We know where Tom stands on Mr. O'Rourke; how about his pal Bill?
― BrianR, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Andrew, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Stevie Nixed, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Josh, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― keith, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― bnw, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― achilles_last_stand, Saturday, 12 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― maryann, Tuesday, 27 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Mickey Black Eyes, Tuesday, 27 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Laura N.
― Laura N., Monday, 24 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
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?
― jess, Monday, 24 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Monday, 24 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Josh, Monday, 24 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
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.
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:45 (twenty years ago) link
― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:52 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 16:57 (twenty years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:02 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:05 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:08 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:09 (twenty years ago) link
― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:12 (twenty years ago) link
""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 years ago) link
"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 years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:16 (twenty years ago) link
― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:18 (twenty years ago) link
― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:18 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:20 (twenty years ago) link
I hate that place sometimes.
― may pang (maypang), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:22 (twenty years ago) link
― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:24 (twenty years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:28 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:29 (twenty years ago) link
― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:38 (twenty years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:44 (twenty years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:49 (twenty years ago) link
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 years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:54 (twenty years ago) link
― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 17:58 (twenty years ago) link
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 years ago) link
― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:05 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:08 (twenty years ago) link
― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:14 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:15 (twenty years ago) link
― stirmonster, Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:15 (twenty years ago) link
― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 9 December 2003 18:16 (twenty years ago) link
The Faith/Void split on Dischord Records... maybe? Insanely classic DC hardcore
― bear, bear, bear, Thursday, 11 June 2009 09:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Ah.
― Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 11 June 2009 09:36 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― circa1916, Thursday, 11 June 2009 18:38 (fifteen years ago) link
getting slowly obsessed w/ callahan. 'eid ma clack shaw' worked its way into my itunes most played list pretty quickly.
― iatee, Thursday, 11 June 2009 19:12 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Zeno, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 07:19 (fifteen years ago) link
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?
― doom shit (circa1916), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 08:07 (fifteen years ago) link
maybe irony is a better word to describe it,yes.what i mean is,that he is obv. influenced by the classic singer/songwritersbut 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.
― Zeno, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 08:25 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― narly dude lol (Clay), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 08:54 (fifteen years ago) link
What was the odd spiky guitar he used up until Dongs (he's playing it on the cover)?
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 10 January 2010 19:18 (fourteen years ago) link
I Feel like the Mother of the World
^^^^^^^^^best song ever, right?
― tart w/ a heart (a hoy hoy), Monday, 19 April 2010 17:29 (fourteen years ago) link
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'
― thomp, Tuesday, 20 April 2010 21:21 (fourteen years ago) link
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'
― thomp, Tuesday, 20 April 2010 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link
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 22:08 (fourteen years ago) link
thotmp
― iatee, Tuesday, 20 April 2010 22:10 (fourteen years ago) link
"somewhere in the night" will always be a jam
― kamerad, Tuesday, 20 April 2010 22:51 (fourteen years ago) link
"I Feel like the Mother of the World" is easily my least favourite song on that album.
― jed_, Tuesday, 20 April 2010 23:55 (fourteen years ago) link
― 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
― just sayin, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 07:51 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― aerosmith live at the mohegan sun (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Wednesday, 21 April 2010 08:28 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Earning your Masters in Library and Information Science is beautiful (schlump), Wednesday, 21 April 2010 10:17 (fourteen years ago) link
always always always classic. listening to him is like being hugged.
― peacocks, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 18:10 (fourteen years ago) link
O_o
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 21 April 2010 18:13 (fourteen years ago) link
Like being hugged by a really big mouth.
― Brad Nelson (BradNelson), Wednesday, 21 April 2010 18:15 (fourteen years ago) link
that's ok with me.
― peacocks, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 18:17 (fourteen years ago) link
like being hugged, awkwardly, by an autistic stockbroker.
― by another name (amateurist), Wednesday, 21 April 2010 19:04 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't think I would mind that too much either. give me more.
― peacocks, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 19:24 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
A+
― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, 13 July 2010 18:06 (fourteen years ago) link
really great
― be told and get high on coconut (gbx), Tuesday, 13 July 2010 18:18 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
when is this from?
― iago g., Wednesday, 14 July 2010 20:52 (fourteen years ago) link
sorry, got it. 2001.
― iago g., Wednesday, 14 July 2010 21:00 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
this was a b-side of a single iirc.
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 21:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Shasta, Jean jacket and tie - such a lie or good look?
― jed_, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:11 (fourteen years ago) link
bolo tie ftw
― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:30 (fourteen years ago) link
love this song so much
― just sayin, Thursday, 15 July 2010 07:41 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
woke on a whaleheart? thats prob my least fav of his stuff
― just sayin, Thursday, 15 July 2010 12:00 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (fourteen years ago) link
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 (twelve years ago) link
damn, that is very sad. RIP.
― jed_, Friday, 13 July 2012 12:31 (twelve years ago) link
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 (eleven years ago) link
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 (eleven years ago) link
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 (eleven years ago) link
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 (seven years ago) link
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 (six years ago) link