I feel like I owe Smog (aka Bill Callahan) something just for hanging around long enough for me to grow into their music. When 1996's The Doctor Came At Dawn was released, I believe I was 10. AND A HUGE SMOG FAN. No, absolutely not, I was 10. But as recently as 2005 's A River Ain't Too Much Love, Smog has released new material. There are oh so many bands that I wish were still around (Throwing Muses - please tour). And this one is!(?) The Doctor Came At Dawn is still my personal favorite - Jay-Z has nothing on Bill's 4,000 problems on "Four Hearts In A Can." And on top of that, a bitch is each one. As you could guess the man is pretty brooding. He's also a wonderful wonderful songwriter, and doesn't shy away from simultaneous musical understatement and lyrical overstatement. Domino Records has posted some tracks from his latest album - tidbits here.

I feel like I should add that I "got into" music extraordinarily late. The prime reason was that in sixth grade I didn't want to ever disagree with my peers and didn't know whether I should like the Beastie Boys or shouldn't like the Beastie Boys. I didn't want to pick what wasn't cool by accident. It took the entirety of middle school to get over this fear and turn on the radio for myself.

I also wasn't afraid of aliens because I was completely convinced that I could talk them out of whatever they wanted to do to me/my civilization.