07/08/08
Text: John Barundia
The stranger urinating outside the alley shouldn’t ruin the experience. Step through the double doors and take a good long whiff. Los Angeles’ The Smell breathes community. Take note of all the musicians who have played at the all-ages venue, many of whom cut their teeth in the crowd as teenagers. Those kids moved on to volunteering at the space; they now play on the main stage, inspiring a fresh crop of Smell devotees. Pay attention to one of those promising bands: No Age, a DIY duo that continues to call The Smell their central hub—even if they now have the opportunity to play larger venues in L.A., and have enjoyed a glowing feature in the less-than-punk New Yorker. No Age often dedicates their blustering, distortion-drenched wonderworks to the Smell community and its owner, Jim Smith. And just marvel at Smith himself, who many credit as rejuvenating the formerly lackadaisical L.A. music scene. He’s unlike any club owner in L.A.: by day he works as a union organizer, spending his nights at the venue. Smith’s usually the last to leave, sweeping the dirt off the floors. It’s been ten years running for the Smell—born January 3, 1998—and the original spirit is still alive. Note the mural inside that reads, “Remember you are free. Do not forget.”
The Smell was founded when its three co-founders (Ara Shirinyan, Jarrett Silberman, and Smith) filled a vacancy left by the same-week closing of Jabberjaw and the Impala Café, two influential L.A. clubs. These days the space survives with its single owner, plus twenty or so volunteers; it’s fueled on booze, vegan good, and a restless commitment to creativity. “I still get a lot of satisfaction out of it, and I still enjoy seeing new bands come on the scene, being a part of facilitating other people in the experience that I had when I went to Jabberjaw or the Impala or other places like that,” Smith says. “It helps create better art and better music and I just want to be a part of that.”
Past show bills are indicative of that inspiration; everyone from Lightning Bolt to Bonnie “Prince” Billy has played The Smell. The venue has hosted the immediacy of acts like Mika Miko and The Mae Shi, the primal sound of Health and the tropical punk charm of Abe Vigoda. Hollywood mainstays like the Troubadour or the Roxy don’t run like this. As the Melvin’s David Scott Stone explains, The Smell is “critical thought with open hearts.”
Check out our Smell-themed film with No Age, Mika Miko, and Abe Vigoda.
