SMATCH - self-titled 7"

The perfect first entry to my obscure 7" mp3 blog is one of my favorite 7"s for more than a decade; a four-song 7" by a short-lived band called Smatch, from Flint, MI.

Smatch played at the skatepark in my hometown of Mankato, MN. They played when I first started going to shows, and it was all new to me. I don't remember too many specifics of the show, but they had a 7" and were giving stickers away. Unfortunately I didn't get the 7" at the show, but came across a used copy of the 7" at Ernie November, the local record store in downtown Mankato, at the time. I bought the 7", took it home, and discovered the song with swearing in the lyrics was scratched out on the vinyl. I took it back the next day and got my money back. Turns out the kid who sold that record (along with some others) was a super-Christian and couldn't listen to music with swearing, so he took a sharp object and scratched those songs out of all his vinyl. Ridiculous, right?? A while later convinced a friend to sell me his copy of the 7" after getting sick of the cassette I had someone dub me from their 7".

Somewhere over the past 14 years I obtained a second copy of the 7" too, as a back-up, without the insert, but I don't remember where. The 7" has a cool "DIY" cover, it comes with a few different band logo stickers and a few different pictures of the band and you can make your own cover. I never did, being the record collector nerd that I am, of course.

I don't know much else about this band, unfortunately. At some point I was able to locate a compilation of Michigan bands that had a song from them, and the compilation was dedicated to the singer of the band who was killed in a car accident, and thus ending the band's career.

SMATCH - self-titled 7" (self-released)

01. I Am Nowhere (You Are Nothing)
02. Gene
03. Pygmy Remover
04. Dakota