Smog

Smog was the musical project of Bill Callahan, who started recording under that name in the early 1990s. His songs like 'Held' and 'I'm New Here' had a quiet, deliberate quality, with lyrics that felt more like observations than confessions. He worked with a sparse palette, acoustic guitar, minimal arrangements, sometimes a touch of tape hiss or electronic texture, that gave the music its particular weight.

Callahan released albums steadily through the '90s and 2000s, including 'Wild Love' in 1995 and 'A River Ain't Too Much to Love' a decade later. The writing stayed lean and unadorned, avoiding the grand gestures of much singer-songwriter fare. Even when the production grew slightly more polished on later records, the feeling remained one of careful restraint.

He eventually retired the Smog name around 2007 and began releasing music under his own name. The songs from that period, like '37 Push Up,' didn't represent a dramatic shift so much as a continuation of the same clear-eyed approach. There was no big breakup story or comeback narrative, just a gradual transition from one moniker to another.