Track Listing

1. Matter of Honor
2. Shameless Walls
3. Hit to My Heart
4. All of the Good Ones Are Taken
5. Answer to Love
6. Head in the Sand
7. Frontline
8. Head in the Sand (extended mix - bonus track)
9. Bed of Nails (bonus track)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #633869 in Music
• Released on: 2001-09-06
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
This album is a select retrospective of the band's early work. With the exception of the poignant and meditative 'Answer to Love,' the songs within hone a sharper edge than material previously available by the band on Amazon, providing a welcome addition for fans who wish to re-experience the punch of their limited live performances. Songs include the trippy psychedelia of 'Frontline' and the long version of 'Head in the Sand,' the album's hidden bonus track, as well as the political protestation of 'Shameless Walls.' And, for a limited time, the album is being released with a special preview track, the biting-but-poppy, Petty-ish 'Bed of Nails,' from the band's upcoming CD.

About the Artist
Comprised of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Rick Eppedio and lead vocalist C. R. Keyser-Posner, rock indie Smoke Ring Days' line-up first surfaced as the studio collective Barbarian Lovers. Following seven single, LP, and CD releases by the band on various foreign and domestic record labels- including London-based Aura Records, where labelmates included Alex Chilton, Steve Marriott, and Nico - the Barbs went on extended hiatus, leaving the two to continue writing and recording as a duo, and building on the ardent fan base they had cultivated in European radio. Lauded by Billboard's Music & Media and The Gavin Report for their "exceptional folky vocal harmonies [and] layered acoustic guitars," Smoke Ring Days creates aural commentary that spans the gamut from heartfelt emotional outpourings to powerful political punches.

Customer Reviews

New music from a classic era.
I am a fan of many types of music, however what I really miss are good Rock bands. As time has gone by each generation of rock music has gotten worse. These days most of the new crop of bands are a joke. It is all music for 12 year olds or worse, adults with the minds of 12 year olds. Enter Smoke Ring Days a band NOT geared to immature kids. This is a hard CD to describe. I guess you would file it under rock, but thats in a general sense. There is a real freshness to this album due to the fact that the songs are really good, but not played out. New music from a classic era. This is one hot band, the guitar work rivals some of the best. I really like the songs "Matter of Honor" and "Hit to my Heart" they reminds me a bit of The Pretenders and Hole, totally a$$ kickin. On the other side of the spectrum is "answer to Love" a really lush and beautiful ballad, with great vocal harmonies. "Frontline" and "Head in the Sand" are really cool retro psychedelic songs very "Doors" and "Grateful Dead" kind of jam outs. All in all this is a fresh and interesting album filled with great songs performed very well with a great vocalist. If you are like me and like to keep getting new music but find it hard to find good new bands, this is for you. The hidden bonus tracks on this CD make an already good album evan better. The CD list 7 songs, but there are actually 9.

Pretty Good
3.5 STARS

Pretty good album, a bit of a mix of styles but it works. I like the raw charm of this CD. A lot of albums for my taste are either to poppy or too noisy, this one meets in the middle pretty well. I like almost all the songs especially "Frontline" with it's dramatic intro and 60's protest attitude. "Bed of nails" is great catchy rock song, that I put on my "best of" Ipod playlist. I think this is a good album that does not sound like the rest of the horde out there and is worth getting if you like good but rough songs with some searing vocals and guitar work.

true, fresh, and powerful!!!!!
Somebody in this band has been doing their homework, studying up on classic influences of the Seventies and Eighties (Chrissie Hynde, Smithereens, Ian Hunter, et al) and synthesizing (no pun intended) them into a CD that is both true to the original spirit but fresh in sound. Fave tracks are the obvious - Matter of Honor, Hit to My Heart, and All of the Good Ones Are Taken - but the best offering here has got to be Frontline, with its scathing, buzzsaw guitars and retro organ chords. Powerful!!!!!