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View Full Version : was chan in an old smog video?

pm77
04-03-2006, 04:14 PM
I may be completely wide of the mark but long before I got into Cat Power I was a big fan of Smog (and still am). I remember seeing a black and white video for the song "I Break Horses" which if I remember correctly featured a few fleeting shots of a striking dark haired woman. Having recently read an article about Chan living with Bill Calahan around the time she wrote Moonpix, I started to wonder if it was her, I've looked around on the web for the video but can't find it anywhere - it most likely wasn't her and I know it doesn't matter but it's just been bugging me and I thought someone on this board may have seen it - thanks for any info!
Moon Pix
04-03-2006, 06:30 PM
Ive never seen the video but I doubt it was her. How long was the woman's hair in the video? This is a surefire way to tell if it was Chan. "I Break Horses" came out on the Kicking A Couple Around EP in '96 (maybe '97 for the video). Chan had met him then and still had short hair back then (see the "Nude As the News" video). If the woman's hair was short like Chan's was in the "Nude As the News" video it may have been her.

Too much hair talk I know but I think its the easiest way to put a date on pictures of Chan.:)
pm77
04-05-2006, 04:35 PM
Good point, you'd make a great private detective - can't be sure as it's so long ago, but in my head the girl in the video had shoulder length hair, so that would rule her out then, cheers for that!
Keith
04-10-2006, 11:35 AM
See i knew you could relay on MoonPix for some kind of useful information she knows everything! I don't know the aswer, i really Smog however and love Cat Power's Red Apples cover it's a highlight on the covers record for me.
Moon Pix
04-10-2006, 01:27 PM
See i knew you could relay on MoonPix for some kind of useful information she knows everything!

He actually, he knows everything. I wouldnt say everything though.:)
pm77
04-10-2006, 05:48 PM
See i knew you could relay on MoonPix for some kind of useful information she knows everything! I don't know the aswer, i really Smog however and love Cat Power's Red Apples cover it's a highlight on the covers record for me.


Funny, that's how I got into her music, I bought the Covers Album after hearing her version of Red Apples and have since become obsessed with her incredible voice.
Moon Pix
06-19-2006, 06:53 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g_I_yf2mS0&search=smog

Well it certainly isnt Chan as we deducted via hair.:)

Cool song. Its the first time Ive heard it. Its hard to not like Bill's music.
pm77
06-19-2006, 07:11 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g_I_yf2mS0&search=smog

Well it certainly isnt Chan as we deducted via hair.:)

Cool song. Its the first time Ive heard it. Its hard to not like Bill's music.


Wow, that's great that you tracked it down, have been looking for this on and off for a couple of years, brilliant, you were dead right about the hair not matching with Chan at the time she doesn't really look anything like her, well done - it's certainly one of my favourite smog songs but he doesn't seem to play it live anymore, seen him 3 times and he's never played it...pity.

Cheers for that, made my day
Moon Pix
06-19-2006, 07:14 PM
Wow, that's great that you tracked it down, have been looking for this on and off for a couple of years, brilliant, you were dead right about the hair, well done - it's certainly one of my favourite smog songs but he doesn't seem to play it live anymore, seen him 3 times and he's never played it...pity.

Cheers for that, made my day

No problem... I love Chan and I like Bill's music too. I just like the fact that their work is so singular, like not influenced by anything. Its just them and what they want to do and thats all you can say. It reminds me of Peter Jefferies in that way, it has something of folk and blues in it but its not of that, they're doing something else.:)

I just wish that more of the underground folk/roots revival stuff was as radical and independent minded.
olives
06-20-2006, 09:14 PM
Didnt they go out together for a while years ago, i heard that chan is on the cover of one of his albums drowning or something but i have never seen evidence of this
Moon Pix
06-21-2006, 01:16 AM
Didnt they go out together for a while years ago, i heard that chan is on the cover of one of his albums drowning or something but i have never seen evidence of this

They did go out. I believe Chan wrote to him after Julius Caesar came out and they started going out around then. They even lived together in Prosperity, South Carolina for a while untill Chan went to Melbourne to record Moon Pix. Ive never read anything about the drowning photo but I would say that I feel some of the songs on Knock Knock ("Left Only With Love", "Hit the Ground Runnin') are about their relationship.
soot
06-21-2006, 01:26 AM
Well.....Knock Knock's cover features a picture of Cat and lightning.....hmmmm

http://tisue.net/orourke/covers/knock.jpg
Moon Pix
06-21-2006, 01:36 AM
Well.....Knock Knock's cover features a picture of Cat and lightning.....hmmmm

http://tisue.net/orourke/covers/knock.jpg

Its a great album and yes... Ive always thought that cat on the cover has something to do with Chan.

It was the first record by him that came out after they split up.