fantastic time. I was wanting to play all the time and Wade absolutely had not found one thing better to do yet and was down for anything. We played as much as we could.
We recorded some songs with Jamie Hoover, of the legendary NC band, The Spongetones in his lavish basement studio in somewheresville or suchandsuchberg NC or SC. It was a bit of a haul down the mountain, but we had a blast and got a really sick demo that your could turn up loud in the car. We sent it out as far as we could drive in a day and started playing a lot more.
I met David Andler from the band Octopus at the Klondike in 1994 sometime. He had started Morphius records in Baltimore a year earlier and we decided to split a 7" release. What could go wrong? We used the song "Fool", which had also been recorded with Jamie Hoover.
Around that time, I finished my degree and had mastered food delivery. I felt an itch I could not describe. I moved, almost without thinking or planning in February of '95 to Atlanta and landed with some pretty wonderful people. The day I arrived, there were 14 really heavy boxes of smartbomb/Octopus, gold vinyl split 7"s just sitting on the front porch. So, once I finished unloading the uhaul of all my belongings, I had to take 1000 7" to storage...where many of them probably still languish perhaps? I know I still have a nice sized box in the garage.
The three of us were growing out of Boone in different trajectories and the dissolution of the band and cessation of the project really came as no surprise to anyone. Unfortunately for us, we were one in the last little handful of bands who's music was never quite up to the "digital treatment" at the time, and so we never did have a CD or even a proper master of our songs; just tons and tons of cassettes. That was fine. We weren't legendary. BUT - It was incredible fun. We got along well. We showed up. We played. We had a cassette. It was gas money. We lived through it and that's all anyone was meant to have. The rest is just cake.
These two tracks would not fit on our tape, nor our 7" so no one ever heard them. Probably not the end of the world, but if you're interested, enjoy:
A.Quinn–2015