July 5, 2005 sees the release of the brand new Stratocruiser vinyl single, "Smell of Success". on Just Plain Lucky/Purple Cat Records. Stratocruiser has been touring to promote their early 2005 release, Suburban Contemporary on Zip Records. Even while playing a large amount of live shows in the Winter and Spring of 2004 and 2005, Stratocruiser has managed to record a bevvy of new material that has worked its way into their stage show. "Smell of Success" encompasses the current Stratocruiser sound by being simultaneously grinding garage rock, woozy psychedelia and sunny powerpop. Zsolt David of Velvet steps in a guest drummer for "Smell of Success" and provides the insistent backbeat at the core of this rousing rave-up. Mike Nicholson's guitar and keyboards suggest both the 1966-era Kinks and 1969-era King Crimson in one song! Clay Howard's vocals ram home his tongue-in-cheek lyrics with enough conviction to make the listener hang on to every line

The "b-side", "41 Times" started as a leftover song idea from the Suburban Contemporary sessions. Left largely unfinished until the winter of 2005, "41 Times" was sliced, diced, edited and written to be a slinky late '60's riff-rock tour-de-force. Heaps of wah-wah guitars, Hammond organ, thunderous but defiantly clever drum-ming from Robbie Rist and Howard's multi-layered and soulful vocals make this way more than merely a b-side.

This single is a limited edition pressing on sumptous RED vinyl and comes with a full color picture sleeve.