the of mirror eye

* Bill Callahan: Diamond Dancer (6.0 mb) | Callahan_MP3_Part1 (74.5 mb) | Callahan_Flac_Part1 (229.5 mb)
From Live In Vienna : May 22nd, 2008 : Vienna, Austria

As with many of my currently favorite bands, it took awhile for me to warm up to Bill Callahan (aka Smog). I first heard about this band/fellow because The Flaming Lips covered his song, Chosen One. I thought the song was absolutely amazing and Wayne Coyne had a long intro about touring with the band. Unfortunately, when I listened to Julius Caesar, the album with that particular song, I didn’t really get it. The songs were poorly recorded (beyond “lo-fi” it seemed to me) and it just didn’t speak to me, or so I thought. Because apparently it did. A good number of years later, I chanced upon that very same album and decided to give it a second chance. And, obviously (or else we wouldn’t be here right now), I “got it”. The songs started making sense to me and I started listening to his albums. A lot.

With its dark undercurrents, brooding repetition, and sparse, intimate production, Bill Callahan’s music plunges a psychological subconscious at once brutal and sublime. Born in Silver Spring, Md., Callahan’s first homemade cassettes released in the late-Eighties under his longtime moniker Smog were saturated with dissonant Jandek-inspired noise experiments. (Austin Chronicle)

At any rate, even though the music remains pretty much the same, he’s decided to record/tour under his own name. So, what we have here is a pretty awesome performance in Vienna with the horse+donkey band. This is part 1, with the second part to follow shortly. Hope you enjoy!

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