the Smittens

Summary by Carrie Dagenhard

The Smittens are seasoned professionals when it comes to Popfest. This will be the band’s fifth time taking the stage during the festival, and this year they’re brimming with new material. Their new album “The Coolest Thing About Love” will be fresh off the press by the time the show rolls around.

Since their formation in 2002, the underground indie group has acquired a quite sizable fan base. The dueling male and female vocals are reminiscent of indie superstars Mates of State or Tilly and the Wall, but slightly less clashing.

Five Questions with the Smittens

1. What are your five desert island records?

We each picked one to be fair! here you go – Field Mice - Where'd You Learn to Kiss That Way? (david), Darren Hanlon – Little Chills (dana), Boo Radleys – Everything’s Alright Forever (colin ) Richard and Linda Thompson - Pour Down Like Silver (max), and If You're Feeling Sinister by Belle & Sebastian (holly).

2. Could you classify your sound for people who haven't heard it before?

Classic american indiepop in a boy/girl singalong vein! Simple and catchy songs with guitar, bass, drums, and casio keys and layered harmonies and back and forth duets – sassy and inviting and not pretentious!

3. What is your favorite place to play, and why?

At this point, it must be the Monkey House in Winooski, VT – because the person who books it (Paddy Reagan) is also the sound guy – he built a stage there and really takes good care fo the bands – we just played out hhbtm split 7” release there with Tullycraft and the 500s and it was totally awesome!

4. What is the weirdest thing you take on tour?

Miniature plush dolls of ourselves that David made out of felt? Or does everyone do that?

5. What should people expect from your Athens PopFest performance?

Well, folks should expect that we will start on time and play our hearts out! We will have just gotten back form a couple weeks of shows in the UK, so we should be up on our live game and will probably be playing some new songs from our new HHBTM album The Coolest Thing About Love – I think our set will be our chance to give the album a proper Ahtens release party, as it comes out at the end of July! We are so proud of it and happy to see it out, that I think we will be smiling the whole time and just glad to be back in front of a sweet athens popfest crowd!

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