The One Smith

Artist Information

Biography

The One Smith is about music, cars, love, a car crash, and personal refinement. Eric Schmider picked up a guitar at five and a wrench at ten. Mix Beatles, jazz, and folk with vintage Cameros, Jaguars, and Ferraris, and you get a fifteen year old kid racing from garage to garage-band across New Mexico's endless roads. In 1993 Eric left his job restoring cars and moved to Boston to pursue music. He joined the folk circuit, quickly rising in the ranks, and then drove into the rock scene where he got a taste for touring. After years of pushing through power pop bands to country groups, Eric felt the urge to reconnect to his high speed roots. He returned to the Southwest to buy a fast car. While in New Mexico he met his soon-to-be Californian Failure who was serendipitously on her way to Boston to attend school and to dance. Nights of long drives and love songs shaped the two into an inseparable couple. A car crash broke her back. The incident bonded them even closer when Eric quit his job to care for her. Love and attention, he found, can fix a broken body, but the relationship never was fully repaired.

Mollycoddle formed to write “Beautiful Californian Failure,” a record about optimistic love eclipsing truths. The sole purpose was to play upon the ears of lost love, and inspire her return. The love had been suffocated and Eric recovered slowly, finding his own renaissance though playing with country, rock, and jazz bands around Boston. The One Smith closes Eric's Mollycoddle chapter as he discovers the muse in himself as the One Smith. He is recording an album that is more forceful, more introspective, and honest.

Instrumentation

Eric Schmider - Vocals/guitar
Joe Klompus- Bass
Jefferson Davis - Drums/vocals
Aaron Gelb - Bass Clarinet/Sax
Nigel Taylor - Trumpet
Dave Aaronoff - Keys/vocals

Discography

Mollycoddle - Beautiful Californian Failure
Just Because EP - release date 3/19/10

Audio

• Black Plastic Jacket
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• Just Because
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• Sycamore
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• Watering the Plants
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Lyrics

• Just Because
• Black Plastic Jacket
• Sycamore
• Watering The Plants

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• HEARTBREAK HOTEL [+ Show ]
  

  You'll find this hard to believe, but Go! has had our heart broken on more than one occasion. We won...You'll find this hard to believe, but Go! has had our heart broken on more than one occasion. We won't dare mention the raven-haired, dapper gent whose response to our confession of undying love was a curt, "You're such a . . . good person," followed by a dry peck on the forehead. "You're too, too kind," we groused under our Ernest & Julio Gallo-laden breath. We just wish we could write stunning pop songs about such moments, as Eric Schmider (above) so eloquently does with his Boston-based band Mollycoddle. We're told Schmider christened his band with such a name after the demise of a long-term relationship. This man was hurting, for heaven's sake. Somehow his sadness didn't translate to the band's latest album, "Beautiful Californian Failure," a gorgeous mix of acoustic, sunny pop melodies and Schmider's talent for a clever lyric.

• Gorgeous Pop Collection [+ Show ]
  

  Here's a gorgeous little pop collection from bedroom Brian Wilson, Eric Scmider. With a hint of Mich...Here's a gorgeous little pop collection from bedroom Brian Wilson, Eric Scmider. With a hint of Michael Penn and many Beatlely bits, Beautiful Californian Failure ruminates on varying shades of melancholia and moments of sunshine pop bliss. Opening track "Love Is" could scarcely be a more perfect with it's McCartney- ish melody and tinkling acoustic arpeggios. The album closes with a wonderful take on Sam Cooke's "I'll Come Running Back To You" (always a brave move to cover Sam Cooke, but he pulls it off) and between those two tracks lie a batch of absolute keepers. Fans of Jon Brion, Neil Finn and Squeeze would do well to check out Mollycoddle.
  - Corin Ashley

• The Quieter Moments [+ Show ]
  

  "[Beautiful Californian Failure]...a 13-song disc of very well produced ambitious pop that Eric sang..."[Beautiful Californian Failure]...a 13-song disc of very well produced ambitious pop that Eric sang, wrote and co-produced. All the tunes here are very well written and recorded and somehow remind me of the quieter moments from the Beatles' White Album. The basic drum, guitar, bass, vocal format is nicely augmented by judicious overdubs of real strings, vibes, woodwinds, brass and assorted keyboards...
  
  --John Baccigaluppi

• Remember TRex? [+ Show ]
  

  Vocals have always been a high priority for me; the fact is that a lot of local bands have lead sing...Vocals have always been a high priority for me; the fact is that a lot of local bands have lead singers that would make Bob Dylan cringe. This is not the case on Mollycoddle's fantastic new release. Talented, smart, and atmospheric are words that come to mind in describing Eric Schmider and company's first full-length entitled, Beautiful Californian Failure.
  Mollycoddle makes it cool to know how to play your instrument again. This was the rage in the '70s, but quickly went out when bands like Yes, ELP, and the rest of the prog rockers required a Berklee degree to simply listen. Mollycoddle recalls the days of Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello, T-Rex and, may I dare say, The Beatles. This is true in the sense that the selections motivate me into imagining songs that the Fab Four may have written had they stayed together.
  Another aspect I love about this record is the instrumental variety. Trumpet, saxaphone, clarinet, cello, and vibes all make appearances. What's more, the guest crew can really play! Lyrically, the themes range from love had, love lost, love sucks and everything in between, including masturbation.
  My only critique is the inclusion of the cover of T-Rex's "Cosmic Dancer." It's a good song and Russell Chudnofsky plays a solo that would make Marc Bolan jealous. However, the performance here offers little difference from the Electric Warrior original. With a wealth of great original titles ranging from the danceable "Maintain the Tension" the introspective "Love Is" and the jazz loungy "Physics," "Cosmic Dancer" may have ended upon on the cutting board had Beautiful Californian Failure been a T-Rex record. (Mike Diplomat)
  
  

Setlist

Below is an organized list from which we build a typical 1 hr set: 1st album songs, new tunes, and covers. Now we are doing mostly new songs. We do Spanish and Italian Pop songs too.

FROM FIRST RECORD:
Love Is
Ms. Crow
Maintain the Tension
She's Down
Physics
Something
Ordinary Life
Strange Romance
No Warranty
Bee Line
Won't Let You Down

NEW TUNES:
Black Plastic Jacket
Do It Every Day
Just Because
Kneedeep
Linda Lovelace
Ohio
She's the One
Why Oh Why
Anxious
Apple
Coming on Strong
Million Million
Not Like You
Sycamore
Beat by Cruelty
Your Face

DIVERSE COVERS:
Lia (In Spanish, Jose Cano)
Confusione (In Italian, Lucio Battisti)
Hold Your Head Up (Argent)
Cosmic Dancer (TRex)
Bizarre Love Triangle (New Order)
Groove Me (King Floyd)
Hey Bulldog (Beatles)
Wear Your Love Like Heaven (Donovan)
I'll Come Running Back to You (Sam Cooke)
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Eddie Duchin)
Love My Way (Psychedelic Furs)
All the World is Green (Tom Waits)
Night and Day (Sinatra)
Debris (Faces)
Solitary Man (Neil Diamond)

Basic Requirements

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