Sewn to the Sky
Sewn to the Sky | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1990 (LP on Disaster Records) November 17, 1995 (CD on Drag City) January 30, 1996 (LP on Drag City) 2001 (CD on Drag City) | |||
Genre | Experimental music | |||
Length | 37:58 | |||
Label | Disaster Records, Drag City[1] | |||
Smog chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [3] |
Pitchfork | 8.0/10[4] |
(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide | [5] |
Sewn to the Sky is an album by Smog, released in 1990 by Disaster Records.[6] Most sources consider it to be Smog's first album, made after the release of several cassette-only recordings.[7] It was re-released by Drag City in 1995.[8] The experimental album combined home recording, substandard instruments and repetitive and noisy songwriting structures, and was an early example of the lo-fi genre.
The track "A Jar of Sand" was re-recorded for the 'Neath the Puke Tree EP in 2000.
Production
[edit]The album was recorded in Georgia and Maryland.[9] The liner notes say that it was recorded on a "dumpster Portastudio". Spin wrote that the recording "found [Callahan] relishing the process, with little regard for form or the guitar he was still learning to really play".[10]
Critical reception
[edit]Trouser Press wrote, "Suffused with the vague gray atmospherics suggested by the band’s name, Sewn to the Sky is primitive and promising."[1] The New Yorker wrote that the album is a "discordant, inscrutable, and periodically frustrating collection of mostly instrumental, low-fidelity noise, and contains few hints of the lucid and tender folk music that he would be making almost thirty years later".[11]
Track listing
[edit]Side one
[edit]- "Souped Up II"
- "Kings Tongue"
- "Garb"
- "Hollow Out Cakes"
- "Confederate Bills and Pinball Slugs"
- "Coconut Cataract"
- "Fruit Bats"
- "Peach Pit"
- "Disgust"
- "Russian Winter"
Side two
[edit]- "Polio Shimmy"
- "Smog"
- "Lost My Key"
- "Fried Piper"
- "Fables"
- "Puritan Work Ethic"
- "A Jar of Sand"
- "I Want to Tell You About a Man"
- "Olive Drab Spectre"
- "The Weightlifter"
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Smog". Trouser Press. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ Sewn to the Sky at AllMusic
- ^ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 7. MUZE. p. 571.
- ^ LeMay, Matt (April 1, 2001). "Smog - Sewn to the Sky". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2006-08-14.
- ^ (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. 2004. p. 754.
- ^ "Smog | Biography & History". AllMusic.
- Hughes, Rob (July 8, 2019). "Bill Callahan". Record Collector. - ^ Mejía, Paula (January 2020). "For Singer Bill Callahan, Home Is Where the Art Is". Texas Monthly.
- Buckley, Peter (January 17, 2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. ISBN 9781843531050 – via Google Books. - ^ "Smog - Sewn To The Sky". Drag City.
- ^ "Bill Callahan – Album By Album". Uncut. March 8, 2013.
- ^ Bevan, David (September 17, 2013). "Bill Callahan Rolls on Like a River". Spin.
- ^ Petrusich, Amanda (June 10, 2019). "Bill Callahan Makes Good Use of Quiet". The New Yorker.