Small Black started with a name and worked backwards: a housemate of singer/multi-instrumentalist Josh Kolenik came up with the moniker on a cold Portland, Oregon night. The name stuck when he returned to Long Island, New York and began collaborating with Ryan Heyner, an area musician and former member of the hardcore band Silent Majority who shared friends with Kolenik. The pair holed up in the attic of the beach house and surfboard shop Kolenik's uncle owned to record songs with vintage keyboards and samplers, spending late 2008 and early 2009 recording as Uncle Matt made surfboards underneath them.
Though Kolenik had played in several bands before Small Black, the mix of shoegaze and synth pop he and Heyner hit upon felt special, and the group's lineup was complete once bassist/guitarist Juan Pieczanski and Jeff Curtin from Kolenik's previous band, Slowlands, joined to bolster production and fill out their live act. Small Black released their self-titled five-song EP on their own CassClub label in October 2009, and released the U.K. single "Despicable Dogs" as well as a video for that song featuring Uncle Matt soon after. Following their performances at that year’s CMJ Music Marathon, Small Black signed to Jagjaguwar Records, which reissued the band’s debut EP with two bonus tracks in 2010. That year, they also released a split single with the like-minded Washed Out, with whom they also toured. New Chain, the band's first full-length, boasted a slightly more polished sound that reflected their consistent touring as well as their interest in hip-hop and arrived in October 2010. In late 2011, the band offered the Moon Killer mixtape as a free download from their website. The collection of new material was built on samples ranging from Pere Ubu to Nicki Minaj and featured multiple drop-ins from Das Racist MC Heems as well as remixes from Star Slinger and Phonetag.
After spending much of 2012 on the road, Small Black returned with May 2013's Limits of Desire, a more sophisticated-sounding set influenced by Talk Talk and the Blue Nile. They covered the latter band's classic "Downtown Lights" on the following year's Real People EP, which had a more dancefloor-oriented style and featured vocals from Frankie Rose. Small Black's passion for sophisti-pop grew on October 2015's Best Blues. Recorded by the band in their Brooklyn home studio and mixed by Nicholas Vernhes at the Rare Book Room Studio, the album included contributions from trumpeter Darby Cicci of the Antlers and vocalist Kaede Ford. Soon after Best Blues' release, Kolenik's Uncle Matt passed away, and the memory of him inspired many of the songs on Small Black's fourth album. Arriving on 100% Electronica in April 2021, the reflective Cheap Dreams found the band returning from their hiatus with an extra dose of goth to their synth pop reveries. In 2023, Small Black looked back with a pair of archival releases. They commemorated the tenth anniversary of Limits of Desire with a deluxe edition of the album, and also issued a deluxe version of their debut EP that included previously unreleased songs from their early beach house sessions.
Biography by Heather Phares for ALLMUSIC
Crisp 100s
Small Black Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I feel it in the cards
That it happens in the dark
I fear this is the cause But I never found it odd
Calmly Overwhelm me
And I hear it in the calls
But I don't know who she was
A hundred in the park
These eyes seem to go wild
These eyes seem to go wild
The lyrics to Small Black's song "Crisp 100s" convey a sense of being engulfed and consumed by a particular emotion or experience. The phrase "Calmly overwhelm me" suggests that the singer is willingly succumbing to this overwhelming feeling. They can sense its presence, almost as if it is foretold in the cards, and it seems to happen in the darkness, hinting at a hidden or mysterious aspect to the experience. Despite feeling fear or uncertainty about its cause, the singer never found it peculiar or out of the ordinary.
The second verse continues this theme of being engulfed, but this time through auditory cues. The singer can hear something in the calls, possibly referring to phone calls or messages, but they are unsure of who the sender or caller is. The mention of a hundred in the park and the circling of the guards creates a visual image of a gathering or event, but the significance of it remains elusive. The repeated line "These eyes seem to go wild" suggests that the singer's perception or state of mind becomes untamed as a result of this overwhelming experience.
Line by Line Meaning
Calmly Overwhelm me
Peacefully consume me
And I feel it in the cards
I sense it through intuition or prediction
That it happens in the dark
That it occurs in secrecy or obscurity
I fear this is the cause
I am afraid this is the reason
But I never found it odd
But I never found it unusual or strange
Calmly Overwhelm me
Peacefully consume me
And I hear it in the calls
And I hear it in the telephone conversations
But I don't know who she was
But I am unaware of her identity
A hundred in the park
One hundred people in the park
And they're circling the guards
And they are surrounding or encircling the security personnel
These eyes seem to go wild
These eyes appear to become uncontrollable or excited
These eyes seem to go wild
These eyes appear to become uncontrollable or excited
Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB.
Written by: Joshua Hayden Kolenik, Juan Pieczanski, Ryan Frank Heyner
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind