Anybody out there remember AP (Alternative Press) magazine?  I think it’s still around.  Nowadays it’s all about like, emo pop punk bands and stuff; lots of skinny Midwest bros with hair products.  But!  Back in the 90s, AP – along with Magnet – was the indie rock bible-magazine.  It ruled.

Every month I’d buy their album of the week or whatever.

Back sometime in 1993, their big pick was “Julius Caesar,” by Smog.  I bought it.  It was amazing.

Now remember, we’re talking a pre-Internet era, so you had no MP3 samples or whatever.  You just took the plunge.

Also, due to the Internet-less-ness of the times, it was still possible to voluntarily maintain some sort of mystique as an artist.  And boy, did Smog have a mystique.  I knew his real name was Bill Callahan, and I knew he recorded the disc alone, on a 4-track, in his room (in Chicago?)

That was it.

The rest of what I knew was shaped by the album itself; specifically this: Bill Callahan is a twisted, dark, brilliant dude.

The record is like peeling back the lid of some terrifying id (Bill’s.)  The songs are about vengeance (“Your Wedding,” key lyric – “I’m gonna be drunk/ So drunk/ At your wedding), the occasional Dadaist silliness (“I am Star Wars!” – he samples the Rolling Stones!) and what can only be described as psychotic terror (“Stalled on the Tracks;” key lyric, “Stalled on the tracks/ A turtle on it’s back…”)

Dude was messed up.

Throw in the eerie, analog-rich, home-recording techniques (not unlike Neutral Milk Hotel records) and you have an instant early 90′s Drag City cassette classic!

That was a long time ago.

Since then Bill has (kinda) re-invented himself, less as a bug-eyed loner possessed by tortured spirits, and more as a dry, still-slightly-rough-around-the-edges crooner.  He’s one smooth operator!  It must be the baritone that drives the ladies wild.

My friend John saw him five years ago in Virigina, and he compared him to Leonard Cohen.

Anyway, Bill Callahan – billed as, yes, Bill Callahan – is playing the Henry Miller Library on June 19th!  Ticket info on the Henry Miller Library website.

I wonder if anyone is still reading this?