Everything Comes and Goes for Smash Palace

by Mark Uricheck, Connections Magazine

If you like finely crafted power pop songs — the kind with a bit of jangly guitar and melody rich in the tradition of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, Smash Palace is the band for you.

Smash Palace has been honing this recipe to perfection for years now, and they're back this month with a new CD called "Everything Comes and Goes".

Here's a brief history of Smash Palace for the beginner. The band started out as new wave/rock act Quincy in the late 1970's, and had a few records out on Columbia in the early 80's. But, as fate would have it, the band had to change their name due to a lawsuit brought against them by famed producer Quincy Jones. Jones sued the band over the use of the name Quincy, so the outfit would then christen themselves Smash Palace. Smash Palace would then go on to release a self-titled album on Epic Records in 1985, which featured the track "Living on the Borderline", which received a fair amount of MTV airplay. After a few years plugging away at the national music scene, and looking for a new creative outlet, the core of Smash Palace — Stephen and Brian Butler took on staff songwriting jobs at BMG Publishing. The road would come full circle in the late 90's as the Butler brothers resurrected Smash Palace and began steady touring and recording again.

And now, on to the new CD.

"The new CD was recorded over a two month span in the spring of 2007" said Smash Palace vocalist/guitarist Stephen Butler in a recent phone interview. "We were originally going to release it when it was finished; we wanted to put it out in the fall. But, our record label has a new distribution deal with Sony/BMG, which is a better distribution deal than we've had in the past. The deal didn't start until January, so we decided to hold off and release the record in January."

The release of "Everybody Comes and Goes" was definitely something worth waiting for. The band lineup of Stephen Butler as guitarist/vocalist, DyAnne DiSalvo on rhythm guitar, Phil Rizzo on bass, Greg Didonato on drums and Wally Smith on keyboards fill the disc with spirited, ultra-melodic rockers like "Didn't Anyone Tell You" and the driving, minor key guitar-strumming of "Dressed in Black". Being a lifelong songwriter, Stephen Butler knows how to crank out a song when it's needed. "It's kind of this thing where when I have to do something, I do it," Butler humbly says of his songwriting abilities. "I manage the band besides producing the stuff, and writing the songs and singing, and all that. When I write — that's what I'm going to do. I kind of shut down for a while and put stuff together. I'm completely focused on that — I don't do anything else."

Listening to the CD, one can't help but notice how the record flows. It's a cohesive collection of songs here, very listenable. Stephen Butler says that he spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the sequence of the CD. "I had finished the record, then I wrote another song — just because I thought the record needed something, a feel it was missing," he explains. "So I wrote a song just to make sure that the whole flow of everything went together." Butler says that after consulting with the record label's radio promotions people, and going back and listening to the record as a whole, he went back and re-sequenced the whole CD. The extra effort put into the final product shows, as it's quite an enjoyable listening experience. Imagine a blend that's part Beatles, part Byrds, Part Tom Petty, and you'll get the vibe.

One of the songs on this CD that really makes an impact is one that's not even listed on the CD cover.

The hidden track "Everybody Comes and Goes" is actually a small snippet of music recorded at a Quincy rehearsal, written by original Quincy member Alex Takach. It's in this short piece of music that the theme for the album is tied together.

"When we started out as Quincy, there were two sets of brothers," Stephen Butler says. "There was me and my brother Brian, and Gerald and Alex Takach. We were playing a show at J.C. Dobbs on South Street in Philadelphia. Alex lived about two blocks away, and we were playing multiple shows one night. Alex had gone home to get a jacket, and he never made it back. Someone had just walked up to him and stabbed him, killing him. It was just this horrible thing to have happen. He was one of my best friends; the two sets of brothers really had a close bond. A little while later Quincy got a record deal and we put out a record on Columbia, but it was always a sad thing that Alex never got to experience that, and he never got to make proper recordings with the band."

Butler explains that this 30 second section of audio with Alex Takach singing was near impossible to salvage. "I dug up this old reel to reel tape, and burned a CD of what was on the tape," he says. "The tape was in poor condition, sound was bleeding in from the other side of the tape — it was literally decomposing as I was burning it to CD. What you hear on the CD is exactly how it came off of the tape. So what you have is kind of a tip of the hat to Alex, because he was a big part of all this, but never got to see it through."

Stephen Butler says that when he was putting the new CD together, looking for a concept, he came up with the idea of getting together people that have been a part of his and his brother Brian's musical lives — which is reflected in the CD cover art. The cover is as Stephen Butler puts it: "It's a mini Sgt. Pepper in a weird New Jersey kind of way. Everyone represented has played some small part to make Smash Palace what it is today." This truly is "Everbody Comes and Goes". The scores of individuals represented on the tri-panel layout CD cover photo include past band members, friends, and "even my old guitar teacher," notes Stephen Butler. Interestingly enough, the theater that is the centerpiece for the CD cover — The Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn, NJ — will hold the official album release party for the CD on January 20th.

Upon the release of "Everybody Comes and Goes", radio support will no doubtedly be a question for the band. If the recent past is any indication though, the band will not have to worry much. The last Smash Palace CD — "Best of '99-'06" — received heavy airplay form stations nationwide, especially up and down the east coast. At several stations, the band was the number one most added artist to the stations' playlists. "Radio was very kind in general terms to the last CD," says Stephen Butler. "And hopefully it is again. I hope they respond to this one, it certainly helps." The band is no stranger to Northeast PA radio either. In January of 2007, Smash Palace was invited by WVIA's George Graham to record some tracks at the station's Pittston studios for Graham's "Homegrown Music" program. Audio of this session can currently be found on Smash Palace's website. Smash Palace has also had the distinction of being picked as in-store music for upscale clothing retailer Martin & Osa. The band is certainly getting their name out there.

Part of "getting out there" includes touring of course. In addition to dates in the PA/NJ/DE area, the band has been a hit playing live in England — which holds a special significance for the band.

"The UK thing has worked out real well for us" Stephen Butler says. "The strange thing about it all is that we got our record deal from playing at The Cavern Club in Liverpool." The Cavern Club, as Beatle fans know, was the legendary club where the Beatles first made a name for themselves in England. "At the time a couple of years ago we didn't have a record deal. Then we were invited to play there as part of a festival, and we ended up getting a deal with our current label Zip Records from that show. To be a band from New Jersey and then being sort of re-discovered at The Cavern was kind of weird." The band will again play dates in the UK this year in May.

It's been a long road to the new Smash Palace CD for Stephen Butler. From the band's origins as Quincy, to the first 80's incarnation of Smash Palace, to writing songs for other artists. One constant for Butler has been the songs. "I've always been happy with the songs," he says. "I always thought the songwriting was good. For the most part, all of the people that I've played with since I was a kid in high school — a lot of those people I still play with. For the most part it's been a really great thing. People that you grew up with and make music with, to still be making music with them is great. It's not always full time, they come in and out of your life. There have been bad things that have happened, like with Alex dying or being sued by Quincy Jones, but what it comes down to is the people who I make music with are my best friends. But I've always been proud of the songwriting — I guess that's the legacy."

Visit Smash Palace's website for more information on "Everybody Comes and Goes" and a list of the band's upcoming shows at www.smashpalacemusic.com. The new CD, as well as a few titles in the band's back catalog can be found in Northeast PA at Joe Nardone's Gallery of Sound.