Jayhawks’ Gary Louris Clears Up the Golden Smog
If there’s such a thing as a Golden Smog purist,
that poor cad is probably wallowing in a microbrew in some dank
Minneapolis bar, bemoaning the loss of the good old days when the
Smog could be counted on for random acts of irrelevance and the
sloppiest covers this side of Dread Zeppelin.
Sure, each member had his regular “day job” in bands like
Soul Asylum, the Jayhawks, etc., but each left all
his lofty pretensions of serious songwriting at the door when he
adopted his Smog alter ego.
Alas, before long Smog stopped playing around town regularly and
started writing, recording and even touring as a genuine band of
sorts. But at least with 1995’s Down on the Old Mainstream
they had the cheek to use fun pseudonyms, a la the
Travelling Wilburys, and to throw in messy
pisstakes like “Red Headed Stepchild” and “He’s a Dick.”
But what is one to make of this new Golden Smog album, Weird
Tales? Damned if the songs are good enough for the Smoggers’
real bands — The Jayhawks (Gary Louris and
Marc Perlman), Soul Asylum (Dan Murphy),
Wilco (Jeff Tweedy), Big Star (Jody Stephens) and
Run Westy Run (Kraig Johnson). And double damn,
even the fake names — a concession to their different record
labels — are gone.
“We don’t do the Michael Macklyn stuff anymore,” explains Macklyn
… er, Louris in a phone call from the Twin Cities. “That’s in the
past. That’s no longer needed, and no longer cute.” Sigh. Have at
it then, Louris … tell us where it all went wrong and Golden Smog
started getting so damn good.
Back when y’all started gigging as Golden Smog, did you
have any idea that you’d end up recording albums of original
material?
Not at all. It was strictly a way for us to hang out, because it
was always more fun for us as musicians to just go out and play
than to sit around and watch. So here we were able to get paid, get
free drink tickets and hang out with our friends who were on stage
or in the audience. And it was just strictly as a goof at the
beginning, but you can only do that for so many times — after a
while you’ve either got to take it to the next level or not do it
anymore.
So when did the first incarnation come
together?
It’s hard to trace. I remember seeing Dave
[Pirner] and Dan [Murphy] from Soul Asylum playing
acoustic shows where they’d just do medleys of everything from the
“The Gambler” to “Amazing Grace.” Then Dan started doing things
like Eagles tribute nights, with ponchos and
buckets of fried chicken. Then we started doing Rolling
Stones tributes, and those things got really popular, and
that evolved into the Golden Smog.
With so many writers in the band, isn’t it a bit like too
many cooks in the kitchen?
No, surprisingly not. People somehow just shift roles, and the
spotlight shifts over to the respective songwriter and everyone
else steps back into the roles of sidemen. It just automatically
seems to do that, and I guess it’s because there’s just such a
mutual respect for everybody. There’s no room for bad feelings in
the Smog. That’s more for our own bands … no, I’m just kidding.
(chuckles)
Do you come together with songs finished, or do you write
specifically for the Smog?
It depends. “Until You Came Along” and “Jennifer Save Me” on this
album were both tried with the Jayhawks on the last record, but for
one reason or another they didn’t work. So I shelved them, and
later they worked with the Golden Smog. And vice versa — I’ve
taken songs to the Golden Smog that were strong but for some reason
just didn’t work. They just seem to find their own place.
Do you tend to pull your punches a bit — i.e., withholding
your best songs for the Jayhawks to get first crack
at?
I’ve held a few things back that I thought were important. I’m not
going to say that there aren’t priorities, and I think everybody in
the Golden Smog, if they feel like they have the gem of their crop,
they’re probably going to save it for their respective day jobs.
But people aren’t always the best judge of their material, so for
one reason or another, some of the best songs you write might end
up on a Golden Smog album, even though you think you’re saving your
best stuff. You never know.
With all the material that’s been written for the band now,
will there still be room for covers?
I don’t know. We haven’t played in awhile. We started this record
in January of ’97, did two weeks, and then it took a year for us to
schedule ourselves so we could all be together again. So we
finished it in January of ’98. I don’t even remember what they look
like, the other guys. I know that we will still do a lot of covers,
because it’s still a lot of fun for us, but there is a lot of new
material now that we’d like to play. But it’s an odd transition —
before it was like a fun party thing, and now we’re serious, so
trying to balance that on stage is kind of difficult, and it can
change the personality of the band depending on which night you
go.
So, would you be more likely to cover something really out
there like King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” or
Foreigner‘s “Hot Blooded”?
Uh, “Hot Blooded.” I think I’m probably the only art rock guy in
the band. And I’m a little older, actually — I never owned an
Aerosmith record until the early Nineties when we
started having to cover it. So I discovered a lot of crummy rock
from playing with the Smog, and learned to enjoy it.
Do you think you’ll ever revive the Eagles
tribute?
I wasn’t involved in that. I couldn’t even stomach that.
I’ve never liked the Eagles, not even in a funny way. Although …
it might be fun to play “Hotel California,” just to see the look on
our faces as we got to the big instrumental part. But no, that
hasn’t ever come up.
How open are the doors to Golden Smog? Say if an
Evan Dando came knocking …
(Laughs) It’s open, but there’s somewhat of a waiting list right
now. I can’t really tell you who, other than that some of the
people on the list are actually much bigger than the people in the
band. But I foresee a possibility that if this were to continue and
for some reason somebody couldn’t make it, there could possibly be
a fill-in for someone on a tour or a record. But right now I’m
really happy with who we have in the band. But who knows? Maybe
there will be an East Coast and a West Coast Smog.
So what’s your take on the supergroup concept? I take it
you were never an Asia fan …
Oh of course not, no. (Laughs) “Supergroup” conjures up to me
things from the Seventies. I guess the one that was maybe close to
being anything was maybe Blind Faith, but usually
you would think of it the way you might think of Golden Smog, but
you’d be wrong — that is, just a bunch of guys getting together
and playing probably without a lot of chemistry and without a lot
of focus. But for some reason with the Golden Smog — and I don’t
think it’s because I’m prejudice — although it may not hold
together as much as one singer singing an entire record, it still
offers something else that is equally as strong, and I don’t know
how to explain it. Somehow it works, and that’s the reason we do
it. Otherwise we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves or try to put out
something that’s mediocre.
Plus, we’re not exactly household names. I remember reading some
review in England, saying, ‘I got all this press, and who are these
guys with these fake names? I was just fascinated … and finally I
got the information, and I still didn’t recognize anybody’s name
except Dan Murphy from Soul Asylum.’ When you think of Wilco and
the Jayhawks and Run Westy Run and combine all the record sales,
it’s not exactly super as far as super-success. But I guess we’re
just a super bunch of guys. We’re a super good time.