Smog

A pioneer of the lo-fi revolution, Smog was the alias of singer/songwriter Bill Callahan, whose distinctively fractured music epitomized the tenets of the home-recording boom. Melancholy, poignant, and wryly humorous, Callahan's output peeked into an insular world of alienation and inner turmoil, his painfully intimate songs rifled through a scrapbook of childhood recollections, failed relationships, bizarre fetishes, and dashed hopes. Smog's early releases, such as 1991's Forgotten Foundation and 1993's Julius Caesar, set Callahan's confessions in sonics that were equally raw, but his music gradually grew more polished and more inspired by country and folk traditions, as on 1997's Red Apple Falls. By the time he released Smog's final album, 2005's A River Ain't Too Much to Love, Callahan was poised to begin his career under his own name as one of indie's most acclaimed songwriters.