SMART PILL

Smart Pill was one band VIc Paredes formed while in New Brunswick. Before that was Film At 11, and somewhere between those two was VIc's Vapö Rüb, although I think that was for, like, one gig (or two). He always had something going, and whatever band he led was loud, fast, and willfully sloppy, i.e., they weren't power pop — Vic's inspiration was Jello Biafra. But he had melodic moments, most especially the very mid-60s "Even Evergreens." Smart Pill had a few incarnations; the one I recall best was Paredes, Dave Ryan, Mike Greene, Bob Paine, and Robo Sala. The band name was swiped from the inner sleeve of another key Paredes' inspiration, Meat Puppets II. Vic re-christened his band The Smarties in the early 90s, but recognizing that name wouldn't pass copyright, he later opted for The Smartys, a name and band he maintained for the next couple decades in New Jersey's Ironbound district.

Shown here are two flyers from two Vic bands. Let's keep the 1987 Vapö Rüb flyer from the estate of Tom Wilson (although before he sold out to Hallmark, Ziggy was kind of punk rock). The Smart Pill flyer cheats for my theme: it's from a January 1990 gig, but spirit of the law prevails. Using a combination of computer graphics and pasted on medicine cutouts, it captures the apparent daydream of Manuel Antonio Noriega. I note with amusement that Wikipedia and Vic used the same image.

[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]