Artist: Smoother, Album: Copycat, Song: Cudjule

Smoother were a four piece band from Hamilton, Ontario.  They had a melodic punk sound and were signed to Sonic Unyon Records.  They were one of a few core bands like Sianspheric (see blog 1/17/11), Treble Charger and Tristan Psionic (see blog 6/3/11) that were generating a lot of buzz on the indie scene.  Their music was featured on a number of the label's compilations and often under the alias, Sponge.  The band eventually switched their name to Smoother when an American band using the same name started to gain popularity.  The band would go on to release their first cassette only album in 1993.  They followed that up with their sophomore release in 1994, entitled, Copycat.  It was a strong album and one of my favourite tunes from the album was Cudjule.  You can check it out on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqkv8c0yzcs&feature=channel_video_title).  The band would release one more album with Sonic Unyon before landing a major label deal with EMI and releasing their final album, Chasing The Dragon, in 2001.  Their sound was more pop oriented at this point and they had a major single with the song, East Side.  The album would garner the band a Juno nomination for Best New Group in 2002 but they lost out to the band, Default.  Smoother is no longer together but lead vocalist and songwriter, Andrew Franey is still active in music and you can follow him at http://www.andrewfraney.com/.  He has a very cool cover of Madonna's  Material Girl posted on his website right now which is worth a listen.  Unfortunately, anything earlier than their 2001 release is difficult to track down today.  However, you can purchase the album, Copycat, from the Sonic Unyon website (http://www.sonicunyonstore.com/).  Thanks for reading and enjoy!