Most bands, the good ones anyway, are formed between friends. The motivations to do so, especially in the case of young men, can be as simple as “It’ll be cool” and/or “It’ll make it easier to get girls.” Bands are also sanctuaries, places where those same young men, who often don’t quite fit in with their peers, find a place to escape day-to-day reality.
Five or more years into the life of a band, however, its defining characteristics can shift significantly. Refuge becomes isolation, a friendship becomes a business partnership, and the reality forged within a band can begin to supersede the daily existence the rest of the world is living. Perspective on why we started doing this in the first place is easily misplaced.
All of which may help to explain the appeal of side projects to established musicians. Dan Murphy, who has seen every rung on the ladder of success with Soul Asylum, some more than once, describes Golden Smog as pure. Born in the close-knit Minneapolis scene of the late-’80s, the Smog began as little more than a lark, an opportunity to goof off and play cover songs with friends, some in your other band, some not. While that still holds true on some level, Golden Smog has evolved over the years into much more: an outlet for songwriters like the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to record songs that didn’t “fit” their other bands; a place where musical collaboration was encouraged; and a company of peers that has supported each other through professional and personal hard times.
The Smog lineup for the band’s second album, Weird Tales (released Oct. 13 by Rykodisc), includes the founding core of Murphy, Louris, and Kraig Johnson (from Run Westy Run), plus Tweedy, the Jayhawks’ Marc Perlman, and new drummer Jody Stephens (of Big Star). The list of alumni, temps, and part-timers includes Chris Mars, Noah Levy, Dave Pirner, Tim O’Reagan, a Boquist or two, and surely several other Minneapolis musicians who stepped onstage at some point for at least one song.
Pinpointing exactly when the Golden Smog story begins is admittedly arbitrary, but Dan Murphy picks January 1987, when he, Dave Pirner, Martin Zellar, and future Son Volt bassist Jim Boquist put together an Eagles cover band. “We were called Take It To The Limit,” Murphy recalls. “It was at the height of hardcore…and we wore ponchos and had driftwood lamps [onstage] — just to kind of piss everybody off, you know? But it was fun and I thought we sounded really good.”
Gary Louris offers up a different perspective on the Smog’s origins. “I don’t know anybody else who was involved in that Eagles tribute who is involved in the Smog other than Dan,” Louris says. “But there was a band called Skid Mark, T-Square and Cue Stick, which was me, Dan and Dave. We warmed up for the Jayhawks as we unveiled our third drummer, Thad [Spencer], in 1987 up in Superior, Wisconsin. Before that, Dan and Dave were doing one-off acoustic gigs that included a lot of silly medleys, which spawned the idea of playing stuff that was quickly put together, tongue-in-cheek, for fun, and occasionally held a few gems.
“Later, we did some Rolling Stone tribute things, one called Exile On Lake Street, at the Uptown Bar, and His Satanic Majesties Paycheck, at the Cabooze. To me, that was the impetus of the Smog — doing a bunch of Stones covers. Next thing you know, we started doing different covers, and then there was a night when they needed a fill-in at the 400 Bar. That was the real Smog debut — it was Kraig, Danny and myself playing acoustically. We were called Golden Smog, and we had some guest stars.”
As for the origin of the name Golden Smog, Louris credits Murphy with that. “Dan knew some girl who said that if she ever had a band, she’d call it the Golden Smog. It comes from a Flintstones episode — the Golden Smog was like the Velvet Fog, Mel Torme.”
“The next gig was six months later,” says Kraig Johnson. “We got a bass player [Marc Perlman] and a drummer [Chris Mars, who had recently left the Replacements]. We would play twice a year when everybody was in town.”
Louris picks up the story from there: “It became a big party. Golden Smog was so much fun because we put so little work into it. It was all very fresh. Then somebody offered to record us, and we did the EP.” Released in 1992 on Crackpot Records, On Golden Smog featured covers of the Rolling Stones’ “Back Street Girl”, Bad Company’s “Shooting Star”, Three Dog Night’s “Easy To Be Hard”, Michelangelo’s “Son”, and Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy Song” (the last featuring Soul Asylum road manager Bill Sullivan on lead vocals). Mars drew the cover art. The EP also marked the first occurrence of the Golden Smog name game: In place of their real names, each member created a new moniker for the credits, inspired to do so by none other than Bon Jovi.
“I was at a hotel in Chandler, Arizona, with Soul Asylum,” Murphy explains, “and the hotel manager was like, ‘Hey, I had Bon Jovi in here last week. You know how they check into their rooms? You know what they use for their names? Their middle name and the street they grew up on.’ That’s where that came from.” Hence Dan Murphy became David Spear, Gary Louris became Michael Macklyn, Marc Perlman became Raymond Virginia, and so on.
Golden Smog gigged infrequently in 1992-93, a period during which Soul Asylum hit the big time with Grave Dancers Union and the Jayhawks released Hollywood Town Hall, their first album for what was then Def American. In December 1993, Perlman, Johnson, Louris, and Murphy were back in town for a Smog holiday show at the First Avenue. The set included one particularly prophetic cover choice: Uncle Tupelo’s “New Madrid.”
Some 550 miles south of Minneapolis lay the St. Louis stomping grounds of Uncle Tupelo, kindred souls to Twin Cities bands such as the Jayhawks. “They came to see us play sometimes,” says Louris, “so I got to know the band, and to know Jeff really well.” Louris was invited to play on Uncle Tupelo’s Still Feel Gone, recorded in Boston in the summer of 1991. (He contributed electric guitar to the tracks “Watch Me Fall”, “Postcard”, and “Cold Shoulder”.)
