DAILY NEWS PICKS

We Still Wish He’d Made “G Train” Instead: Sufjan Stevens to Release “BQE” Multimedia Set [Pitchfork]

Legendary “Nasty Gal” Betty Davis to Rerelease Two Albums. Funk Yeah! [The Tripwire]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Replace Beastie Boys at Lollapalooza, No No No Word on Replacement for All Points West [Stereogum]

Yo La Tengo, Bill Callahan, Jay Reatard and More Contribute to Chris Knox Covers Compilation [Pitchfork]

Watch Our New Favorite Joy Division Cover: Steel Drum Band Plays “Transmission” [The Tripwire]

And For A Couple of Not-So-Good Covers: Ian Brown Covers Michael Jackson, Releases Jackson-Inspired Album [Prefix]

Jimi Hendrix’s Doctor Says It’s Plausible That He Was Murdered [NME]

Mmmm…Casper & The Cookies On Tour and in Town Tonight! [Brooklyn Vegan]

New Jarvis Cocker! (Gives Ya Enough Time To Learn The Words And Sing Along At MHOW Next Week) [Stereogum]

Check Out Tour Dates, Download Demos From Raveonettes [SPIN]

compiled by Erin Sheehy

Weekly Review
To be frank, I am less concerned at the moment with what happened in music this past week, across the land, than what is happening today (right now actually!), right here in Brooklyn. The Northside Festival goes out with a kick-drum-boom bang today with a whole bunch of awesome shows – including, my pick, a daytime fiesta at Studio B with Phil and the Osophers, Laura Gibson, and The Dodos, which will then transform into darktime fiesta with more evening-centric bands Cool Dads, Thank You, Ponytail, and Crystal Stilts. There’s an afternoon show going on at Bruar Falls with Browns, Air Waves, and The Sundelles, which should also be pretty great and a slew of other evening bills that are going to be difficult to choose between (though for many, the Callahan choice – playing at 10:40pm at Music Hall of Williamsburg – will be clear). Anyway, I’m late (or right on time given the requisite 20-minute-late start time for these shows), so gotta get going. And so do you.

by Elana Jacobs

HIDDEN GEM
Smog
Rain on Lens
2001 | Drag City

Smog, aka (Smog), aka lo-fi wizard Bill Callahan, came into my periphery in early 2000. His album Dongs of Sevotion, and particularly the song “Dress Sexy At My Funeral,” sounded a little too much like The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs to really grab my interest. Certainly, my musical headspace didn’t have room for another deadpan, impossibly deep, baritone, indie songwriter, with an acerbic wit and a gigantic back catalog. And so I pored deeper and deeper over those Magnetic Fields records, never pausing to give Smog another shot.

But perseverance is key, man, and Callahan has released not-quite an album a year since Dongs of Sevotion. It was only a matter of time until enough people talked about Callahan, and I gave one of his records another shot. This time, it was A River Ain’t Too Much To Love, the 2005 Smog swansong (since 2007, Bill Callahan has released records under his own name) that sounds strangely like a latter-day Willie Nelson record. I’m a firm believer that, if an artist can make one good record, he’s probably made more than one good record (even Weezer made two good records, you know), so I started snapping up the Smog back catalog. Rain on Lens, the 2001 follow-up to Dongs of Sevotion, was acquired in that fit of snapping-up.
More on Smog | Rain On Lens