Classic or Dud: Smog

-- 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."