Ranging from chillwave to sophisticated electro-pop, Small Black fuses long… Read Full Bio ↴Ranging from chillwave to sophisticated electro-pop, Small Black fuses longing, noise, and melody into lushly wistful songs. On their 2009 self-titled EP and 2010 debut album, New Chain, their lo-fi hybrid of shoegaze and synth pop helped put chillwave on the map and fit into the larger indie tradition of artists couching their heartbreak in homespun sounds. In the 2010s and beyond, they polished their style, and emphasized their '80s sophisti-pop influences on 2013's Limits of Desire, but as poised as their music grew, albums such as 2021's Cheap Dreams kept the emotional pull of their songwriting at the forefront.

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

Search Party
Small Black Lyrics

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High among the wires of the city
Under the guise of the cracked moon
Stepped over you in boots that were filthy
All your charms
All your charms wasted
There's nothing to keep you
Search for what you need
There's nothing to keep you

Search for what you need
There's nothing to keep you
Search for what you need
There's nothing to keep you
Midnight sets the terms for the meeting
You don't know where its going down yet
Far from all the lights of the building
In the pool, in the pool
Listless
There's nothing to keep you
Search for what you need
There's nothing to keep you
Search for what you need
There's nothing to keep you

Search for what you need
There's nothing to keep you

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Small Black's "Search Party" evoke a sense of urban loneliness; the singer is seeking something, perhaps fulfillment, meaning, or escape, but they are unsure where to look. The mention of "wires of the city" and "lights of the building" suggest the impersonal and overwhelming nature of urban spaces. The phrase "under the guise of the cracked moon" adds a touch of poetic mysticism, as if the singer is searching for something that may not even exist. The mention of the "pool" towards the end of the song adds an interesting contrast; pools are typically associated with leisure and relaxation, but here it seems to signify aimlessness and stagnation.

The repetition of "there's nothing to keep you" and "search for what you need" further emphasizes the sense of restlessness and uncertainty. The singer is stuck in a cycle of searching, but with little hope of finding what they are looking for. The line "stepped over you in boots that were filthy / all your charms / all your charms wasted" suggests a missed opportunity or a lost connection. The boots being "filthy" imply a lack of care or attention, while "all your charms wasted" implies a sense of regret or missed potential.

Overall, "Search Party" is a melancholic and introspective song, evoking the complexities of trying to find oneself in an overwhelming and impersonal world.

Line by Line Meaning

High among the wires of the city
Up in the skyline of the city

Under the guise of the cracked moon
Beneath the appearance of the damaged moon

Stepped over you in boots that were filthy
Walked past you in unclean footwear

All your charms
All your attractive qualities

All your charms wasted
All your attractive qualities going to waste

There's nothing to keep you
There is no reason for you to stay

Search for what you need
Look for what you truly desire

Midnight sets the terms for the meeting
The meeting's conditions are dictated by midnight

You don't know where its going down yet
You don't know where the action will take place yet

Far from all the lights of the building
A distance away from the city's bright lights

In the pool, in the pool
Inside or nearby the pool area