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L.A. indie pop group
Smokescreens are deeply indebted to the jangly guitar pop of early Flying Nun and the noisy rush of C-86-style indie pop, with a little punk energy thrown in for good measure on their early records. By the time of 2020's
A Strange Dream, they had added a gentler, more thoughtful strand to their sound and managed to get
the Clean's
David Kilgour to produce.
Corey Cunningham and
Chris Rosi met and became friends in 2011 when their bands,
Terry Malts and
Plateaus respectively, were on tour together. By 2015, when they both found themselves living in Los Angeles, they decided the time was right to start a band together.
Cunningham played bass while
Rosi handled the guitar and vocal duties. After playing some shows, the duo turned to ex-
Plateaus drummer Jon Greene to round out their sound and help with recording, just as he had for a wide range of bands including
the Soft Pack and
Crocodiles.
They recorded a self-titled album in an old dairy factory and released it on
Cunningham's own Parked in Hell label in 2017. Sadly, Greene passed away soon afterward. The duo decided to carry on with new members
Brice Bradley on drums and Jenny Moffett on bass, and
Cunningham moved over to guitar. The newly minted four-piece gathered at Hollywood's Primitive Ears Studio to record their sophomore effort, which they then passed to
Kyle Mullarky (who had worked with the
Allah-Las, among others) for mixing. The finished product, the ten-track
Used to Yesterday album, was released by Slumberland Records in mid-2018. The band toured the world after the record's release and along the way made a fan of
David Kilgour, member of
the Clean and a fine solo artist in his own right. When the group -- now a trio of
Rosi,
Bradley and Beehive's Jake Sprecher -- returned to the studio to record their third album they were joined by
Kilgour in the producer's chair and had
Mullarky's help engineering. 2020's
A Strange Dream was a more contemplative and political album that blended acoustic and electric guitars in classic Flying Nun fashion. ~ Bekki Bemrose