Classic or Dud: Smog

Smog have done some fine songs and albums. But I don't know. I think someone like the Walkabouts taps a vaguely similar vein and does it with more skill overall.

Laura N.

duly noted. laura, could you point out some other musical/dating faux pas for those of us who want to retroformat our collections to make us more appealing to the opposite sex?

I am stranded (after a fashion) in France with only two Smog records, and for numerous reasons have a desperate hankering to soak in the entire lot of them. Seeing as Smog records cost about 20 euro apiece here and my budget for new records is nil, I have come up with a proposal, as follows: Someone on this board makes copies for me of all the Smog albums (or most of them, besides "Knock Knock" and "Red Apple Falls" which I have here) and sends them to me, and in exchange I send them a CD or DVD from France or anything else in that price range that you might want from France.

Interested parties may email me off-board.

""I wanna tell you about a man/You won't find him on your MTV," Smog's singer/songwriter Bill Callahan sings on his first album, 1990's Sewn to the Sky. Though he's actually referring to Jesus, those lyrics apply to Callahan "

????

"on Sewn to the Sky, you can hear every needle used to put him there. "

does that even mean anything?

I hate that place sometimes.

btw -

Aside from "Lize," I think Smog is a borecore super-dud.

mr. perpetua - so off the money that it's hilraious.

here

c_ohara (at) btinternet.com

not at my sign on e mail which is fake.

Julio i'll mail you tonight re. Feldman (if your sign on is yr real e mail, if not mail me at the one i posted above^)

cheers

i read those excerpts from the godawful amg reviews and now i'm not feeling as bad about amg having gone down the toilet.

also "the orange glow of a stranger's living room" is nice.

colin is still around though. keep saying smog he shd pop up.

with every mile, another piece of me peels off and whips "down the road."

This is a good time for both of you as it happens.

I like that story.

I remember one time I worked with him, but not the other. He brought his 4 track to my house in san francisco. The windows were open you could hear the traffic outside on the recording. He sort went through the song with me a few times as a "rehersal", and after the second time he said that he had what he needed! So he got something completely different from me than if I had known that track was being used on the record. I hope it turned out good. I know I was out of tune, but Bill didn't care about that! I've gotten a lot of compliments on that record over the years, too! People really like Bill. . .

please bring out a new album.

thanks

I like him - lyrically, especially, he's inspired / inspiring

-- Alfred Soto (sotoal...), August 14th, 2005 8:17 AM. (later)

smog not smudge!

Is he any good live?

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle LP/CD DC385 forth. 2009

:)

http://www.zuverza.com/job/bcallahan1.jpg

wow, his best cover in ages.

<3 the title

not using the Smog name now?

nope, not since his last lp woke on a whaleheart

googling the title throws up this. mmmm.
& i know the above's a poster; i don't know how it'll correlate with the sleeve.

i liked the last cover.

http://dragcity.com/catalog/posters/dc332post.jpg

really love the cover. last cover was cool too. wasn't so keen on the songs though :/

Those looking for Callahan’s old viciousness might be struggling here, apart from the odd hiss and snarl on the exceptional motorik of “My Friend”. While “Whaleheart” was conspicuously jolly in parts, in stark contrast to some of the earlier records like “Rain On Lens”, say, the general mood here is reflective. He still has a capacity for good jokes, though, notably “Eid Ma Clack Shaw” – the title comes from the narrator reading back “the perfect song” he wrote in the middle of a dream. Callahan sings an entire verse of this, all entirely incomprehensible. Weirdly, though, it’s also one of the most profound and moving, as well as funny, songs I’ve heard in a while.

did anyone hear this yet? apparently it's all syrupy-strings, which sounds like the couple of (pretty good) cover things he's put out recently, kinda rhodesy and tasteful.

what is this? new album? bill callahan or smog?

pumped. i didn't like whaleheart that much but i don't know if he's ever put out two weak albums in a row, at least in his recent run. plus i love sappy smog

new bill callahan album, release data in april i think?

ah good. i didn't like whaleheart one bit but i'm still looking forward to this.

uh huh, april fourteenth. otm about two bad albums in a row - he has such weird rhythms, like rain on lens -> supper. i love sappy smog (the best bit of the last lp being the syrupy middle bit in honeymoon child), but i hope it isn't too easy going. emotive violins can be boring.

above review was from here btw. and there's a new song on youtube too.

first song - the youtube one, jim cain - is floating around, and is lovely

I really liked Whaleheart . Psycht for new one.

Whaleheart is great when the occasional song comes on shuffle, I never turn it off. Will def pick up this new one.

Anyone else diggin the new one? Sounds pretty great on the few several listens. How is it possible for a songwriter to consistently progress over the course of almost twenty years?

dude's got some long hair these days

as seen here
http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/12704-rococo-zephyr-live-in-store/

I really like "Jim Cain" off the new one. Not sure about the rest of it yet, although the string arrangements are lovely

And i just found out it's about James M. Cain!

all thoughts are prey to some beast is terrific. i think the record's pretty great; there's a little of him being too authorial (twitching withers and all) but it's really kinda comforting.

Anyone seeing him on his record store tour? I saw him at Sound Garden in Baltimore tonight and it was fantastic. His new songs (and I like the new record a lot) sound even better with just him and a guitar. Fucking potent stuff. And that voice!

shitty cell phone pic, but yeah, dude's got long hair now:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c102/OfMarrow/GetAttachmentaspx.jpg

am gonna be at the other instore after some amount of queueing etc. have never seen him solo so am pumped; there are real nice bootlegs of like conway hall and stuff where he plays a river ain't too much to love stuff solo, sweetly.

there weren't many people at all at the show i went to, i was kinda surprised. i was looking at some criterion dvd's (not a bad selection Sound Garden!) and Bill walked up onto the stage kinda right down the aisle from me and started setting stuff up. i took a decent standing spot along with like a dozen other people. folks began filing in as he got started and during the set but by the end i'd say there were probably less than 30 people there watching. i was expecting a packed house, the place isn't that big. boo baltimore.

ok, sorry to keep reviving this thing here, kinda drunk outta my head. listening to the album now again. jesus, these songs sounded so much fucking better and severe and HEAVY with just Bill + Guitar. I kinda wish there were two versions of the album. always bootlegs i guess.

there are badass bootlegs of the instore tour he did around supper, electric guitar and a tambourine under his foot - playing strayed, blood red bird, etc too. can not wait.

this album is okay. i'm only really feeling Eid Maw Clack Shaw so far but overall it's certainly an improvement on Woke on A Whaleheart.

i dreamed, it was a dream that you were gone.
i woke up feeling so ripped by reality
yeah, love is the king of the beasts
and when it gets hungry it must kill to eat.
yeah, love is the king of the beasts
a lion walking down city streets.

i fell back asleep some time later on...
and i dreamed the perfect song!
it held all the answers, like hands laid on.

i woke half way and scribbled it down,
and in the morning what i'd wrote i read.
it was hard to read at first but here's what it said:

"EID MA CLACK SHAW
ZUPOVEN DEL BAWM
VERTIPPY VIN SEENER
GO FALLY RAG DOLL."

I love the song after that^ one. The chorus is so warm-sounding.

Also the drums are v much at the front of this album i found.

I'm kind of in love with the fact that he's got a song called Faith/Void on his new album. A DCHC split I've always loved (well, the one side everyone loves anyway) that I've just now realized is a goddamn perfect pairing of bands/band names and a great goddamn song name.

Also loving this album more and more as time goes on.

Will stan.

just heard it for the first time a couple days back. sounded really, really good.
faith/vod ref is crazy bonus points too.

Who's it referencing? His new album is awesome, but, ironically, I think Faith/Void is the least impressive song on it. My Friend and Eid Ma Clack Shaw are my favourites.

The Faith/Void split on Dischord Records... maybe? Insanely classic DC hardcore

Ah.

Ow, was pretty drunk there but yeah the classic The Faith and Void split on Dischord Records was what I was referring to.

"It's time to put God away." It's gotta be one of my favorites from this new one. I can understand folks not digging on it too much, sucker's almost 10 minutes long and not exactly dynamic, but that resigned mantra is fucking chilling. "This is the end of faith, no more must I strive/To find my peace, to find my peace in the light". The song's kind of rooted itself in my brain and it's a little scary.

getting slowly obsessed w/ callahan. 'eid ma clack shaw' worked its way into my itunes most played list pretty quickly.

is it only me who feels as if callahan's music always sound a bit like a parody on the subject,than the real thing?
(same goes with Oldham as a matter of fact)
i'm not saying this as a negative thing btw.i like his music.

Not sure I'm following you. Parody of what exactly? And how? I've heard Oldham criticized as being "ironic", but I don't really think that's totally fair. I guess a bearded Kentuckian covering Mariah Carey is "ironic", but he never does that sort of stuff in a condescending, winking sort of way. Weird idiosyncratic things like recording the old ragged Palace standards with slick Nashville session musicians seem to stem less from "lol" and more "hey, i like this kind of music too, it would be cool to reinterpret my old songs this way."

I'm rambling about the wrong dude, what's this about Callahan making parodies?

maybe irony is a better word to describe it,yes.
what i mean is,that he is obv. influenced by the classic singer/songwriters
but i feel he never sound as serious, or emotionally involved on the music as they were, more like a little wink,a precise and serious gesture to their music,but a gesture still.

I think callahan just approaches songwriting from a very sober, removed sort of place. It's self-aware, yes, and often ironic in that sense ("I am singing a song") but it's in no way unserious.

What was the odd spiky guitar he used up until Dongs (he's playing it on the cover)?

I Feel like the Mother of the World

^^^^^^^^^best song ever, right?

past week or so i've gone from feeling like this body of work is 'okayish songwriter dude' to feeling like it is 'essential American genius'

like it's only just now that i've paid attention enough to notice that he, like, never uses three chords where two will do - i'm not sure if it's real amateurism or entirely a decision - and i was wondering if that changed, when he went from being 'smog' to being 'bill'

past week or so i've gone from feeling like this body of work is 'okayish songwriter dude' to feeling like it is 'essential American genius'

Past two years or so I've gone from feeling like Bill's body of work is "essential American genius" to "okayish songwriter dude" -- exactly the opposite progression.

thotmp

"somewhere in the night" will always be a jam

"I Feel like the Mother of the World" is easily my least favourite song on that album.

Past two years or so I've gone from feeling like Bill's body of work is "essential American genius" to "okayish songwriter dude" -- exactly the opposite progression.

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 20 April 2010 23:08 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this seems so weird to me. like, the more i get into this dude, the more i love his stuff. in other words, thomp otm

yeah - my estimation of how good he is rises each year. there are few artists whose work every time I revisit it seems better than it did before, but he's one of them for sure. there isn't one release of his, save maybe "whaleheart," that doesn't always yield new treasures when I come back to it.

as long as you've previously discovered the hagerty-fried treasure of honeymoon child & day then that's an okay statement

and also yes. his oeuvre is more satisfying than most i think; there are these seemingly arbitrary aesthetic choices he makes for each record which leave listeners with lps neatly suited to different smog moods.

always always always classic. listening to him is like being hugged.

O_o

Like being hugged by a really big mouth.

that's ok with me.

like being hugged, awkwardly, by an autistic stockbroker.

I don't think I would mind that too much either. give me more.

this version of ex-con is stunning. its all velvet undergroundy and great. makes me want to hear him do his back catalog in this style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrYwWNuR5nw

A+

really great

I remember playing the album version of "Ex-Con" for someone at some point and being asked if it was a Lou Reed song they'd never heard. Now it kind of makes sense.

when is this from?

sorry, got it. 2001.

That is great, and I'd forgotten the lyrics immediately before VU fuzzy meltdown section, so that little 1-2 is killing me right now

this was a b-side of a single iirc.

Shasta, Jean jacket and tie - such a lie or good look?

bolo tie ftw

love this song so much

Aside from "Lize," I think Smog is a borecore super-dud.
― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:52 (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wtf, how wrong can you be

I've only got Doctor Came at Dawn and the Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle one he put out last year. So, what's the best one to get next bearing in mind I prefer the latter LP?

Get his other solo record under his own name.

woke on a whaleheart? thats prob my least fav of his stuff

Me too, but it's probably the closest in tone to his latest album.

Aside from "Lize," I think Smog is a borecore super-dud.
― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:52 (6 years ago)

A single giggle is produced when I come across tripe like this, reminiscing that all y'all once paid temporary attention to the used-tissue musical opinion of this kook.

thing is Lize is such a bizarre track to single out. i mean the tune is good but it's a fairly undistinguished mid period track.

This sad news of this totally passed me by:

http://pitchfork.com/news/46064-rip-cynthia-dall/

damn, that is very sad. RIP.

i got sick of no smog/callahan on spotify so i burned a cd of all his albums that i have on itunes (i seem to have lost a few in various hard drive crashes) and it's crazy having it on shuffle and just hearing the expanse of what he's done and how it's all really different but all him and each album has some mindblowing songs on it

the in-most-other-musical-circumstances-i-can-think-of-dangerous arbitrary stylistic variations between records - additions of instruments, p dramatic differences in approaches to drumming, use of harmony vox, &c&c - are reliably successful, also

i dunno, there's a coherent long-term evolution in his stylistic approach

I like him, but it's all suspicious, like he's avoiding making errors of taste, consciously, a lot

tryina maaake gooooood

nice to have everything on Spotify now, have been exploring some of my less-explored corners of the back catalog. Currently really enjoying Kicking a Couple Around

has he ever talked about the multiple (like 3-4 songs?) references to "O Superman" across his oeuvre?

I can think of:
let's move to the country

maybe?
bathysphere
the morning paper

what are the others? does this track with your list of songs?

a lot of his stuff does have a New Music/Minimalism bend/flavor – maybe Orourke's influence – which ties to O Superman for sure

Like, to me, this Win Mertens track sounds similar to some of the arrangements on Red Apple Falls or Knock Knock as well (and I know Jim likes this, he played on his NTS show or somewhere else)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4d9xMuEJVg

Yes, all of your examples plus

Say Valley Maker - about half way through "because there is no love..." he adopts the same vocal shift that LA does in "O Superman" when sings "cuz when love is gone..."