Link to our Facebook
Link to our Instagram
Link to our TikTok

Live Review: Wil Wagner & The Smith Street Band 'I Want Friends'

14 July 2012 | 3:00 pm | Staff Writer

The Smith Street Band are on the verge of releasing their second album and Maddie Worledge could not be more excited. Find out why here

If you haven’t heard of The Smith Street Band I really pity you. Also, where have you been? These guys are making serious waves in the Australian scene right now and unless you’ve been in a coma or listening to commercial radio for the past year (it’s the same thing, isn’t it?), I fail to see how you haven’t heard of them.

‘I Want Friends’ is the first song off their incredibly highly anticipated sophomore album Sunshine and Technology, due out on August 24th, and believe me it’s one killer track.

Plug into the latest music with our FREE weekly newsletter

I can’t remember being more excited for a record than I am for The Smith Street Band’s new album. Hell, their album pre-orders crashed the Poison City Records online store. I’m clearly not the only one. The buzz surrounding the follow up album to 2011’s No One Gets Lost Anymore was huge even before this track was released, the biggest buzz I personally have ever heard surrounding a non-mainstream artist. If that is not proof of how good this band are and the great things they are going to achieve, I don’t know what will convince you.

‘I Want Friends’ is classic Smith Street Band: happy, up-beat punk that just makes you feel good. This song makes me want to throw out the university course guides piling up in my house, spend all my life savings on booze and just have fun. It immediately makes me feel happy, like a less fattening version of chocolate. With enough swearing to make the older generations tut, a level of enthusiasm that deserves to be played at loud volumes and sing-a-long lines just begging to be chanted, ‘I Want Friends’ is gen-Y in musical form and will definitely be fantastic to see live.

In essence, this song captures what it SHOULD be like to be young, not the current version of youth obsessed with earning money and worrying about their future. Listen to this song and I guarantee you will be happy, not matter what situation you find yourself in. And that’s the best thing about The Smith Street Band.