Smoke Machine (album)
: For the actual machine, see fog machine.
{{Infobox album
| name = Smoke Machine
| type = Album
| artist = Chocolate USA
| cover =Smoke Machine (album).jpg|border=yes
| alt =
| released = 1994
| recorded =
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = Indie rock
| length =
| label = Bar/None Records
| producer =
| prev_title = All Jets Are Gonna Fall Today
| prev_year = 1992
| next_title =
| next_year =
}}
{{album reviews
|rev1 = AllMusic
|rev1score = {{rating|4.5|5}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/smoke-machine-mw0000118249|title=Smoke Machine - Chocolate U.S.A. | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic|website=AllMusic|access-date=2020-06-10|archive-date=2020-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610210058/https://www.allmusic.com/album/smoke-machine-mw0000118249|url-status=live}}
}}
Smoke Machine is the second and final album by Chocolate USA.{{Cite web|url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/chocolate-usa/|title=Chocolate USA|work=Trouser Press|access-date=2020-06-10|archive-date=2020-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610154654/https://trouserpress.com/reviews/chocolate-usa/|url-status=live}} It was released in 1994 on Bar/None Records.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/whos-counting/Content?oid=1712|title=Who's Counting?|website=The Stranger|access-date=2020-06-10|archive-date=2020-06-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611013305/https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/whos-counting/Content?oid=1712|url-status=live}}{{cite magazine |last1=Johnson |first1=Ken |title=Continental drift |magazine=Billboard |date=Nov 30, 1996 |volume=108 |issue=48 |page=16}}
The band, always more a project of Julian Koster, broke up after the release of the album. Smoke Machine contains some of Bill Doss's earliest recorded performances.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stereogum.com/1169082/the-story-of-elephant-6s-bill-doss-told-in-10-songs/franchises/list/|title=The Story Of Elephant 6's Bill Doss, Told In 10 Songs|date=October 4, 2012|work=Stereogum|access-date=June 10, 2020|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610213534/https://www.stereogum.com/1169082/the-story-of-elephant-6s-bill-doss-told-in-10-songs/franchises/list/|url-status=live}}
Critical reception
AllMusic wrote: "While every melody and song is catchy as hell, and although Kostner's vocals are tender, this is pop music at its most exploratory without aspiring to (yet not sacrificing) accessibility. The whole of it is unselfconscious brilliance." Trouser Press also praised it, and wrote that it "retains the determinedly unpretentious vibe of the first album, but the songwriting and arrangements are surer and more fully realized."
Track listing
- USA: Milkiest Theme
- Bookbag
- My Cherry Bomb
- Another Lego In Tha Cross
- (Unlisted Track)
- The Boy Who Stuck His Head In The Dryer (And Whirl'd Round N' Round)
- Intermission
- Playing In The Mud
- Ugly Girl
- Milk (Theme)
- Isn't A Lie.../Glow Worm
- We Stole The Cow
- (Bonus Tracks From Chocolate Monthly Tapes)
Personnel
- Bill Doss - "multi instruments"
- Julian Koster - vocals, guitar, bass, piano, drums, viola, concertina
- Liza Wakeman - violin