The Smith Street Band

The Smith Street Band
The Smith Street Band at Rocken am Brocken Festival in Germany 2015
Background information
Also known as	Wil Wagner & The Smith Street Band (2010–2011), Lee Hartney Sex Drive
Origin	Melbourne, Australia
Genres	Folk-punk, punk rock, pop punk, pub rock
Years active	2010–present
Labels	Jackknife Records, Poison City Records, Asian Man Records, SideOneDummy Records, Uncle M Music, Banquet Records, Poolhouse Records
Associated acts	Wil Wagner, Wil Wagner & Friends, Bomb the Music Industry!, Being Amazing!!, Apologies, I Have None, The Go Set, The Hawaiian Islands, Kill Whitey, , The Smith Street Hands
Website	thesmithstreetband.com
Members	Wil Wagner Lee Hartney Michael "Fitzy" Fitzgerald Chris Cowburn
Past members	Tom Lawson Jimi O'Loughlin

The Smith Street Band are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, in which the Smith Street of their name can be found. The band have released two EPs, South East Facing Wall and Don't Fuck with Our Dreams—released in 2010 and 2013, respectively—and four studio albums, No One Gets Lost Anymore, Sunshine and Technology, Throw Me in the River, and More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me —released in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2017 respectively.

On 14 February 2017, The Smith Street Band released the single "Birthdays" and announced their fourth album More Scared of You Than You Are of Me. The music video for "Birthdays" stars a robot named Max, rumoured to be played by the band's guitarist Lee Hartney.

The band formed in 2010, composed of singer/lyricist/guitarist/keyboardist Wil Wagner, guitarist/backing vocalist Tom Lawson, guitarist Lee Hartney, bassist Jimi O'Loughlin and drummer/backing vocalist Chris Cowburn. Initially named Wil Wagner and The Smith Street Band—an allusion to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band—the band changed its name in 2011 to signify a change to a whole-band songwriting style.

Their debut EP, South East Facing Wall, was released on Jackknife Records in 2011 and was reissued in 2013, while both albums were released on Poison City Records. Both albums received critical acclaim in Melbourne.

In 2012, the group announced their Young Drunks tour, which ran from January through March, with Bomb the Music Industry! and The Bennies as support acts.

In March 2013, Wagner announced All Tomorrow's Shoeys, a three-day music festival held at Hobart's Brisbane Hotel. Curated by Wagner, the festival included Luca Brasi, The Bennies, Grim Fandango and Lincoln Le Fevre. Later that month, the band participated in the "Tram Sessions" program that involves the recording of live performances on Melbourne tram routes. The program organisers explained: "One day we asked ourselves, hmm, if only there was a band who' s name encapsulated an iconic Melbourne street which also happened to be along an iconic Melbourne route who had a typically route 86 sound... And then it came to us. The Smith Street Band!"

In August 2013, the Don't Fuck with Our Dreams EP was released. The EP's title track was inspired by the events prior to a show from the Young Drunks tour in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia, in which the guitarist from The Bennies was the victim of a near-fatal stabbing. The song was performed to end the band's show at The Fest event in Gainesville, Florida, US in late 2013.