Drag City, 2003
Acquired: Love Garden, New, 2005
Price: $12
I'm pretty sure I bought this one new. It seems like a record I would have bought after getting into Smog around freshman or sophomore year of college. I distinctly remember (with great fondness) the iTunes network at Hashinger Hall, linked together with a program called mytunes redux. It was wonderful. All the art kids, the drama geeks, the film nerds, and the music majors (who ironically had the most mainstream stuff) linked together and sharing music. It was a glorious time, and it did wonders for expanding my horizons. At the end of the year, my collection habits on mytunes and my recent foray into Bittorrenting earned me the award of “Best Itunes Library.” People would come up in the hall and thank me, much like I would thank people like Wake M. and Taylor F, or if I didn't I fondly remember their iTunes libraries being spectacular. ANYWAY, the point is almost everyone had Smog's Rain on Lens and that was the first I'd ever heard of him. This led to my finding the rest (or the best) of his discography on bittorrent or asking friends in the dorm (seriously, this dorm was the best place I have ever lived in my entire life). Someone down the hall let me rip their copy of Red Apple Falls, someone else leant me Dongs of Sevotion, and I'd got Knock Knock based on “Cold Blooded Old Times” being used in High Fidelity. Supper I got because I liked the title, and it quickly became a favorite. Opener “Feather by Feather” is an absolute knock-out, full of some of Bill Callahan's best lines. “When they make the movie of your life/ They're going to have to ask you to do your own stunts/ Because nobody nobody nobody could pull off the same shit as you/ And still come out alright.” Perfect. A mantra recited to myself in memory of ex-girlfriends. Honestly, the only miss on this record is the overlong “Truth Serum.” The rest of it is Callahan proving that he becomes a better songwriter with every record in addition to refining his sound. One of the most exciting aspects of going through Bill Callahan's discography is noticing the change. The working out of ideas, the discovery of a style all his own. A style to be ripped of for generations.
Again, from Emos:
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