Then there's the musical content. America is a country with an alarmingly high cuteness threshold, but She Like Electric is no sickly novelty. Instead, it's a collection of sparse, exhilaratingly skewed pop songs, powered by Asya's high, slurred vocals, untutored electric-piano playing and her sister's booming drums.
Young, gifted and girls
You occasionally catch the hint of an influence -- a snatch of Tori Amos on the exquisitely melancholy It's Cold, a trace of hip-hop on Rad and the frantic Bottlenose -- but most of it sounds like nothing else.
That may be because, as Chloe puts it, they "didn't really know that much music" before they started the band. (One journalist breathlessly informed the duo that they could be "bigger than Led Zeppelin," only to be met with the question: "Is that big?")
Asya says her inspiration comes "from poetry and stuff. I never write songs about anything in particular, just stuff. We're pretty optimistic, about going out there and working hard."
Smoosh's future is open. "They don't have goals," says their dad. "They're not treating this like a stepping stone. I ask them, `Does this sound fun?' and if they say yes, I set it up."
McGerr thinks "their talents are growing as quickly as their heights," but notes that Smoosh are subject to the kind of distractions few other rock bands face. "At any time, they could have a show planned and one of them would much rather go on a field trip with the class."
"I think the worst thing that could happen is Chloe borrows Asya's coat and gets a stain on it," he adds. "Then there's potentially a canceled tour. It really comes down to stuff like that."
Then he laughs another slightly baffled-sounding laugh.
RSS