Smoosh

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Smoosh
The girls of Smoosh
Origin	Seattle, Washington
Country	USA
Years active	2000–present
Genres	Rock, Pop, indie rock
Labels	Barsuk Records, Pattern 25
Members	Chloe Asya

Smoosh is an American indie pop duo, consisting of two sisters, singer/keyboardist Asya (born February 2, 1992 (age 14)) and drummer Chloe (born March 5, 1994 (age 12)) At the time of their first album, She Like Electric, released on September 21, 2004, Asya was 12 years old and Chloe was 10. All of their songs are originals and the lyrics are written by the girls themselves. They live in Seattle, Washington with their father, Mike, a medical researcher, their mother, Maria, a pediatrician of Swedish descent, their two younger sisters, Maia (born 1997; she did the artwork for the covers of She Like Electric and free to stay) and Scout, and two pets. They do not give out their last name to interviewers.^[1]^[2] They are, to some extent, proteges of Chloe's drum teacher, Jason McGerr, now the drummer of Death Cab for Cutie.^[3]

1 Biography
2 Similar drummer
3 The band's name
4 Discography
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Biography

Smoosh got started in 2000, when the family was at a Seattle music store, The Trading Musician, standing in line to purchase a violin. Asya and Chloe wandered into the drum section of the store, where Chloe met Jason McGerr; the family eventually left with a $600 drum kit for Chloe, McGerr's card from the Seattle Drum School, "and no violin."^[4] When McGerr learned that Asya had been playing the piano and writing songs since she was very young, he offered to help them both.

Neither of the girls read music.^{[citation needed]} Asya had had some formal piano training earlier but soon quit because it was "boring".^[4]

Critics have generally compared their sound to that of Tori Amos and PJ Harvey, and have been almost uniformly impressed with the quality of the material coming from such young writers and performers.^[5]^[1]^[6] They have opened for many leading Pacific Northwest bands including Jimmy Eat World,^[4] Mates of State,^[4] Pearl Jam,^[3]^[4] Death Cab for Cutie,^[4] Sleater-Kinney,^[3]^[4] and the Presidents of the United States of America,^[3]^[4] as well as for other indie acts such as Cat Power^[4] (who also covers their songs, "Rad"),^[3] Nada Surf, Sufjan Stevens and The Go! Team. In mid-2006 Smoosh was the opening act for the world tour of the Eels.

Smoosh's second album, titled free to stay, was released on June 6, 2006 on Barsuk Records. Its third track of 12, "Free to Stay," was an early song that was on the girls' first CD, Tomato Mistakes,^{[citation needed]} which for a long time was mailed free of charge to anyone who wanted it.^[4] Smoosh's former label was Pattern 25.^[4]

On July 12, 2006, they performed the song "Find A Way" on the Jimmy Kimmel Live, their first performance on late night TV.

[edit] Similar drummer

Chloe, 6 years old at the time of Tomato Mistakes, was not the first 6-year old girl drummer in a Seattle-based band. Rachel Trachtenburg of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players (originally of Seattle, later of New York City), joined her father's band at the age of 6 and first recorded at the age of 8. Unlike Rachel, however, Chloe does all of the drum work on her band's recordings^[7]) and is a full contributing member of the songwriting team.

[edit] The band's name

According to a 2005 interview, Asya and Chloe liked the way the name Smashmouth sounded, so they started calling themselves "Smush [rhymes with bush]. Then people started saying it Smoosh, with the ooo sound. So it became Smoooosh."^[3]^[2]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b Lisa Heyamoto, Tweenage band Smoosh rocks Seattle scene, January 30, 2005. Accessed 12 April 2006.
^ ^a ^b Marc Hirsh, Novelty? Think again, The Boston Globe, June 14, 2006. Accessed 19 November 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Almond, Steve: "Smoosh" (interview), The Believer June 2005. Accessed online 13 November 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Smoosh, Pattern 25 Records. Accessed 16 November 2006.
^ Douglas Wolk, Discovering the Dream, Seattle Weekly, September 29, 2004. Accessed 12 April 2006.
^ Anuj Desai, Pre-Teen Smoosh Are "Rad", Rolling Stone, December 28, 2004. Accessed 12 April 2006.
^ Sonic Truth. Accessed 12 April 2006.