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The Advancement Of Dave Smalley - Washington City Paper

posted Nov 3rd 2009, 00:45

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Posted by Andrew Beaujon on Oct. 29, 2009, at 5:35 pm

The tenets of the Advanced Theory are clear. The genius of Advanced artists has evolved past the point of ordinary people’s understanding. Advanced artists wear sunglasses indoors. They favor leather jackets. They insist on putting their pictures on the covers of their albums. And when they make ostensibly baffling decisions or pronouncements (often involving musical theater), it is not a joke. Except when it is an Advanced joke, and we don’t have room to get into that here.

 

Dave Smalley is the most Advanced man to come out of the ’80s hardcore scene.

A beacon of Boston straight edge with DYS, he was later singer for D.C.’s Dag Nasty, then All, then…I kinda drifted away from his career after that(God, I’m a moron; how could I forget Down by Law?). Until 2004, when Smalley emerged as a leading voice (OK, one of the only voices) of “conservative punk,” which was really just libertarianism I’m fairly certain. ANYWAY, Smalley is now a newspaper editor in Fredericksburg, Va., and occasionally still does music, such as the single by Pocket that hit YouTube this week.

In it, you can see Smalley wearing sunglasses indoors as well as a cowboy hat. There is an American flag on the wall. Plus flames. All these things point to Advancement, but none so much as the fact that this is electronic music. For Smalley to go the Propellerheads route in 2009 is not only Advanced, it’s museum-worthy. For the song to be good—well, that’s just lagniappe!