Founded in San Francisco in 1996, 100 Watt Smile is Carrie Bradley on violin and acoustic guitar, Mike Hart on drums, Scott Greiner on guitar, and Scott Houston on bass.
Bradley is songwriter for the band, coming from eccentric Boston band Ed's Redeeming Qualities, the Breeders (as violinist) and SF's Buckets.
Mike Hart plays the drums and has toured extensively with many other bands, but prefers to keep the details quiet. Influences include Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, and Cheap Trick.
Scott Houston plays bass. Perhaps the greatest baker in rock, he has supplied bread, pastry, and bass lines for several New Hampshire bands. Influences include Wings, Stevie Wonder, and Robyn Hitchcock.
Scott Greiner plays guitar and does all of the recording and mixing for the band, as well as reigning as Producer. Along with other formative banding experiences, he recorded/engineered and performed with Liz Phair during his Chicago years. Influences seem to change weekly.
100 Watt Smile signed for the European territories with German label Trocadero and released their first full-length CD, And Reason Flew, in 1998. Following a tour in Germany, Belgium and England, the band returned to the studio and began work on a second record. Meanwhile, they were featured on a number of local and international compilations.
New York independent Thirsty Ear Recordings picked up And Reason Flew for a U.S. release in 1999, and the band made trips to Los Angeles and to the NXNW festival while continuing work on their second record at home.
February 2001 marked the release of their second full-length record, the eponymous CD featured here at CD Baby, also produced by Scott Greiner. (The label deal was scuttled at the last moment, so apologies from the band that the CD does not have artwork/booklet other than the covers.) The band retired in 2002.
Bradley continues to play with the Breeders, and as of winter 2008 is nearing completion of the first record for her new music thing in San Francisco, a semi-acoustic duo with Bernie Jungle (http://cdbaby.com/cd/berniejungle) called the Great Auk (www.myspace.com/greataukmusic).
SOME PRESS:
"Violinist and lead singer Carrie Bradley's intense talent and giddy enthusiasm propelled 100 Watt Smile's unusual, breezy pop and earned the rapt attention of all the early birds at a Saturday-night show at Slim's. The blending of Scott Greiner's precise guitar with the eerily disturbing, classical undertones brought in by Bradley's violin defies any attempt to anticipate the next melodic twist. Her sweet, breathy vocals and careful phrasing add a poetic dimension to the already uncommon mixture. Despite the complex arrangements, the sound is tight and the playing effortless...introducing intricate melodies, altering the mood, and playing havoc with conventional pop expectatons...Mike Hart literally and figuratively smokes on the drums, and Greiner and bassist Scott Houston keep the pop train chugging fluidly around the twists and turns of Bradley's symphonic riptide."
--San Francisco Bay Guardian
I'd say this is my favorite local pick of the week, but this San Francisco band is showing signs of going national--signing with a New York label and making a splash in Europe--where they worship great Americana bands that go ignored here. Fronted by Carrie Bradley, who also writes the lyrics, 100 Watt Smile is a meaty amalgam of alt-country and classic, fat-bottomed guitar rock, all laced with violin and Bradley's arty, unadorned vocals. The feedback-saturated "Birthmark" is a cheeky standout. An interesting mix, and a great band.
--San Francisco Examiner
"I won't stick things in your open heart," sings violinist/guitarist Carrie Bradley on her band's debut, And Reason Flew. Although her oddball sentiments suggest that she might not be as guileless as the timbre of her sweet, sawdusty vocals, Bradley sounds like she'd rather win your heart than impale it. Bradley plays songs that share a bond with the quirky-women rock of Kristin Hersh, Lisa Germano, and Kim Deal (Bradley had fiddled in the Breeders), but she's a more gregarious musician than the aforementioned folks, stuffing all her weirdness into the lyrics so that she can revel in classic melodies and sludgy punk-pop riffs. Although Bradley and her band make impressively smooth rock, it never sounds forced or glib.
--CMJ
100 Watt Smile is shaped by Bradley's clear voice and wild, romantic violin--and of course by her songwriting. She has a feeling for classic pop songs which are shaped into epic soundwaves or edgy ballads by her three companions.
--Zillo
Rock without cliché, pop without sugary fluff, epic song structures, and beautiful melodies--in short, good modern guitar music with intelligence and heart. The lyrics discuss Death, Sex, and Life with sophistication.
--Audimax
SOME LYRICS:
Red Cherry Suit
I sat down under a cyclops moon
beside the blithering brook
And took a look around.
And the sounds of psychobabble and bafflegab
Salmoned up the drink from my nearby downtown downstream.
And it seems to me there was a forest in these trees
And it seems to me it's all wet in this American dream
And I had something in my pocket
And it was something that I got for you
It was the lock to the city of keys
Where you left their pointing fingers
and you opened me
And you you you in your red cherry suit
Dipped into to to my chocolate head
And when we meet that way
It's true true beauty
Mr. Boat and Miss Tree
quarreling about their history
and original sin in front of late-night TV
He says, "You gotta have a boat to sail,"
and she says, "You gotta have a tree to leave."
And I had something in my pocket
And it was something that you gave to me
It was the writing on the wall
And a sweet reason...
And you you you in your red cherry suit
Dipped into to to my chocolate head
And when we meet that way
It's true true beauty
Somewhere
Did I mention that the setting is an old car
by the jetty down at Mission Rock
And the air is blue like a new thought that
flew out and turned into dust.
And a thing walks up--
half girly boy half tomgirl like us.
Thing opens its hand like a fruit and
strikes its thumb on its shoe and lights up.
Whatever misses me the light
Whatever gets me to a naked lane
It's a good night somewhere.
Somewhere, some time ago
Somewhere, cold angels hung on air
Somewhere stones turn on roads somewhere.
Soon the moon Cheshires up
While nationwide the waitresses
fill half-empty cups.
Thing goes to the car and gets in
and cups the wheel like a chin and says,
"Car...Car...
You know I've walked and also ran
And has been and wanna be..."
And the car said, "I can't cry you a river,
I just got headlights and they're broke,
But I can deliver a view of the open road."
What ever misses me the light
Whatever gets me to a naked lane
It's a good night somewhere.
Somewhere, some time ago
Somewhere, cold angels hung on air
Somewhere there's stones that turn on roads
that go somewhere.
Club 23
I made my nest in the sling of a catapult
While you paced on the parapet
An idea glints in your eye and you smilingly
Decline to fly over the night
On the train to Jupiter
Where it rains like Paraguay
Why don't you lie down with me
And it throws me into next week
The intention I had is here like a dream
Boozy and bearded in the doorway of Club 23
I packed all my stuff into the mouth of a cannon
While you played with matches and dynamite
But when I thought you lighted the fire
The smoke rose in puffs to the sky just like on the train
On the train to Capricorn
I yank your chain and you yank mine
Why don't we lie down and sleep
And it throws me into next week
The intention I had is here like a dream
Dancing on the bar in the ruby light of Club 23
Boondoggle
Howling at lightbulbs, we populate the room
And the universe is expanding
So you can't fit into your old pants
And time does that old sleight-of-hand thing
Like a watch swings us into a trance
And when I face the mirror, the back of my head
Is making eyes at last night's breakfast
You make me crazy like a fox
And happy like a bloodhound
Put your ear into the box
That holds my tongue
Cuz you're the one who hears me...
You're not I crazy am.
Please release me
Don't let me go
Cuz the universe is expanding
So you can't got the whole in your hands
And all the quests of boondoggle and painting
Are carrots on a stick while we're waiting for lunch
You make me crazy like a fox
And happy like a bloodhound
Put your ear into the box
That holds my tongue
Cuz you're the one who hears me...
You're not I crazy am.
Two Jokes
At the end of my rope there's a loophole that grins
Like the oh that you said when you got what I meant
And sometimes things are free with you and me
Two jokes walk in a bar and overcome by déjà vu
Start downing shots and getting punchy
And cracking up the room
And I was there without you like a one-arm band
Tipping like a king for drinks and conducting my affairs
And I was there without you like a one-arm band
Parting seas and making deserts
Each time I raise my hand
And sometimes things are free with you and me
Fancy Me
Do you want to be a sky girl?
They said ooo, ooo, ooo.
Do you want to be a sky boy?
They said, ooo,ooo,ooo.
Screaming like peacock and
I open up my palm tree like umbrella
And I swing low and you swing low too.
I want to be a sky girl cuz I can never find my street.
You want to be a sky boy because you leave your feet.
Robinson and Crusoe are the names we call each other when we're tired and lonely and cute
And then you see me and I see you too.
I fancy myself fancy and he figures
he's a hero like you eat
When you need something
and conveniently it's teeth.
It's a bird it's a gap-tooth smile
you could fly a plane through
It's a plain old man with a bird in his hand
and the bush, she smiles.
Screaming like a yellow and I fancy that I'm fallin'
like a falcon's wing
Like an idol. Like the rain.
I fancy myself fancy and he figures
he's a hero like you eat
When you need something
and conveniently it's teeth.
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