Customer Reviews

Maquee

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Smile's "Maquee" somehow managed to slip through the cracks! This is one gem of an album! I first heard of Smile through an old Cargo Records sampler tape back in the day (the track "Lemonade" appeared on it) and immediately ran out and got the CD. Well, here I am almost 15 years later and rushed to re-buy the CD here on Amazon after having my original copy stolen.

Smile has a sound all their own but if I had to describe it I would say put Helmet, Mudhoney, Therapy?, and Foo Fighters in a blender with a couple shots of Stoli's vodka and Kaluha and drink over crushed ice.

Definitely worth checking out for fans of the mid-nineties thick muddy guitar sound. I can only imagine these guys must've rocked hard at live shows.

I have heard people shoot down this CD many times in favor of "Girl Crushes Boy". Sometimes I wonder if people even realize when this CD came out and that it was Smile's beginning.

This is an excellent CD. For people who heard "Girl Crushes Boy" before this, its completely unfair to compare the two. First off, this CD came out 3 years before their "hit album". Furthermore, you have to realize that grundge was still a big part of popular music culture at the time. I guess I should point out that this album should definately be classified under grundge.

Smile made a huge stylistic change between Maquee and G.C.B., but you can hear the beginning of that change in such tracks as "Picture Made Past", "Papaya Clearance Sale", and "Until". The rest of the album is still awesome, hard-hitting, guitar thrashing grundge which mimics the likes of Silverchair, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains (just to name a few).

In conclusion, if you heard "Girl Crushes Boy" first, dont expect the same thing on "Maquee". However, dont give up hope, this is still an excellent album which the true Smile enthusiast must have.

What can I say except a great cd. I can and do listen to this album completely every song. My personal highlights are Staring at the sun, She, and Picture made past. I love the rawness of the cuts. Nothing is too refined here. If your looking for deep meaningful lyrics you may want to skip this CD, but if you are looking for feel good American rock/grunge then don't pass this one up. This disc mixes well with my nirvana, silverchair, era music. At 44 years old, it is still one of my most played cd's. I wish I had a chance to see them back in the day

Tony J

Opening tune is surprisingly good, second song is the loudest music I've ever heard. If you like grungy yet crisply dynamic rock like Soundgarden, Alice or Korn, you'll have a good time with these first two songs. The rest of it never made much of an impression on me, but since you can buy it used for a penny ... why not?

see, i've been a fan of music for a long time now. favorites being the beatles, elo, wilco, nirvana, red house painters, built to spill, etc. smile fits very nicely into my favorites. VERY nicely. it's very seldom that a band can come out and do something very original and very genuine. this album, maquee, is just exactly that. their second album, girl crushes boy, is not as good. not nearly. this one, however, is just about perfect. anyone who appreciates ballsy guitar, even if it's just power chords, will love it. anyone who loves great drumming (not neil peart with his 1000 piece drumkit), see weezer ringo starr for examples... not brilliant, but very creative. cool lyrics and song titles in the kyuss sense. i can't tell you what this album does to me after i haven't listened to it for a couple weeks. lots of things pale in comparison. it's just good old fashioned but modern music that just moves through it's three minute songs swiftly, and by the time you're done listening you say, "man." not that you care, but aside from beatles albums, maquee and placebo's first album are the only two in my time of owning a car cd player, which is about ten years now, that have stayed in uninterrupted for more than two months. buy it please. and spread the word after you've fallen in love.

"Overlooked" is the proper term here. What an enjoyable slab of midpaced riff-rock, nice and fuzzy. The editorial review was spot on-Kyuss plus Seaweed. Is the Scott Reeder on drums here the same Scott filling in behind the kit for the mighty Fu-Manchu these days? Hmmmm...not too shabby friends, not too shabby...a fun re-discovery.

One of the best albums ever made and was recently stolen from me! I came here to find the label so I could order a new one. This album inspired me to pick up a guitar when I was a teenager. Anyone who doenst love this album is DEAF and dumb...Bottomline.

Smile is one of those bands where if our society would listen to good music instead of recycled mainstream coffee grinds, you would wonder why they're not topping the charts.
The music has song structure and power that any musician could appreciate. They open up the cd with Rock Anthem for the [...] Teenage Hipster Population which is self-explanatory which is another reason I love this amazing band, they're soooooo sarcastic. They're pointing out the corruption of younger generations.
If you like the idea of taking the Seattle music and adding some more song structure you will love this cd. It's innovative and some of the best music I've had the pleasure of feeding into my ears.
Don't forget about they're other merch. They have a couple of 7"'s which I believe is "resin" and "sleepover" which are the most rare, you might be able to get them at the cargo records website. I haven't had any luck finding them, but that's not all anyway. They have a fabulous EP with power and without using distortion called "masterlocks". That EP was part of a magnificent transition that took place on their "Girl Crushes Boy" LP, GET THIS CD it's amazing, but don't expect it to be like maquee because it's not, it's more experimental and spacy. They do however keep their clever sarcasm which I appreciate so much and it still holds much power and energy.
See their MP3.com website for some new songs. Hopefully, with fingers crossed they will have a new album or EP out soon with good distribution so I can get one, haha. Keep your eye out for this band, they just may start a revelation for the way people see music.

There are precisely THREE great songs on this album - Staring at the Sun (a minor national radio hit), Picture Made Past, and Papaya Clearance Sale. The rest of the album ranges from pretty good to terrible, though the music isn't always to blame for the latter; some of the tracks are poorly recorded and/or feature too much guitar noise (be it amp hiss or fatigue-inducing distortion). Of course, Maquee at its best still sounds stuck in the mid-'90s, when grunge was coming out of vogue musically and commercially. Unfortunately, Smile were simultaneously too quirky and too mediocre to transcend their status as flavor of the month.

I was happy to find this CD on Amazon because it went out of print years ago. I had a copy years ago and am not sure what happened to it. Smile was a relatively unknown grunge-punk garage band that had two singles that were occasionally played on the radio in Southern California: "Rock Anthem for the Retarded Teenage Hipster Population" and "Staring at the Sun". Staring at the Sun, in particular, is sort of an unknown 90s alt-rock classic. Overall this album is fairly weak in the songwriting department with only a few truly great songs, but the performances are energetic and guitar tones are thick and crunchy. I recommend this to fans of 90s grunge, punk, and power-pop bands like Silverchair, Bush, Sponge, and the Offspring.