Anyway / Best Brother Records

Smug Brothers

Gravity Is Just A Way To Fall

Anyway / Best Brother Records

Smug Brothers’ music has been cutting through the indie noise for more than two decades, driven by the ever-evolving chemistry of singer/guitarist Kyle Melton and drummer Don Thrasher (Guided by Voices, Swearing at Motorists), and their slew of highly collectible LPs, CDs, and cassettes. And yet, you don't need to own any of those to get an overview of the Columbus, Ohio, band’s insanely addictive, riff-driven catalog. Smug Brothers’ newest release, Gravity Is Just A Way To Fall, does that for you, arriving on the heels of both a new record (2025’s Stuck on Beta) and an increasing number of shows, festival spots, and Melton’s own recording finesse. Like Heartless Bastards, Cloud Nothings, or Times New Viking, Smug Brothers burst out of Ohio in the mid-2000s with a scrappy, lo-fi sound that only hinted at the head-bobbing greatness to come. Briefly a recording project with Darryl Robbins of Motel Beds, and since 2009 a full-fledged band, Melton and Thrasher have belted out Beatlesquese earworms, head-spinning sound collages, serrated stompers, hushed folk, dance-ready horn splashes, and more on their sonic journey. Thank the indie gods, then, that they’ve chosen a tight 13 songs for the LP version of Gravity – and a generous 31-track CD version – that showcase their mastery with a rotating cast of Ohioans (most of them sporting their own worthy musical projects, including Kyle Sowash, Brian Baker, and Marc Betts). I’ve been a fan since the very beginning, not just as a proud native of Dayton, Ohio,...