Matt Smith is a man out of time. The prolific producer, Outrageous Cherry frontman, Odd Clouds-guy and Volebeat could cite more brilliant and obscure records from the ’60s and ’70s than the entire Pitchfork and Rolling Stone staff combined. No shit. His back yard is populated by thrift-store figurines (found by his girlfriend), looking like Hamtamck’s answer to George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album cover. And from his second floor balcony you can see all the second floor balconies down the block; a kind of anti-suburban throwback to more neighborly times.
Smith inherited the turn of this century two-story Hamtramck home from his grandmother a few years ago. He spent part of his childhood growing up here and returned after graduating from the University of Michigan. With vintage posters — from Parliament to Captain Beefheart to Leonard Cohen on the walls — it’s as if the clocks stopped in 1979.
“The only thing that’s changed here is there are more books and records,“ Smith says. “Reading books and listening to records is what I did as a kid — I’m still doing the same thing.”
