Nick Vicario has been around the block a few times — Portland punk scenes, indie pop detours, substance-fueled chaos in LA — and on his new single as Smirk, he’s reckoning with all of it. Abide is the latest preview of the upcoming album ‘Speculative Fiction’, due July 3 on Smoking Room, and it hits like a gut punch wrapped in a jangle. Think lost Pixies B-side from the Surfer Rosa era, filtered through the dusty twang of Gun Club and a guitar solo straight out of J Mascis’s back pocket.
“‘Abide’ is based on an old British hymn that I reworked to be about the looming end of a long friendship,” Vicario explains. “It’s about that slow drift where nothing really happens, but you can feel it fading and you aren’t trying to fix it.”
Slowing Down to Speed Up
‘Speculative Fiction’ marks a real pivot for Smirk. Where earlier records leaned into punishing speed, this one pulls back and breathes — more Big Star and The Paul Collins Beat than anything from the hardcore playbook, with the DIY scrappiness of Guided by Voices holding it all together. It’s a record about looking back at past-self wreckage while trying to live cleanly on the other side of it.
“When I was writing ‘Speculative Fiction’, a lot of that dealt with the ‘old me’ and some of the crazy life choices I made while abusing substances,” Vicario recalls. “So while the record is partially about the ‘old me,’ it’s also very much about putting them in my current world and the new set of problems that come from that.”
The album’s guest list reads like a who’s-who of underground punk credibility: Ross Farrar (Ceremony), Max Smadja (RIXE), Ryan Mangione-Smith (Advertisement), plus live Smirk members who moonlight in Hotline TNT, Poison Ruin, and Pardoner. Recording happened mostly in Vicario’s home studio, with Ian Rose tracking additional cuts at Daisy Chain Studios in Brooklyn and Andy Oswald handling mixing.
‘Speculative Fiction’ track list
- Greetings
- Victimry
- Cheap Greed
- Going Off To Die
- Sistine Junk
- Dog Years
- I Shall Be Released
- Perfect World
- Abide
- Ritual Torture
- Interlude
- Shit Song
- Crime Pays
‘Speculative Fiction’ is out July 3 on Smoking Room. Pre-save / pre-order here.
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