It’s Bandcamp Day, and definitely time for a new cover from *Smallpox*. If you haven’t been following along, and have just stumbled onto the site today for whatever reason, Smallpox is a collective music project spearheaded by Dan Smith (Shirk Circus, The 65’s, solo). In late 2020, they released their debut album _…For A Girl_ on Eyeball Records. In conjunction with that release, we’ve been dipping into their massive library of cover songs, releasing a new one every other week or so. You can get them for a dollar each, or $18 for the whole bunch, including immediate access to each new one as we upload them.

This week’s cover is the band’s take on “Caribou,” by The Pixies. Despite the fact that we know he’s a Pixies fan, when we asked Dan about this one, here’s what he said:

“My memory is kind of sketchy, but I think this was the first cover Bob (drummer Bob Diamond) and I recorded. I’m pretty sure we were actually trying to record one of my songs, but this dumpster fire happened instead.

From then on, that kind of became our work ethic – get trashed, and if we happened to overdo it, record covers instead. And, as you can tell from the amount of cover songs we’ve done, that happened pretty often.

Fun fact: altogether, Bob and I have been playing together since around 1991, but we’ve never actually played a show together.”

Check out “Drive” and “Eyes Without A Face,” the latest in the yearlong project from *Smallpox* called _The Covers Album_. We’ve been adding a new cover song to this ever-expanding album every other week (or so), and we’re up to 16 now. You can buy them for a buck each, or you can get every one of them (including the ones we’ll be adding as the year progresses) for $18. EIGHTEEN DOLLARS!

Go here: https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-covers-album

It’s summertime, and there can’t be anything more summery than two blasts of power pop from *Cathedral Ceilings*. We’re happy to announce the pre-order of _I’m A Band_, the band’s second single.

You might recall their debut, _Thanks For The Guitar, Mommy_, which sold out in two days. This one is also available in limited-edition lathe-cut format (as well as in the digital format of your choice), but you should pick up your copy quick, because like all our other lathe-cut releases, once we’re out, we’re out. No re-presses!

The single is out July 9. Preorder yours today “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/im-a-band

The latest from *Cathedral Ceilings*, _I’m A Band!_, premieres today over at “New Noise Magazine”:https://newnoisemagazine.com/premiere-cathedral-ceilings-im-a-band/.

Regarding the lead track, “Hamilton Circuits,” singer/guitarist Ralphie says “I was a math major for a bit, but couldn’t get past differential equations because I’m an idiot. But I love the idea of a math rock song that’s not ‘math rock.’ I mean, Nicky and Tommy could do math rock, but I would just get lost and bored.”

Lost and bored is definitely not something that’ll happen when you dig into these two tracks, just about four minutes between the two of them. Quick bursts of heavy pop, you can pick it up on the digital format of your choice, or, if you act quickly, you can snag a limited-edition lathe-cut 7″, “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/im-a-band

We missed a week of covers from *Smallpox* due to various busy-related issues. So this week we’ll bring you TWO different covers – one, of the Bruce Springsteen classic “I’m On Fire,” and a second, of Peter Gabriel’s “Red Rain.”

Of Springsteen, singer/guitarist Daniel Smith says “One of the worst things about telling people you’re from Jersey is that everyone automatically assumes you like Bruce Springsteen. And when you tell them that you actually sort of hate the guy, they look at you like you have leprosy or something. But the thing is, even someone you can’t stand is still capable of writing a great song. Anyway, I tried to make this one ugly, sort of fantasized about him sitting there, listening to it and hating this version.”

Smith continues “I liked Peter Gabriel a lot when I was growing up, but didn’t really want anything to do with him in high school. The reason being, the people who liked Peter Gabriel when I was in high school were generally assholes. Eventually, though, I figured out that I actually always liked Gabriel – I just didn’t like assholes. In this case, if we’d taken these covers a little more seriously, you’d be listening to a cover of ‘Mercy Street.’ But again, we were inebriated, so now you get ‘Red Rain.’ And it’s pretty fucking messy. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to that ‘Mercy Street’ cover.

Listen to both tracks “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-covers-album. You can buy them for a dollar each, or you can buy the whole album for $18, and get the covers (there are 14 as of now) as we upload them every other week, plus the bonus tracks that we add from time to time.

The latest track from Smallpox’ _Covers Album_ is a cover of the Ryan Adams song “Come Pick Me Up.”

Daniel Smith explains “One day, I’m at the Garden State Plaza (NJ shopping mall) and bump into a dear friend that I had lost track of years back. We exchange numbers and get in touch later that day to make plans. That night, I go over to his place, and we sit out back with a bottle of Jameson and he asks me if I’d heard of Whiskeytown. I had heard of, but hadn’t actually heard them, which was kind of by choice. Truth was, the whole alt-country/no depression thing didn’t really interest me much. Then, he played me _Strangers Almanac_.”

“Had Bob and I taken recording these covers even a little seriously, we probably would’ve recorded ‘Avenues’ or maybe ‘Houses on a Hill.’ But since we were pretty much inebriated, you get ‘Come Pick Me Up’ instead.”