If you told us we’d be releasing a cover of “Daydream Believer” at any point, well…

And yet here we are, this week’s cover from the *Smallpox* _Covers Album_ project is exactly that – Daniel Smith’s take on the Monkees’ classic. Dan says “For a minute, try to forget that The Monkees were the original corporate boy band. Forget that without the cheesy television show, they were just another cheap imitation of The Beatles. Forget that they didn’t write or record their own songs. Or even play their own instruments.”

“Fact is, if that song ever comes on the radio, and you don’t find yourself wearing a sudden smile, or compelled to tap your feet…or if you’re not singing along by the first chorus, then you probably don’t have a soul and you might want to look into that.”

You can get “Daydream Believer” for a buck, or you can get the whole _Covers Album_ project for $18 and we’ll upload a new cover every other week throughout the year – plus some extras (trust us, they’re starting to churn out new ones). Find it “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-covers-album

We are thrilled to release “Broken Glass,” the latest single by our friends *Speed the Plough*.

Another beautiful song from their wildly inventive series of monthly singles that they’ve released during the pandemic, this one featuring vocal contributions from Mayssa Jallad (Safar), guitar from Matt Davis (Campfire Flies, The Thousand Pities), and bass from Dan Francia. Recorded in New Jersey and Beirut and mixed by the legendary Don Sternecker at Mix-O-Lydian Studios, we are co-releasing the single with the band, making it available on both our online stores in the digital format of your choice.

We have also produced a very limited amount of gorgeous lathe-cut 7″ singles, part of our regular series of lathe-cuts. We are making just 30 copies available for sale, so if the collector in you is thinking of picking one up, now is the time: WE DO NOT RE-PRESS THESE.

Lathe-cut singles are individually handmade 7″ singles, expertly cut into plexiglas by a craftsman who is really, really good at making these. They will play on virtually any turntable (budget turntables sometimes have trouble with them), and will not damage your stylus. A purchase of a 7″ is accompanied by a digital download.

Today marks the ten-year anniversary of the passing of Josh Silverman, of *Shirk Circus*. Josh was a wonderful musician and songwriter, and it was our pleasure to have the opportunity to release “_This Band Will Destroy Your Life_”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/this-band-will-destroy-your-life just after his passing, as well as the song “Knee Deep in Sin” by *The Dark Brothers* (which also included Josh) on our _Make The Load Lighter_ compilation.

Daniel Smith, former bass player in Shirk Circus is the driving force behind *Smallpox*. As part of a series of covers we are releasing throughout 2021, Smallpox chose to record the Shirk Circus song “#10 (Under Acme)”, which we are releasing today as a free download. Daniel remembers Shirk Circus:

“In the summer of 1993, I answered an ad in the classified section of _The Aquarian Weekly_. The ad said “Bass player wanted,” and listed four conditions:

1. No songwriters
2. No slapping
3. No pedals
4. Four strings only

I figured eventually I could get them to loosen up on the rules about pedals, since I’d been known to enjoy some fuzz now and then, but was otherwise okay with the rest of it. So I got in touch, and a few days later, a cassette showed up in the mail labeled ‘Shirk Circus.

About a week later, they had me come down to their place in Clifton, NJ, for an audition, at which point Josh asked if I’d had time to learn any of the songs. I say sure, he asks which ones. I say ‘all of them.’

Judging from Josh’s shit-eating grin, I was probably already in at that point, but then we start playing, and that was that.

By year two, we’d gotten signed, released our first album, and did some touring. More importantly, we developed a sort of psychic friends network connection thing, where we didn’t really need to practice anymore.

Case in point: One night on tour, right as we’re about to start loading in for a show at Cat’s Cradle in North Carolina, Josh shows us this song he wrote the night before, called ‘Virginia is for Lovers,’ and asks if we can add it to the set that night.

Anyway, you would’ve thought we’d played it a hundred times before. And the thing is, it seemed so commonplace at the time that we just sort of took it for granted. But eventually, you figure out that this kind of chemistry is pretty fucking far from commonplace, maybe you come across it once or twice. But to be able to make magic? If you’re lucky, maybe you find that once in a lifetime.

By the way: for the record, ‘Northern Ways’ and ‘Talking to Yourself’ on the first Shirk Circus album both have fuzz bass.”

You can find the original version of “#10 (Under Acme)” on the Shirk Circus album _March_, which was released on Bar/None Records.

We’re thrilled to announce the amazing next installment of our lathe-cut 7″ series: “Broken Glass,” by New Jersey chamber-pop veterans *Speed the Plough*.

We still have to pinch ourselves sometimes when we are reminded that we released Speed the Plough’s excellent album _Shine_ ten years ago. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to watch the band continue to evolve, releasing music on their own and with our friends at Bar/None and Coyote, bringing on new band members and collaborators and never losing the magical joy they get out of playing music onstage with friends.

During the pandemic, the members of the band were faced with the same challenge as so many other musicians: how to continue to write and play music – but to do it safely, during a pandemic? And that’s when the band came up with the idea of releasing a new single every month, each one a long-distance collaboration with different musicians in the band’s circle. Their plan was to record ten new pieces, releasing one a month on their Bandcamp page, and to put a bow on the project by releasing a physical album after the pandemic.

The first installment, released back in August, was the stunning “Rush Hour (Inadvertent Meditation for a Friend)”, a haunting track dedicated to their friend Tony Donato, who passed away near the beginning of the pandemic. The track featured the vocals of Mayssa Jallad of the Beirut-based band Safar. Since then, the band has released a new track each month.

We’re proud to present “Broken Glass,” a co-release with the band, as their February, 2021 effort. Like the first track back in August, it features guest vocals from Mayssa Jallad. We’ll be releasing it on limited-edition lathe-cut 7″ (buy it now; once they’re gone, they’re gone), and through both the Dromedary and Speed the Plough Bandcamp page. It’s available for preorder now, with a February 5 release.

The latest installment in the *Smallpox* series of covers is “Driver 8,” an outstanding take on the classic R.E.M. song. Guitarist/vocalist Daniel Smith explains his love of the song.

“Remember that person who always seemed to be a couple of steps ahead of everyone else when it came to discovering new bands? Yeah, well, that wasn’t me. I was usually late to the party,” Smith explains. “In 1988, a friend had just picked up a copy of _Eponymous_, R.E.M.’s greatest hits from the IRS years and, as per the usual, we got really baked and listened to it for hours.”

“As far as the band was concerned, I had heard of them, but hadn’t really thought much of them either way. Or at least that’s what I _thought_ until my friend put the album on – at which point I started wondering why the hell these songs sounded so damn familiar? And yeah, the answer was because I’d heard most of them before. Moreover, I had apparently been ignoring one of my favorite bands of all time.”

As a postscript, Daniel adds “But here’s the kicker – a few years later I was talking to an old friend from Daytona and he reminded me that we both saw them open for Big Country. Spring break, 1984. Not that I even remember it. Always a bridesmaid.”

You can stream the song “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/track/driver-8 where it is available for download for just one dollar. The full album, imaginatively titled _The Covers Album_, is available for $18 and gets you a new download every other week, plus a few extras throughout the year.

The first track from the yearlong covers project by *Smallpox*, an aggressive version of Tears For Fears’ “Mad World,” is out today. The track was written by Roland Orzabal and originally appears on the 1983 Tears For Fears album _The Hurting_. You probably know it best because of the Michael Andrews/Gary Jules cover that appeared on the soundtrack to the film _Donnie Darko_ in 2001.

“I have to make a confession. I really didn’t like Tears For Fears in the 80s,” says guitarist/vocalist Daniel Smith. “Or to be more precise, I _pretended_ that I didn’t like Tears For Fears. Back then, there was a lot of stuff I wouldn’t allow myself to get into. Howard Jones, The Cure, Duran Duran, Icehouse, and the list goes on. Apparently, being a narrow-minded teenage metalhead can have its drawbacks.”

“Anyway, fast forward to 2004, Tears for Fears releases _Everybody Loves a Happy Ending_, and I, now being an open-minded musician liberated from the rules of metaldom, instantly fall in love with it. Soon after, I end up picking up their back catalog, catching them live in Montclair, and realizing two very important things: 1) Tears for Fears is one of my top ten favorite bands, and 2) I can be a real jackass sometimes.”

“And while I’d love to say that this was the first time that this had ever happened to me, I’d be totally fucking lying.”

“Mad World” is out today, and we’re offering it for free download “here”:https://dromedaryrecords.bandcamp.com/track/mad-world. Of course you can purchase _The Covers Album_ in its entirety right now for $18, which will give you instant access to each song as we upload them biweekly over the course of 2021. Or, if you’re more of a “dip your toes in the water” kind of person, you can purchase the ones you like for a dollar each, as we release them.