(Smog)

In light of my earlier praise of the new Bill Callahan album, it's time I tried getting this group into his erstwhile alter ego, Smog... or as it later became spelled, (Smog).

Let's put it this way: If you love Bonnie "Prince" Billy, there is no reason you aren't going to love Smog. The owners of Drag City Records would presumably argue the same thing.

The deal with this guy is that he's moody, sometimes unpredictable, often emotionally arresting, and he wields a wonderfully dark sense of humor. And his music is beautiful.

There are many sides to Smog, and I'll give you a few examples here. First is "Dress Sexy at My Funeral," which is representative of his dark humor:



Next is "Our Anniversary" which represents the more dark, meditative, intimate Smog:



Then "I Break Horses" which is raw and naked, just him, an acoustic guitar, and a horse/women metaphor. (He loves singing about both horses and women.)



And finally, "Bathysphere," which is more weird and experimental. This is representative of his early period but not the late (Smog) era. And not the Bill Callahan era either.



There you have it. There's a lot of material to cover with the guy, but I'd recommend starting with either the album Red Apple Falls or Knock Knock, which came out in succession. (Although oddly enough, I didn't include a track from either one on here.)

My Favorite Album of the Year So Far

For all the great albums that have come out this year (including many by perennial Drischord favorites like Wilco, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Polvo, Bob Dylan, Yo La Tengo, etc.), my favorite record has been Bill Callahan's latest: Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle.

Some hipster at Berklee loaded up our media center with a whole bunch of Smog albums, and through those I got really into Callahan's music about 3 years ago. I continue to listen to Smog with regularity, but it wasn't until this year that I ventured into Callahan solo territory. (Which, for the record, is the same thing, but it's said that records bearing the Bill Callahan name are generally more upbeat and ornate than those bearing the Smog name. But both are a single man's vision.)

Anyway this track isn't particularly "upbeat" in the grand scheme of things, but it's damn good nonetheless. In fact this album has sat so well with me that I recently went out and bought the first Callahan solo album, Woke on a Whaleheart, which is also awesome.



I'll try to issue a few posts about Smog before too long, but in the meantime enjoy this stuff and go out and get this album. You'll hear about it again when my end-of-year list rolls around.