As it nears Christmas ‘08, the magical, mischievious elves of the north holed up in Santa’s stronghold must have been smiling upon Fauxtown Records,  because they sent Fauxtown an early gift…in the form of musician Rob Smith!  Yes, you heard me right.  Rob Smith has officially joined Fauxtown Records, and you might as well smile about it.  

So…one might ask…who is Rob Smith?  Not to be confused with the moping, frizz-haired Cure front-man, Rob Smith is essentially a bluesman…but a bluesman who knows more melancholy chords than your typical blues guy.  To the casual listener, it might be said that Rob draws inspiration from lamentable real, and sometimes, imagined situations.  What does this mean?  Real could mean an actual haunted house containing spiritual activity (I’m not sure he’s comfortable speaking about this…but ask him about it anyway), and imagined, as in, the bawdy Waits-ian characters who lurk in his songs and evoke a real-ness not possessed by people who *are* actually real.  These are not quotes direct from the man himself, but observations by someone who has heard the man and draws conclusions upon what is seen or heard.  

Yes indeed, Rob Smith is quite the character.  Currently on tour in a bar or cafe near you, he’s got it together as a solo act, but can also rock a full band package with no problem. So you’ll need to be seeing him perform whenever you can.  Perhaps he’ll be playing somewhere on a night where roads are not safe.  But if you can brave the elements, you’ll be privy to a performance that will make you scoff at black ice.  In the summer, there’s no excuse. And now he dons a cloth bearing this word: “Fauxtown”. 

Young Coconut shocks fan by releasing unannounced EP! ”Yeah, that’s right” he said, casually eating a dragon fruit, “againstbetter judgement I have released an 8 song EP just in time forthe holidays…and its available free on TriCityMusic as of this weekfor FREE download”.  Finishing off the dragon fruit, he said to this interviewer, “Now this press conference is FINISHED as well!” and he stormed off.  As it turns out, the EP is available at Encore Records(on the floor by the door, with the other freebies), and at The Grub Hub,where Fauxtown Records has their weekly acoustic night.  That’s whereyours truly got hers.  Peace! 

When pressed for more by raving fans, YC had the following to say:

“Phresh Cut Man” Exclusive
by: Young Coconut
 The Date:  Dec 1st, 2008
 
Gee, time sure flies.  I mean, it seemed like yesterday that the three bands - Yim Tin Tam, The Peephole, and Say Yes, melded into a single unit of brooding intensity.  Ahhh…thems were the days.  And that band was Lucky Stabb.  And with the wind at my back, I whipped up a few new tunes in anticipation of a new sound.  It was mid-’07 that I penned/refined/ presented “cold shoulder”, “city block”, “forever spent”, and “call me when you get your act together” to the band, in an attempt to pander to its..erm…proclivaties.  But for reasons that perhaps only people in bands can relate to, these songs didn’t really stir up much interest.  Or somefin’.. regardless, they proceeded to go nowhere and my hard-drive began to fill up with other stuff. Then….about a week ago, I thought, “i’m gonna do something with these songs before my computer gets a bug and they vanish into the nether-regions of where shit goes when it gets fucked up”… Hence, the “phresh cut man EP”.  The other songs featured on this EP are also from my bloated bloodsack of a hard-drive, and point  back to an earlier point in time…approximately, 2002, ‘03, ‘04.  Back in the days where my best friend was my 4-Track, and my other best friend was a big huge salad or a steamin’ pot of mac.  Which is not to say these songs are being released purely to lighten my hard-drives burden.  Oh no, no, no no no no.  In fact, these songs have a special, special connection to each other.  They date from a time period where I was favouring a vision of the time continuum that was soon to be thwarted. “Thwarted”..ah, i like that.  Anyway, I really must be going.  I will ’splain some more later, once the fanmail starts comin’ in.  More details and more benefits and more to come!

Peace

YC