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Artist
Smackmelon
12+ albums
rockalternative rock
about
Moody vocalist/guitarist Duke Roth shies away from admitting that he plays the cello. After all, he was in one of Boston's hardest rocking bands, Bullet Lavolta, and his current band, Smackmelon, has been known to cause some serious ear damage in its own right. With that kind of lineage it just wouldn't be cool to admit something so straight. Punks don't do strings. When pressed, he'll 'fess-up and mention with a bit of suppressed pride that he, "Uh, I used to be quite good at it, but that was a long time ago." He's even in a legitimate orchestra as sort of a personal side project. Of course, all you have to do is pop Smackmelon's new CD, Blue Hour, into your CD player and skip to track number two, "I'm Not Cool," to figure out the truth. With guitars and drums ablaze Roth repeatedly shouts out the title in his mellowed monotone. It's cathartic and possibly a bit tongue in cheek, but it's true. Fortunately, it never was Roth's intention to start a "cool" band. When given the choice between opening for a "pop candy" band and a band with a surreal "dark stew" he'll choose the dark, peripheral sound every time. The irony of the whole situation is that he writes songs that are, for the most part, completely accessible. "Songs like 'Liar' are just so 'put-together,'" he explains, "I used to call that song our 'button-pusher.' It's a manipulative song in a way physically and mentally because it's got all these big hooks and riffs and stuff. It's got the whole build-up thing a
