Pitchfork

Those of you living in New York City are probably all too familiar with the Cow Parade, the insipid cavalcade of decorative fiberglass bovines that now decorates the streets of the city. Much has been said degrading these motionless beasts, but in all honesty, I rather like the cows. Sure, they're ugly. Sure, the majority of them amount simply to cow-related corporate plugs. Shit, I can even get over the fact that the entire Cow Parade concept was snatched from Chicago, who originally stole it from Stockholm. But I like the cows because they make tourists look stupid.

Of course, I'm looking at this from the point of view of a stuck-up native New Yorker. Yes, I realize that people who don't live here want to enjoy all that the city has to offer. But when it's Monday morning and I'm on my way to work, few things are more irritating than some asshole from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in an I Love New York t-shirt stopping directly in front of me and pointing in amazement at some completely uninteresting structure as if to say, "Look! A moderately tall building! I've never seen one of those before! I must stand here directly in the middle of the street, taking many, many pictures!" But though tourists look foolish having their pictures taken in front of even legitimate New York landmarks, nothing is less dignified than having your picture taken in front of a painted fiberglass cow.

Just as fiberglass cows make tourists look stupid, "Cow", the 30-minute long b-side to Smog's Strayed single makes Drag City Records look stupid. When you started reading this, you probably thought we were stupid for running a review of a single from a record that we already covered several months ago. And believe me, I damn near passed up Strayed when I saw it for sale at my local indie record store. But upon examination of the disc, I was quite surprised to find-- denoted in small print on the back of the jewel case-- that the sought-after instrumental tape, "Cow", originally self-released in 1989, was featured as an extended b-side. So why didn't Drag City just issue "Cow", an eight-track instrumental noise epic, separately from Strayed? Who knows? Maybe after selling so many copies of Neil Hamburger's Left for Dead in Malaysia, they needed to stop making money for a while for tax purposes.

Unfortunate business decisions aside, "Cow" is a thoroughly interesting listen. It can best be described as a guitar-centered romp through atonal improvisation. Sound textures range from brain-melting, low-frequency feedback to trashy plucked guitar strings. Over the course of its 30 minutes, "Cow" finds Bill Callahan extracting nearly every sound possible from his guitar. And while other sounds, such as sparse percussion, are occasionally added to the mix, "Cow" remains an entirely organic-sounding piece, unadulterated by cheesy synthesized instrumentation. For such a generally low-key recording, there's an inherent enthusiasm present here-- when Bill Callahan milks a great riff or feedback blast from his guitar, he exploits it for all its worth, applying slight variations in tone, texture, and timing, but maintaining the sound's general framework.

I find it kind of amazing that "Cow" was released back in 1989. Two years before Spiderland, Bill Callahan was hinting at the complex guitar textures and drones that would become such an integral part of the post-rock scene. The touches of avant-garde experimentalism found on Smog's recent LPs have often been attributed to producers Jim O'Rourke and John McEntire. "Cow" makes it clear that Callahan himself is capable of piling on the experimentalism without the aid of a producer.