Stay Golden, Smog: The Best of Golden Smog-The Rykodisc Years

"...it's that rarest of rock & roll entities: the super group deserving of the prefix by merit of the goods and not the ingredients."
- Rolling Stone, 1998

"The Smog always reminded us that we were kids making music...it was a way to rediscover what music was about."
- Golden Smog and Jayhawks principal Gary Louris (from the compilation's liner notes)

In the late 1980s, Minneapolis was home to a tightly-knit and influential music renaissance whose artists loomed large on the college and alternative radio playlists of the day. Golden Smog evolved as a loosely spun creative outlet for members of several of the scene's most popular bands to jam with friends and shake off career frustrations in between tours and recording projects. The indie rock "super-group's" core DNA was formed by singer Kraig Johnson (Run Westy Run) and guitarists Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum), Gary Louris (the Jayhawks) and Marc Perlman (the Jayhawks) - it went on to encompass a rotating cast of stellar players including Uncle Tupelo/Wilco singer/guitarist Jeff Tweedy and drummers Noah Levy (Honeydogs) and Jody Stephens (Big Star). The Smog recorded an EP and two albums for Rykodisc in the '90s; sixteen tracks from the pair of full-lengths comprise the bulk of Rhino's 'Stay Golden, Smog', the first-ever compilation of their work - two previously unreleased bonus rarities are also included.

The group's greatest strength was always its collective songwriting prowess, which they made come alive onstage and on record with thrilling garage band bravado, spirited twang and unfiltered, soulful delivery. The Smog shines throughout 'Stay Golden, Smog', which culls eight gems from the band's 1996 debut album Down By The Old Mainstream including a trio of great collaborations: "V" (Johnson/Louris), "Radio King" (Louris/Tweedy) and "Red Headed Stepchild" (Murphy/Perlman). Also featured are standout solo efforts including Johnson's "He's A Dick" and Tweedy's "Pecan Pie." Riffing off the latter, Rolling Stone wrote of the LP, "what makes Down By The Old Mainstream sweeter than pecan pie is the inviting sound of people having fun."

Weird Tales ('98) is also represented by eight tracks, including contributions by Murphy ("To Call My Own"), Johnson ("Looking Forward To Seeing You"), Louris ("Until You Came Along") and Tweedy ("Please Tell My Brother"). The collection ends with a previously unissued early version of the Weird Tales favorite "Until You Came Along" and an unreleased cover of Brian Wilson's "Love And Mercy," a song that originally appeared as the opening track of Wilson's 1988 solo debut album.

'Stay Golden, Smog' also features liner notes by Norman Sherwood Forest-Drive (a.k.a. David Meyer), author of the acclaimed 2007 book Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad Of Gram Parsons And His Cosmic American Music (Villard), which Rolling Stone called, "The definitive account of Gram Parsons' life - and early death."