Track of the Day Pt. 2: Sonny Smith Gets Hypnotized

​Local artist Sonny Smith has long been more than just a songwriter. Over the years he's written and shot a short film, a CD of one-act plays, and elegant works of fiction for both the page and the recording studio. He's currently at work at his most ambitious project yet, however.

 "100 Records" is an idea that stemmed from his most recent Headlands residency, where he aimed to write a novel about all the crazy local musicians he knows. Instead he wrote songs for their imaginary new bands. So now Smith is working on these 100 singles, which come from these made-up groups but were recorded by real local musicians (folks like Thee Oh Sees, The Sandwitches, and Ty Segall, among others). And 100 different visual artists are making the covers for these 7-inches. From there he's planning box sets and gallery tours, but the big kick off will be on Friday, April 9, with a huge art opening at Gallery 16 that I'm super excited about.

In his "free time" Smith recently released a great new 7" under his own name, Sonny & the Sunsets, for the Future Stress label. It's called "The Hypnotist" and it's a charming whistled, strummed, and hummed acoustic tune about a misfit trying to find his way through life with the help of a hypnotist.  

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