UR Preview: Stephen Paul Smoker

Sundrenched summer sounds from Stephen Paul Smoker

By Alyssa Meza

August is coming to a close.  Elementary schools are opening up their doors and the scorching summer heat is beginning to wane.  So just as the seasons begin to change, so do the summer mixtapes, EPs, LPs and releases detailing the youthful exuberance of June, July and August. 

While the music of Stephen Paul Smoker is still sun-drenched, his typifies a different kind of summer; where the sun sheds light on things that did not make it onto Best Coast’s Crazy For You.  It’s more of a somber and stranger affair on Smoker’s EP Violent Sun/ Violent Fun.  And though it released earlier this Spring, it still feels relevant, especially considering that Smoker will be playing tracks from the EP at this year’s North Coast Music Festival in September.  Everything comes full circle. 

Violent Sun/ Violent Fun is steeped in 1960s psychedelia and predictably sounds like it was recorded under a haze of smoke, like on “Oh Daniel,” which two minutes into the five minute song begins a slow-moving, bass line climb into unusual drug reverie territory.  It’s not hard to tell that things are a little darker in this universe than the sunny 50’s pop of this summer considering the eerie opening vocals on “Sacrifice,” or just the names of tracks themselves (“Don’t Let Me Down”, “Seed of Hate”).  Yet the tracks are still hypnotic, lulling you in as the sun fades on the end of August.