Kicking a Couple Around explained

Kicking a Couple Around
Type:ep
Artist:Smog
Cover:Smog-kickingacouplearound.jpg
Released:April 29, 1996
Recorded:1994–1996
Genre:Lo-fi
Length:19:46
Label:Drag City (U.S.)
Domino (France, Germany, UK)
Producer:Mike Engles, Steve Albini
Prev Title:Wild Love
Prev Year:1995
Next Title:The Doctor Came at Dawn
Next Year:1996

Kicking a Couple Around is an EP by Bill Callahan (also known as Smog).[1] [2] [3] It was released on Drag City in April 1996 and re-released in Europe on Domino in 2001. "Your New Friend" was recorded during a 1995 John Peel radio session. "Back in School," "I Break Horses," and "The Orange Glow of a Stranger's Living Room" were recorded by Steve Albini.[1]

In an interview, Callahan said that "I Break Horses" was written "to help a friend try to understand how a guy she had a one-night stand with could possibly not return her phone calls the next day or ever again."[4]

Critical reception

Trouser Press praised “The Orange Glow of a Stranger’s Living Room,” writing that it "lets some lovely picking and piano pierce the warm gloom of [Smog's] abiding displacement."[1] The Washington Post called the EP "four delicate, downbeat songs that have a trad-country mournfulness."[5]

Track listing

  1. "Your New Friend" – 6:51
  2. "Back in School" – 4:40
  3. "I Break Horses" – 4:44
  4. "The Orange Glow of a Stranger's Living Room" – 3:26

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Smog . Trouser Press . 21 July 2020.
  2. Web site: The quiet Americans. April 19, 1996. The Independent.
  3. Book: Buckley, Peter. The Rough Guide to Rock. July 21, 2003. Rough Guides. 9781843531050. Google Books.
  4. Web site: Interviews: Bill Callahan . Pitchfork . 2 July 2007. 26 February 2012.
  5. Web site: PALACE'S BEAUTY. Mark. Jenkins. May 17, 1996. www.washingtonpost.com.