Smarty
“Smarty”
was a pioneer of the San Antonio underground music scene in 1980 with his British postpunk influenced
high school band Platform of Youth
(with ex-members of the Rejects and future members of Fearless Iranians from Hell).
By 1982, they evolved into the now “legendary” Texas darkwave band,
Lung Overcoat.
In their 6 year history, the Overcoats toured the states and played support for everyone from early shows by the Butthole Surfers and Poison 13 to Public Image Ltd, Joy Division label mates Section 25, the B-52's and A Flock of Seagulls.
Their rare vinyl releases, 1983’s “Internal Silence” 7” and “Climbing Up the Hill” EP from 1985, found their way onto John Peel’s influential BBC Radio program in the ‘80s, and are highly prized by collectors of early Texas indy rock. The EP track “Sickroom” was reissued on the Tales From the Edge Vol. 10 Texas Music History ‘84-87 CD.
By the late 80’s the Overcoats were no more and Smarty had formed noisy guitar pop group Thirteen (with future members of the Deathray Davies). Thirteen’s releases include 1991’s “This is Thirteen” EP, the “I Dig Trains” 7” in ’93 plus a critically acclaimed single 1995’s “Alcohol Funny Car” for I.R.S. Records (six months before the label went bankrupt). Touring the U.S. constantly the group shared stages with the Toadies,D-Generation, Die Monster Die, Live and endless others.
After a yearlong hiatus to recover from the wear of the road and the woes of the record industry, Smarty formed what would be his most artistic and personal effort to date, the Mechanical Walking Robotboy.
When not too busy with Robotboy, Smarty moonlights as 1/3 of Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine (featuring DJ Jester the Filipino Fist) whose 2002 cut-n-paste CD Introducing the Neat Beat received kudos across the board from the likes of URB, the Wire, Pulse, XLR8R, Giant Robot and Mofo.
