The self proclaimed "dorkwave" band Smart Shoppers came out with their third LP in 2025 and it was one of the most original and entertaining records I listened to last year. Their caffeinated mix of XTC meets The Dickies is loud, bouncy and always obnoxiously poking at your eyeballs. They got the pop hooks, they got the tightly coiled guitar riffs, they got a slide whistle! So call it dorkwave, spazpunk, or jtterrock, Smart Shoppers are here to make sure things stay awkward and eyebrows remain furrowed.
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| photo by Adam Ziegenhals |
Shock Treatment: Let’s start out with who’s all currently in Smart Shoppers?
Smart Shoppers: Smart Shoppers is and will always be Aaron Smart(Rice) on guitar, Jash Thrift(Stamps) on drums, Norby Shopko (Rev. Norb) on bass, and myself; Joey Shops(Lambert) on vocals and random sounds.
ST: How did you guys all meet and decide to form the band?
SS: Aaron and Jash are brothers-in-law and most of us have known one another for a couple decades at least. There was a time when Norb and I were next door neighbors. Aaron is my oldest's Godfather, and was my best man at my wedding in which Norb was the officiator. There's some history there. 
ST: You guys released your third LP, last year’s Shop Among Us. The first band that’s been on Bulge Records for like 20 years! Can you tell me a little bit about the record?
SS: Well, it's round with another round hole in the center. I am told that if you place the little hole on the spindle part of a phonograph and lower the needle onto the record while the platter revolves at 33.33rpm one will hear 16 songs that start with the letter 'S' and are filled with tasty dorkwavey soundsST: How do you feel the new LP compares to the previous two?
SS: This one is a bit more garagey-straight-forward-art-punkish than our previous two efforts. The first being "Dorkwave" and perhaps our most experimentally dorky. Our second full length "Leftovers from Tomorrow" was kind of aptly named after the fact that when we first became a band the songs seemed to write themselves whenever we got together. Within a year or so we had like 25-30 songs- so, the ones we left off of our first record kind of became the bulk "leftovers" making up the 2nd. I learned to get way better production quality which is probably why i was less concerned with trying to spruce things up with silky antics. These songs seemed to stand in their own a lot more probably due to us having been a band now for 6 or so years and having played together long enough to develop more of a chemistry as a band.
ST: Did you have a certain sound you wanted to go for when starting out Smart Shoppers?
Loosely, i suppose? We knew what each other kind of liked, so like it started with Jash and Aaron being between bands and having songs they thought i would like the basis of and asked me to write some lyrics for them. So, from day one it was kind of like -yeah, we ALL like tons of different genres and eras of music "but this one sounds like the kind of song Joe would send me to check out..." type of thing. Norb is like an encyclopedia of music knowledge and Aaron is not far behind; so we sort of knew where our overlapping interests were ahead of time. I will say that we all kind of also agreed early on that a lot of the really cool stuff we all liked was like not straight punk, or new wave, or art rock, or whatever- but like those certain albums and bands that were in the cusp of all of those. Gang of Four, Television, B-52's, Crucifucks, Dead Milkmen, Devo, Buzzcocks etc. Bands that just sounded like they were making the music they liked and wanted to male regardless if anyone cares what they were doing. 
ST: Tell me about a Smart Shoppers show! What do you want the audience to walk away with after seeing you guys live?
SS: We're kind of one of those bands that will probably ALWAYS be better live. If for no other reason that we love playing together. When you're tracking in the studio, sure- it's still fun, but when you're dying of sweat under hot ass lights and out of breath and time seems to stop- I dunno, it's just different. I have no clue what i am going to do before we start and no idea what just happened after. Reckless abandon. On the records you can hear that we have practiced and can play- live you get more of a "these guys are not joking" feeling. We serve our ridiculousness with an unrelenting understanding of the desperate NEED our society has for such unbridled silliness in these overtly serious times. We're not asking folks to stop caring about what is important as much as trying to remind them that having fun is just as important. Saying, fuck feeling bad and worrying and being bogged down with more than i can process for a minute, let's dance like fools! It is folly to think that anything that incorporates humor lacks seriousness, smart shopping means smart consuming- you are what you eat- start consuming better stuff!
SS: All the ones i mentioned above, probably the classics of punk, garage, egg punk and new wave. Art punk stuff and lots of 50's and 60's solid gold oldies. We tend to all have a soft spot for that golden rock n' roll era. It doesn't come through as much in Shopper's songs, but we are all big Motown soul fans too. Lots of funk and hardcore and jazz and all sorts of stuff goes into what we like and are influenced by I suppose.
ST: You guys are currently based in the Green Bay, WI area, are there some other local bands you guys like playing with and that you feel people should check out?
SS: Sheesh, yeah, there's a bunch! To be fair the whole Wisconsin/Minnesota/Illinois/Michigan/Ohio/Indiana section of the Midwest is on fire as far as i am concerned. I couldn't pick out only a few without instantly thinking of 5 more i should have typed. If you can't find cool new music to go check out and you live in one of these states- you aren't looking!
ST: What lies ahead in 2026 for Smart Shoppers?
SS: We have a backlog of new songs to work on. There's a big show on April 1st. in GB with Teenage Bottlerocket, another one with our friends Sensor Ghost on March 8th, another secret once in a lifetime show with a sick recently reunited band also sometime in March. A HUGE show with Lousy Sue, Mr. Clit and the Pink Cigarettes (both from Indianapolis), and Unattractive Giant Monster (Minneapolis). Possibly an EP before summer too!
ST: Where can people go to check out your music and buy your records, either online or in person?
SS: All the usual places online, most of the COOL record shops can at least order our records for you now through Revolver distribution. (Although the coolest ones keep it in stock!) Also, obvs Bandcamp and the Bulge website etc.
ST: What bands do you think people should know/listen to in order to fully appreciate the Smart Shoppers experience?
ST: You guys are currently based in the Green Bay, WI area, are there some other local bands you guys like playing with and that you feel people should check out?
SS: Sheesh, yeah, there's a bunch! To be fair the whole Wisconsin/Minnesota/Illinois/Michigan/Ohio/Indiana section of the Midwest is on fire as far as i am concerned. I couldn't pick out only a few without instantly thinking of 5 more i should have typed. If you can't find cool new music to go check out and you live in one of these states- you aren't looking!
SS: We have a backlog of new songs to work on. There's a big show on April 1st. in GB with Teenage Bottlerocket, another one with our friends Sensor Ghost on March 8th, another secret once in a lifetime show with a sick recently reunited band also sometime in March. A HUGE show with Lousy Sue, Mr. Clit and the Pink Cigarettes (both from Indianapolis), and Unattractive Giant Monster (Minneapolis). Possibly an EP before summer too!
ST: Where can people go to check out your music and buy your records, either online or in person?
SS: All the usual places online, most of the COOL record shops can at least order our records for you now through Revolver distribution. (Although the coolest ones keep it in stock!) Also, obvs Bandcamp and the Bulge website etc.
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| illustration by Angie Vee |
