Smug Brothers Premiere New Album ‘Pinhole to Vortex’
Dayton, Ohio’s Smug Brothers return tomorrow with ‘Pinhole to Vortex’, their latest album for Anyway Records. We’re pleased to premiere the record in full today.
Smug Brothers have been around for more than two decades now, which is long enough to develop certain habits. One of them appears to be making records before anybody has had much chance to decide what sort of record they are making.
‘Pinhole to Vortex’ began in June 2024, during sessions that also produced ‘Stuck On Beta’. Kyle Melton and drummer Don Thrasher laid down the foundations together, joined by bassist Kyle Sowash and guitarist Ryan Shaffer, and the pile of songs simply kept growing. Across four guitar-and-drums sessions and another devoted to Melton’s acoustic material, they recorded more than 25 pieces.
“As usual, Don and I tracked the foundations together,” Melton says. “But songs kept appearing. I’d still be writing things for the record during the final sessions.”
That probably explains why ‘Pinhole to Vortex’ never feels as though somebody sat down beforehand and drew a straight line through it. Smug Brothers have always worked in short bursts, crooked guitar phrases and melodies that arrive before you quite notice them, and this album leaves plenty of room for all three.
‘Extra All The Time’, already released with a video, is one of the quickest ways in. It barely needs any introduction before the hooks begin piling up. Elsewhere, ‘Exit to Chagrin’ and ‘Blitz Meridian’ push the guitars harder, while ‘Picasso Waltzes’ wanders off in another direction entirely, eventually making room for a sudden appearance of horns.
The record has its quieter corners too. Melton has never needed a great deal of space to make a song stick, and part of the pleasure of Smug Brothers is that a piece can sound almost tossed off until it follows you around for the rest of the afternoon.
The oldest song here is actually the last one.
Melton first wrote ‘Drive Open In The Delicate Streams’ more than 20 years ago. It disappeared for years before returning to him during the final recording session in autumn 2025. Former Smug Brothers member Brian Baker came back to add keyboards, giving the album a small connection to an earlier version of the band without turning the song into an exercise in nostalgia.
That sort of thing suits Smug Brothers rather well. They have never behaved as though every record needs to arrive with a grand new theory attached. Songs turn up, some stay, some disappear, and occasionally one waits two decades before finding the record it belongs on.
Melton also made the front and back cover collages himself, keeping the visual side of ‘Pinhole to Vortex’ as homemade as much of the music.
For a band with so much material behind them, there is very little ceremony about any of this. Smug Brothers simply keep making records, and somehow they keep finding another guitar line or chorus worth keeping.
‘Pinhole to Vortex’ is out September 18 via Anyway Records.
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