''Weird Tales'' is American band

Golden Smog Golden Smog is an alternative country-rock supergroup of loosely connected musicians mostly from the Minneapolis area. At various times, members of Soul Asylum, The Replacements, Wilco, The Jayhawks, Run Westy Run, The Honeydogs and Big Star h ...

's second album, released in 1998. The title comes from the

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, prin ...

''; the cover art, by

Margaret Brundage Margaret Brundage, born Margaret Hedda Johnson (December 9, 1900April 9, 1976), was an American illustrator and painter who is remembered chiefly for having illustrated the pulp magazine ''Weird Tales''. Working in pastels on illustration bo ...

, is from the October 1933 issue.

Reception

Writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, music critic Michael Gallucci wrote of the album "...as expected, the best songwriters here (Gary Louris of the Jayhawks and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy) contribute Weird Tales' most solid tracks. A pet project aimed more toward fans of the genre than the casual listener, Golden Smog nonetheless deliver the goods with a good deal of twangy heart and soul." Joshua Klein of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' wrote the album "reveals that even a musical goof-off can develop into a potent band in its own right." and called it "a first-rate collaboration that's unified in both vision and spirit." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' called the group's sound "melodic, economical -- if not especially ambitious -- country-rock."

Track listing

# "To Call My Own" ( Dan Murphy) – 3:31 # "Looking Forward to Seeing You" (Kraig Johnson) – 2:47 # "Until You Came Along" (

Gary Louris Gary Louris (born March 10, 1955) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter of alternative country and pop music. He was a founding member of the Minneapolis-based band the Jayhawks and their principal songwriter and vocalist after the ...

) – 4:59 # "Lost Love" (

Jeff Tweedy Jeffrey Scot Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in high s ...

) – 3:00 # "If I Only Had a Car" (Johnson, Louris) – 4:03 # "Jane" (Louris, Marc Perlman) – 4:29 # "Keys" (Johnson, Louris) – 3:28 # "I Can't Keep From Talking" (Tweedy) – 3:50 # "Reflections on Me" (Murphy) – 2:53 # "Making Waves" (Johnson) – 4:01 # "White Shell Road" (Louris) – 4:14 # "Please Tell My Brother" (Tweedy) – 2:10 # "Fear of Falling" (

Jody Stephens Jody Stephens (born October 4, 1952) is an American drummer, who has played in Big Star (with Alex Chilton of the Box Tops) and Golden Smog (with members of the Jayhawks and Wilco). After the deaths of Chris Bell in 1978, and both Alex Chilton ...

, Louris, Tweedy) – 3:31 # "All the Same to Me" (Sparks, Tweedy) – 3:05 # "Jennifer Save Me" (Louris, Johnson) – 4:47

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

– vocals, guitar, organ,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

, background vocals * Dan Murphy – vocals, guitar,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, background vocals, Mellotron,

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

*Kraig Johnson – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, piano, background vocals *Marc Perlman – guitar, bass guitar, background vocals *

– drums, percussion, bells *

Jim Dickinson James Luther Dickinson (November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009) was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Biography Dickinson was born in Lit ...

– Wurlitzer *Jessy Greene –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, background vocals *Jim Boquist – background vocals *Jason Orris – background vocals *Bryan Hanna –

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

, background vocals *

Brian Paulson Brian Paulson is an American musician, record producer and audio engineer from Minnesota, best known for recording albums by Slint, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Superchunk and Wilco. Paulson grew up in Bemidji, Minnesota, but moved about 200 miles so ...

–

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

Production notes *Brian Paulson – producer *Jason Orris – engineer *Bryan Hanna – engineer *Pete Matthews – engineer, assistant engineer *Jim Scott – mixing *Mike Scotella – mixing assistant *Steve Marcusson – mastering

Chart positions

References

{{Authority control 1998 albums Golden Smog albums Albums produced by Brian Paulson Rykodisc albums