All Smiles

In the wake of Grandaddy’s dissolution during 2006, guitarist Jim Fairchild chose an understated path for his next musical venture. He settled in Chicago and constructed a compact eight-track reel-to-reel analog home studio, where he began shaping new compositions while playing the majority of instruments and delivering lead vocals for the first time. As he journeyed across the United States, Fairchild gathered contributions from several acquaintances and collaborators, among them Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse and the Black Heart Procession, Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney and Quasi, and Solon Bixler of Great Northern. Producer Brian Deck then helped shape the accumulated tapes into an album titled Ten Readings of a Warning, which Fairchild issued under the band name All Smiles. Dangerbird Records brought Ten Readings of a Warning to market in spring 2007, after which All Smiles toured in tandem with Menomena to promote the release.