Seattle six-piece Rock band Smoker Dad are releasing their sophomore record, Hotdog Highway, this week on October 24th, 2024. An offshoot of the band’s many experiences touring, it also reflects their most current sound, which has been evolving. The album’s theme also channels “the excitement, frustration, humor and heartache of being on the road.”
Pressed to bubble-gum pink vinyl, the album also shows plenty of love for 70s Rock sounds and Americana elements, even featuring the pedal steel guitar. The songs, as well as their videos and live shows, convey Smoker Dad’s commitment both to their band’s camaraderie and to not taking themselves too seriously.
Today, we’re very pleased to premier Smoker Dad’s video for their album track titled “Part II”. While that title may suggest a continuation of an earlier theme or idea, in fact, it was just an amusing way to identify the song, which doesn’t relate to any “Part I.”
The song is a rocker that would make a great live concert opener, which may have been some of the thinking behind its first place position on the album Hotdog Highway. It also introduces the band’s newer Western-accented and mellow feel, particularly as it opens, and speaks in a roundabout way to the themes of restlessness, travel, and rockiness in relationships, that are part of the wider vibe of the album. The tone of the song, a kind of happy-sad longing both for home and for the road, is a pretty solid representation of the album as a whole. Though the title “Part II” is a non-sequitur, it could as easily apply to a new phase of life, and the new era of the band. Navigating those changes becomes a group challenge and that gives a hopeful lift and energy to to the track.
The video features the band making breakfast together with vintage kitchenware and showcases their comedic approach to life and music. In its own way, the video brings together in an amusing collision the two subjects of the song–home life and road life. And when you get the whole band in a limited space trying to cook and eat breakfast, you see that it doesn’t quite work, but good humor can make sure it turns out alright in the end. One thing the band probably didn’t think about is how the video makes a statement about their number. It’s increasingly unusual to find a four-piece band, let alone a six-piece one, and even less likely that a large group manages to travel together. That throw-back feeling isn’t just nostalgic, it’s about the sound that a large band can create and the kinds of relationships they can build together. The narrow space of the kitchen, the just-big-enough feeling of the table point those things out and make the whole video a kind of sweet testament to the survival of musical collaboration. Using vintage cookware is also a nice nod to the 60s and 70s-inspired strings on the album, as well as Smoker Dad’s Byrds-like multi-vocalist approach.
Regarding the music video for “Part II”, the band explains:
My wife has been collecting vintage kitchenware for sometime now and suggested we do a music video that’s just the band making breakfast. I really wanted to do it in a vintage style diner but that didn’t work out. We ended up just doing the video in my apartment and the vibe was right!
Smoker Dad includes musical brothers Trevor Conway on vocals and guitar and Teagen Conway on lead guitar, Chris King on keys and vocals, Derek Luther on bass, Adam Knowles on drums, and Chris Costalupes on pedal steel guitar.
Trevor Conway says about the album:
Most of the songs are about love or struggling with sobriety but they all stem from touring. It’s lonely on the road and the mind runs. Hotdog Highway is about trying to deal with that while still pulling through for the show every night. Smoker Dad is a big band and sometimes we’d be touring with 7 or 8 folks all in one van. We were so crammed in there, we would say ‘like hotdogs down the highway’ and it just became this continuous joke.
The record was engineered and mixed at Electrokitty Sound Studio by Garrett Reynolds (Sleater-Kinney). To celebrate the arrival of the new album, Smoker Dad has release shows in both Portland at Lollipop Shoppe on October 24th, and Seattle at Sunset Tavern on October 25th.
