The Holy Grail Bill Callahan'S "Smog" Dec.10, 2001 Peel Session

Description

December 2001, Maida Vale, London: Bill Callahan's Smog project performed with demonstrative zeal for the BBC's Peel Session, shimmering and hissing with a Lynchian vibe of American darkness in the unwavering shadow of the towers that had fallen a few months earlier. Callahan and his band (Jessica Billey, Mike Saenz, and Jim White) covered Stevie Nicks, Lou Reed, and Smog with grim, ashen determination and tour-honed flexibility, amassing a bruised and plaintive essence of humanity with their efforts. Having the BBC engineers at the controls, with their own aesthetic rather than the one Smog brought to the studio, makes it all the more concrete. It is therefore more of a performance than a classic recording, as the audience (engineer and producer) was foreign to them.