Classic or Dud: Smog

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I like them plenty, but Burning Kingdom is the only one that I love without qualification, especially the first song, 'My Shell'. They seem to let really let themselves blaze on that in a way I wish they'd do much more often.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

"they"?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

'knock knock' is v good but i haven't tried anything else.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

you should try "red apple falls" and then "wild love"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

ditto to that, doctor came at dawn is fantastic also

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

why the fuck do amg reviews begin with pointlessly corny shit like

""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 "

????

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

also why is every album critiqued in terms of some supposed career arc that's described so many ways as to become completely nebulous i.e. "this album is both a continuation and a return to form but also a slight slide"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

no wait it gets better

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

does that even mean anything?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

its amazing that as rich a body of work as this hasn't seemed to have found a single review worth the ink

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

esp. as i know he really appeals to writer types.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

amateurist, maybe we could work out some kind of Smog/furniture trade. I don't have everything, but I have Julius Caeser, Wild Love, Doctor Came at Dawn, Accumulation: None, Dongs of Sevotion, Rain on Lens, and (somewhere, I kind of lost it, but maybe I can find it) Supper.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

i cant promise furniture though since i dont know exactly when im returning, where exactly ill be settling and what ill need. but if you want to send me smog cds with only the vague but sincere promise to TRY to get you some furniture at a later date, i'm game.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the last two albums were pretty lousy. Enough to make me not really care what he does from now on. I liked the more amibitious sound that was there on parts of Dongs but since then he's seemed to retreat back into half-assed indiedom.

I hate that place sometimes.

― may pang (maypang), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Email me to tell me which ones you want and where you want them. I'm not promising anything, but I'll try. I'm kind of busy with moving, but copying cds ain't that much work.
I wish I could find Supper, it's really good, probably one of my favorites. Rain on Lens was a little disappointing but still has a few stunners on it. I am a fan of nu-Smog, I guess.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:24 (twenty-two years ago)

i will send you some smog CDs if you get me the new colette comp!

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:28 (twenty-two years ago)

what is the new colette comp? is it french?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Dammit. I just remembered that Sarah packed some of my cds while I was out of town and I don't know which Smog cds are packed and which aren't. But still, email me which ones you want and I'll see if they're somewhere I can get to them.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:38 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.colette.fr

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

It comes out friday (at colette), and it is called "the chill of colette"

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

colette is an uber trendy store near the pompidou centre which puts out uber trendy quarterly mix cds. i'll swap you some smog for some cheese!

btw -

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

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

― stirmonster, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, those of us accustomed to mr. perpetua's ways have already learned to filter such assessments as ripe for 180 degree reversals at any moment.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Am!st i will copy everything for you as mp3's on a cd just cos i love to spread the smog and the (smog) love. mail me here

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:58 (twenty-two years ago)

right - that didnt work

here

c_ohara (at) btinternet.com

not at my sign on e mail which is fake.

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry i didnt realise you had a previous offer from stir - i didnt mean to steal his thunder! (but i reckon that smog may be the only artist under the sun i have more stuff by :-))

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

colin- I'd like to hear some more smog. what would you like in exchange?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:08 (twenty-two years ago)

that is if you're ok with exchanging stuff with me.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:08 (twenty-two years ago)

excellent, of course - what was that the Feldman thing you mentioned before (i think because of something i mentioned in a thread to do with extremely unlikely things to find on peer2peer) -can you remember?

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I have several things by him now: would you like to hear 'for bunita marcus' (I have a version which is not available).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:14 (twenty-two years ago)

also: 'for christian wolff' (that's 3 cds).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

go for it jed. anyway, i don't think posting cheese from france is a particularly good idea, especially as the cheese i want is as whiffy as you can imagine.

― stirmonster, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

hmmmmmmm, some delicious Mont d'Or right in time for the Xmas season...

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

oh - that kind of cheese!!

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

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

emailing me at this addy is fine.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:20 (twenty-two years ago)

i wouldnt have any use for a cd of mp3s sadly...id have nowhere to play it.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I enjoyed the new Smog alb better than anything he's released since 'Knock Knock': a line from the first track - "It's Ali vs. Clay" - has stuck in my mind more than any other lyric I've heard this year. In fact, that whole song is Callaghan at his best. It didn't seem an esp. corny indie fuck rec to me - any alb w/ Ken Champion playing pedal steel always sounds pretty lush to my ears.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 21:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Now I wish I actually had a copy of Supper.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Am!st let me know if you get something sorted with ggx! or stir, if not i will be happy to send stuff over.

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 22:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Julo, i have mailed you.

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 22:46 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah supper has some gems on it. i was predisposed not to like it because i was disappointed with rain on lens.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 10:37 (twenty-two years ago)

seven months pass...

why did i never follow through with this? i feel like a chump.

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.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 19 July 2004 06:40 (twenty-one years ago)

you ARE a chump. i made them for Julio instead. what are you after?

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 19 July 2004 09:35 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

"there's a hunger in my hands / i try to rub it into your body"

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

jed, are you still around?

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

(crickets)

― amateur!!st, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Smog. I still haven't found my copy of Supper.

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

haha he promised me one too amst and I only live down the road!!! : /

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

― cºzen (Cozen), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm around now am!st. mail me :)

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.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

"Cold Blooded Old Times" is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard in my life. Like, heartbreaking sad.

― Taxi Dancing in the Soft Prison (Ben Boyer), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

A guy at Benway Records in Venice jumped in when he saw me buying Julius Caesar and told a story of how Bill C was crashing "in a closet or something" at his friend's pad in San Fran and one night ol' Bill came home and said: "I bought this acid, who wants to take some with me" and everybody said "Whoa... no way Bill, you're too strange already...we couldn't handle you on psychedelics!"

I like that story.

― Thea (Thea), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I still love Julius Caesar the best. Kim Osterwalder posted a message on my board a few years ago about the cello parts she played on the album:

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. . .

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 91 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

like being hugged, awkwardly, by an autistic stockbroker.

― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 21 April 2010 19:04 (sixteen years ago)

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

― peacocks, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 19:24 (sixteen years ago)

two months pass...

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

― cajunsunday, Tuesday, 13 July 2010 17:48 (fifteen years ago)

A+

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, 13 July 2010 18:06 (fifteen years ago)

really great

― be told and get high on coconut (gbx), Tuesday, 13 July 2010 18:18 (fifteen years ago)

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.

― rope (lloydwabbitt), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 20:38 (fifteen years ago)

when is this from?

― iago g., Wednesday, 14 July 2010 20:52 (fifteen years ago)

sorry, got it. 2001.

― iago g., Wednesday, 14 July 2010 21:00 (fifteen years ago)

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

― atoms breaking heart (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 21:08 (fifteen years ago)

this was a b-side of a single iirc.

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 21:39 (fifteen years ago)

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

― jed_, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:11 (fifteen years ago)

bolo tie ftw

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:30 (fifteen years ago)

love this song so much

― just sayin, Thursday, 15 July 2010 07:41 (fifteen years ago)

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

― just sayin, Thursday, 15 July 2010 07:42 (fifteen years ago)

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?

― Dwight Yorke, Thursday, 15 July 2010 08:32 (fifteen years ago)

Get his other solo record under his own name.

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Thursday, 15 July 2010 11:52 (fifteen years ago)

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

― just sayin, Thursday, 15 July 2010 12:00 (fifteen years ago)

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

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Thursday, 15 July 2010 12:04 (fifteen years ago)

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.

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 15 July 2010 17:39 (fifteen years ago)

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.

― jed_, Thursday, 15 July 2010 17:51 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

This sad news of this totally passed me by:

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

― mod night at the oasis (NickB), Friday, 13 July 2012 11:47 (thirteen years ago)

damn, that is very sad. RIP.

― jed_, Friday, 13 July 2012 12:31 (thirteen years ago)

one year passes...

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

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 7 August 2013 19:56 (twelve years ago)

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

― szarkasm (schlump), Wednesday, 7 August 2013 20:38 (twelve years ago)

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

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 7 August 2013 20:40 (twelve years ago)

three years pass...

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

tryina maaake gooooood

― j., Wednesday, 15 February 2017 23:01 (nine years ago)

one year passes...

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

― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Monday, 3 September 2018 18:00 (seven years ago)

six years pass...

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

― imperial frfr (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 12 April 2025 17:22 (one year ago)

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?

― fpsa, Saturday, 12 April 2025 19:27 (one year ago)

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

― fpsa, Saturday, 12 April 2025 19:32 (one year ago)

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..."

― imperial frfr (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 12 April 2025 20:27 (one year ago)

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