REVIEW: Smog, Dongs of Sevotion (Drag City)
- Andrew Duncan
Coming from a peculiar man, Bill Callahan - better known to most as Smog - has picked a strange name for an album title or is it the other way around?
Dongs Of Sevotion is simply Smog as we know it - no new gimmicks and no tricks up his sleeve, just a solid selection of songs that range from quirky four-on-the-floor '70s references to '90s alt-country and obscure R&B.
Callahan's talent comes from his voice and the words he writes, blending dark humor and sincere humanity within the same sentence. The opener "Justice Aversion" takes a stab at the justice system and society as a guitar squeals in the background, sounding like something that came out of a Miami Vice episode.
Callahan subtly transforms into "Dress Sexy At My Funeral," a sleepy-eyed country tune that is almost strange to admit, a catchy song to say the least. His use of twisted perverseness makes for one of the more creative songs in the music industry. Singing in a deadpan Lou-Reed imitation, the words revolve around the concept of Callahan laying in his casket and pondering about all of the places him and his wife did "it" - a concept that compares to Nick Cave's imagery if Cave was more fascinated with sex rather than murder.
The darkness continues as Callahan travels down "The Hard Road," passing by uniquely creative songs like the sober piano-and-acoustic renderings of "Easily Led" and "Devotion" - picture a younger Tom Waits with a smoother voice who has been browsing through his Leonard Cohen collection. The final destination is "Permanent Smile," revisiting the concept of death. He sings, "And when your shadow covers me from head to toe / And curonevrae flies tell me it's my time to go - and then I will have earned my permanent smile."
With songs of such a deep and morbid subject matter, Callahan may inadvertently teach us more about life through the simplicity of his music.
