Blonde powerhouse and crackerjack band blaze through Americana, Beatlepop, jazz, bossa nova, and soul in a song cycle of love, loss, and reluctant hope (with a dash of bliss thrown in for good measure).
With the release of Snowblind, Erica Smith and the 99 Cent Dreams find themselves suddenly placed in the tradition of restless and daring records that have resulted from shattering loss. It wasn’t part of the plan.
In the early stages of recording, Snowblind was loosely conceived as a song suite in which the occasional lyric would glint with some kind of snow imagery. It was cruelly ironic when, in the middle of the night during the blizzard of January 2005, Erica’s boyfriend died suddenly as they walked together on a Hudson River pier. Reeling from this devastating loss, Erica sequestered for a year, continuing to rehearse with the band but neither recording nor performing. During that time Erica completed several more songs to bring the album into full focus not only as a conceit, but also as an elegy.
Sonically speaking, Snowblind will feel familiar and welcoming to any fan of Erica Smith’s 2002 folk/Americana release Friend or Foe––the album that prompted The Village Voice to declare “I think I love her” and earned airplay and in-studios across the U.S. on AAA radio as well as on Charlie Gillett’s renowned BBC London show “The Sound of the World.” Both Friend or Foe and Snowblind are approachable-sounding singer/songwriter records, but Snowblind is more muscular, with a warm, full-band glow.
The wintry imagery of Snowblind is balanced out by other songs that give off considerable heat: an affair begins on a hot summer night in Riverside Park; lovers stand on a city terrace, listening to a crackling thunderstorm in the middle of the night; an impish sweetheart, like a firefly, appears out of nowhere only after the sun goes down.
The band -- Dave Campbell on drums, Dann Baker on guitar, Alan Young on bass, Erica Smith on guitar and vocals -- pushes the songs to their outer limits. The Merseybeat-influenced “Easy Now,” the sparkling bossa nova piece “Tonight,” the frenetic New Wave “Where and When,” the gentle, psychedelic “Start From Nothing,” and the swaying country tune “The World is Full of Pretty Girls,” among others, all add up to an eclectic, exciting listen.
The majority of songs on Snowblind are written by Erica. Two songs, “Where and When” and “Start from Nothing,” are penned by Dan Sallitt (of Blow This Nightclub) and Dann Baker (of Love Camp 7), respectively. Two other cover songs offer a peek into the band’s love of 1960s sounds: the title track, from the experimental, psychedelic 1969 Judy Henske/Jerry Yester album Farewell Aldebaran, and the beloved, sonorous “Don’t Worry Baby” by the Beach Boys.
In Snowblind, each of these wildly disparate tunes is unspun and rewound, ramped up and reimagined. Together they form a soundscape with its own distinct soul.
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Erica Smith and the 99 Cent Dreams first came together in 2003 when Erica, feeling all hotsy-totsy after the warm reviews of her Americana-laced Friend or Foe, somehow managed to shanghai DAVE CAMPBELL on drums, ALAN YOUNG on bass, and DANN BAKER on guitar to play some spicy live shows around New York City. Dave and Dann are longtime bandmates in acclaimed psychedelic garage-pop band Love Camp 7; Alan is the head bassman for Randi Russo and other luminaries. Together they play the downtown clubs of New York City.
Snowblind was recorded on analog tape at Excello Recording in Brooklyn, engineered by Bruce Hathaway.
