Smog

A pioneer of the lo-fi revolution, Smog was the alias of singer/songwriter Bill Callahan, whose distinctively fractured music epitomized the tenets of the home-recording boom. Melancholy, poignant, and wryly humorous, Callahan’s output peeked into an insular world of alienation and inner turmoil, his painfully intimate songs rifled through a scrapbook of childhood recollections, failed relationships, bizarre fetishes, and dashed hopes. Smog’s early releases, such as 1991′s Forgotten Foundation and 1993′s Julius Caesar, set Callahan’s confessions in sonics that were equally raw, but his music gradually grew more polished and more inspired by country and folk traditions, as on 1997′s Red Apple Falls. By the time he released Smog’s final album, 2005′s A River Ain't Too Much to Love, Callahan was poised to begin his career under his own name as one of indie’s most acclaimed songwriters. Born in Maryland to parents who worked as language analysts for the National Security Agency, Callahan spent his childhood living in his birthplace and the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. By the late ’80s, he was making music as Smog, debuting in 1988 with the spare, primitive Macrame Gunplay, a cassette-only release issued on Callahan’s own Disaster label. After signing to Drag City in 1991, Callahan added more melody to his music while remaining true to Smog’s trademark bare-bones atmosphere on albums including 1991′s Forgotten Foundation, 1993′s Julius Caesar, and 1995′s Wild Love. Two years later, he took another leap forward with 1997′s Red Apple Falls, which added folk and country influences that complemented his increasingly thoughtful songwriting. Callahan’s music became more meditative on 2000′s Dongs of Sevotion and the following year’s hypnotic Rain on Lens, for which he changed his project’s name to (Smog). His final album under that name, the literary, laid-back A River Ain't Too Much to Love, appeared in 2005. In 2007, Callahan began releasing his music and other projects under his own name. That year’s Diamond Dancer EP and full-length Woke on a Whaleheart mixed the reflective, largely acoustic sound of later Smog albums with gospel, soul, and pop elements, and boasted arrangements by Royal Trux’s Neil Hagerty. Other highlights of his solo career included 2011′s Apocalypse, a more uptempo collection seven country- and blues-inspired rock tunes that recalled some of his edgier work with Smog; 2014′s Dream River, an album of gentle songs to listen to at the end of the day; 2019′s flowing, confessional Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest; and 2022′s YTILAER, an album about reconnecting with day-to-day emotions and relationships in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Late in 2024, Callahan returned to the Smog archives with the four-song EP The Holy Grail: Bill Callahan’s “Smog” Dec. 10, 2001 Peel Session documented a Rain on Lens-era session at the Maida Vale studio. ~ Heather Phares & Jason Ankeny