(Lost Highway)

Hardly the most prolific act, this EP marks only the fifth release in Golden Smog’s “career,” which spans more than 15 years. Golden Smog is hardly a career, really, because these guys have been busy holding down killer day jobs. Gary Louris and Marc Perlman (Jayhawks), Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) and Kraig Johnson (Run Westy Run) have all had other stuff to do. These guys don’t really need Golden Smog. (You gotta figure that Gary Louris’ time is better spent these days cashing fat checks writing for the Dixie Chicks…) And speaking of not needing, Golden Smog doesn’t need Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who is absent from the lineup here for the first time since 1995’s Down by the Old Mainstream. Blood on the Slacks comes within a year of the Smog’s genial Another Fine Day and marks a sort of return to the roots, as this band started in Minneapolis as a sort of ad hoc, all-star cover band. They’ve always picked their covers well and this EP is no exception, offering a lilting psych baroque redo of Bowie’s “Starman” and a faithful blowup of Dinosaur Jr’s “Tarpit.” The covers have consistently been a fun part of Golden Smog’s sideshow, but in a band with so many great songwriters, the real meat has always been in the originals. Here the Smog offers up the New-Order-meets-Beach-Boys gem “Can’t Even Tie Your Own Shoes” and gently austere “Without a Struggle.” Studio scribblings and just-for-fun takes—like the junkyard blooze of “Insecure” and slipshod exotica of “Magician”—even prove well done in the hands of the Smogsters.