It’s Valentine’s week, and in between eating an entire box of Little Debbie Valentines cakes and crafting cute things with toddlers, I’m grieving a band who gave me one perfect album and then promptly ghosted me. So here’s my love letter to Greer, Big Smile, and my pattern of loving powerpop one-album wonders.
Greer released Big Smile last year and it is undoubtedly one of the best albums of the decade for me. But then, just as quickly as they came back into my life, they were gone. No messy sophomore slump. No gradual decline. Just one immaculate full-length and a breakup post on Instagram.
Let’s rewind.
It’s July 2020. A universally terrible time, compounded for me by losing my brother in April and losing my dog in July. I was coping the only way I know how: searching for new music like it was oxygen. In one of my Facebook powerpop groups, someone posted a video of a band called Greer performing “Bye Bye Baby.”
I was immediately hooked. Crunchy, 90s-leaning guitars. Harmonies that feel part Everly Brothers, part Superchunk. Cute young guys with an effortless charm and a video that looked like it was pulled from some lost local-access TV performance. It was perfect.
They released an EP. I loved it. And then… nothing. Hiatus. Silence. Not too uncommon from bands during the pandemic, but the radio silence was long enough that I eventually stopped checking. I got married. I had 2 kids!
Then one random night in November 2024, I was rocking my son to sleep, scrolling aimlessly in the dark, when I noticed a post from Greer. A cryptic message about a new song. Dropping the next day!
“audio_77” was heart-achingly beautiful- simple, slow, full of emotion. This song makes me teary almost every time I hear it. The accompanying video was just Josiah in a room with his guitar, lighted dramatically. The comments were flooded with “WE ARE SO BACK!” and overjoyed fans like me confessing their undying love for the band.
The next single, “Had Enough,” followed in January 2025, all jangly urgency and 90s crunch with hooks galore. Probably my favorite Greer song I had ever heard until that point.
Then came the announcement: Big Smile, the band’s first full length album, would be out in the Spring.
The album dropped the day after my birthday in March 2025. It quickly became my favorite album of the year. Any moment I get alone to actually listen to what I want to listen to instead of being subjected to Frozen soundtrack for the millionth time, I immediately put on this record. It’s my go-to for a reason- I know no matter what I’m doing or what mood I’m in, I’m going to be immediately sucked in and immersed in the greatness that is Big Smile.
Big Smile is joyful and sharp and alive. It’s that perfect blend of Gen Z nostalgia for the 90s and modern indie powerpop muscle. Josiah’s voice is and warm and smooth and full of emotion- this kid can REALLY sing. The guitars shimmer and crunch in all the right places; the production is layered but never bloated. The track sequencing feels so deliberate, like the record is telling a story instead of just stacking tracks- the most rockin tracks are front loaded, but some of the most emotionally heavy, beautiful slow songs are near the end (Josiah’s voice plus the piano melody on “She Knows”? Devastatingly gorgeous.). I could not possibly pick a favorite track, but “Omnibus”, “One in the Same”, “Had Enough”, “Miracle Fighting Red Baron”, “She Knows”, “Mugwump”, and “audio_77” are my biggest standouts. This record is SO damn important to me.
They toured last summer. They did stop in Portland, but I missed the show because I had just been in the hospital (shoutout to my abdominal hematoma for impeccable timing). But I wasn’t worried. Surely this was just the beginning- Greer was destined to blow up especially after a release of this caliber. Surely there would be another tour. A bigger one. More records. More time.
Right?
Wrong.
In mid-August, the band posted that they were breaking up. Citing health issues, mental health, and burnout, they shared a long, heartfelt message about giving everything they had and needing to step away. I read it the way you read a breakup text- slowly, hoping maybe you misunderstood something.
And look, I get it. Being in a band is hard. Touring is hard. Being on a major label and all that pressure that comes with it is hard. Being young and reaching adulthood in a global pandemic, having to navigate adulthood, it’s all hard. But it still sucks.
Why are my favorite records always made by cute powerpop boys who drop masterpieces and then vanish? (Material Issue and The La’s set me up for a lifetime of musical heartbreak unfortunately)
There’s something uniquely cruel about a band ending before they ever get the chance to disappoint you. On the brightside , there’s no sophomore slump if there’s no second album, right? No bloated third album. Just a perfect, preserved moment in time.
The Epitaph press release mentioned Greer wrote over 200 songs between the EP and Big Smile, distilling it down to 13. Two hundred. That means there are entire alternate timelines of Greer songs sitting somewhere on hard drives. Whole worlds we’ll probably never hear. I hope someday we do.
Until then, I’ll keep listening to Big Smile over and over every chance I get. I’ll keep recommending it with the disclaimer that the discography is heartbreakingly small. I’ll keep loving a band that doesn’t technically exist anymore.
I love you, Greer. Thank you for the songs. Thank you for the Big Smile.
Happy Valentines Day, music lovers.
Listen to and buy Big Smile here: https://greertheband.bandcamp.com/album/big-smile
Follow the band’s dead IG page (who knows, maybe it will rise from the ashes like it did before!):
Check out Greer’s cool 90s internet webpage, even though it’s no longer active:
