Bill Callahan (musician): Difference between revisions
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Jellypuzzle (talk | contribs) m moved Smog (band) to Bill Callahan (musician): According to Drag City and various sources he's now performing under his full name. Given that he's already been both Smog and (smog) it seems putting him under Bill Callahan (musician) seems logical |
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Revision as of 11:38, 14 November 2006
Smog, for a short while in the early 2000s known as (Smog), is the musical alias of Bill Callahan, born in Silver Spring, Maryland. Callahan began working in the lo-fi genre of underground rock, with homemade tape-albums recorded on four track tape recorders. Later he began releasing albums with the label Drag City.
Callahan started out as a highly experimental artist, utilizing sub-standard instruments and recording equipment. His reason for using the lo-fi approach was not so much an aesthetic choice, rather it came from his lack of desire to work in a recording studios, and fear of giving up control to sound engineers.
Between the years of 1993-2000, one could track Callahan's recorded output as it grew more and more "professional" sounding--utilizing more instruments and a generally higher sound quality. In this period he recorded two albums with the influential producer Jim O'Rourke, Tortoise's John McEntire, as well as collaborating with the similar-minded Neil Hagerty. After 2000's Dongs of Sevotion, Smog began moving back to a slightly simpler instrumentation and recording style, as on the albums Rain on Lens, Supper, and A River Ain't Too Much to Love.
Smog's songs are often based on simple, repetitive structures, strikingly characterized by his baritone vocal. Themes in Callahan's lyrics include relationships, moving, horses, teenagers, bodies of water, and more recently, politics. Smog's generally dispassionate delivery of lyrics and dark irony often obfuscate complex emotional and lyrical twists and turns. There is also a broad swathe of joy throughout Callahan's work. He is a keen storyteller using simple words to project large and deeply echoing tales.
He currently resides in Austin, TX where he is recording the follow-up to A River Ain't Too Much to Love.
Discography
Cassettes
- Macramé Gunplay (1988)
- Cow (1989)
- A Table Setting (1990)
- Tired Tape Machine (1990)
Albums
-
Sewn to the Sky
1990
(LP on Disaster) -
Forgotten Foundation
May 25, 1992
(CD on Drag City) -
Julius Caesar
July 5, 1993
(LP/CS/CD on Drag City) -
-
The Doctor Came at Dawn
September 10, 1996
(LP/CD on Drag City) -
Red Apple Falls
May 20, 1997
(LP/CD on Drag City) -
Knock Knock
January 12, 1999
(LP/CD on Drag City) -
Dongs of Sevotion
April 4, 2000
(2xLP/CD on Drag City) -
Rain on Lens
September 18, 2001
(LP/CD on Drag City)
released as (Smog) -
-
A River Ain't Too Much to Love
May 31, 2005
(LP/CD on Drag City)
Compilations
-
Accumulation: None
November 5, 2002
(LP/CD on Drag City)
released as (Smog)
EPs
-
Burning Kingdom
September 19, 1994
(12"/CS/CD on Drag City) -
Kicking a Couple Around
April 29, 1996
(12"/CD on Drag City) -
-
'Neath the Puke Tree
December 11, 2000
(12"/CD on Drag City)
Singles
| Title | Format | Label | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Shell / Astronaut | 7" (split with Suckdog) | #1 Hits! | 1991 |
| A Hit | 7" | Drag City | 1994 |
| Came Blue / Spanish Moss | 7" | Hausmusik | 1997 |
| Ex-Con | 7"/CD | Domino | 1998 |
| Held | 7"/CD | Drag City / Domino | 1998 |
| Look Now | 7"/CD | Drag City | 1999 |
| Cold Blooded Old Times | 7"/CD | Domino | 1999 |
| Strayed | 7" | Drag City | 2000 |
| Rock Bottom Riser | CD | Drag City | 2006 |
Sources and external links
As a collaboration project the two German labels Schinderwies Productions and keplar released a split single subtitled "a tribute to smog" in 2003. Tripophon(schinderwies) and Radio Magenta (keplar) contributed their versions of "I Was a Stranger" and "Ex-Con" from the "Red Apple Falls"-album.