The Chelsea Smiles

The Chelsea Smiles sound like a night out that started with good intentions and ended in a beautiful, loud disaster. It is the sonic equivalent of a worn-out leather jacket and the smell of stale cigarettes and expensive guitar pedals. Their music is built on a foundation of classic 1970s street rock, but it is played with the frantic, jagged urgency of the early 2000s Hollywood punk scene. Every track feels like it is leaning forward, pushing against the speed limit.

What sets them apart is the pedigree of the players, who bring a professional tightness to what could otherwise be messy garage rock. You can hear the influence of New York punk and Sunset Strip sleaze colliding, resulting in a sound that is both dangerously raw and surprisingly catchy. The guitars are thick and overdriven, the drums are punishingly consistent, and the vocals carry a distinctive rasp that sounds like it has been cured in whiskey and stage fog.

Start with the Nowhere Ride EP for a concentrated dose of their initial energy, then move into Thirty Six Hours Later to hear them expand their sound without losing an ounce of their grit. It is the perfect soundtrack for when you need to feel a little more rebellious than you actually are, or for when you are looking for the right music to accompany a fast drive through a city that never sleeps.