Photo: Bailey Kretz

You can never have too many songs that are catchy and cool at the same time. Blending melody and moodiness, Cincinnati’s Smut is the kind of hard-edged shoegaze that harkens back to the golden days of Swervedriver, only with the compact pop structures and sensibilities of Veruca Salt added to the equation. And the band’s new single “Video Cell,” the first off upcoming release End Of Sam-soon, is an excellent introduction to its sound, with brash guitar riffs wedded to delicate and spacey verses that harness the distortion and lend it a purpose. Throughout it all, singer Tay Roebuck channels her addictive vocal delivery toward an off-kilter end, letting notes slide in and out of harmony with the guitars as the track pushes into an explosive coda.




“‘Video Cell’ is about having a relationship with technology that eventually takes the place of romantic love with a person, it’s actually really spiteful in context,” Roebuck tells The A.V. Club. “Or I guess letting technology overshadow a relationship, whether it be through TV, video games—just looking at your phone and being unaware that someone is trying to be physically close with you.” Ironically, a song about such emotional disconnect cuts through the noise to achieve a potent immediacy. The band’s new record, End Of Sam-soon, will be out October 27 on Broken Circles.