Gary Louris has qualified his recent ramblings about the possible end of the Jayhawks. He warned on jayhawksfanpage.com, "articles can be misleading and a musician has the right to waver." While we are left wondering what it all means, there is an interesting development everyone else seems to be missing. The latest incarnation of Golden Smog, including Louris and Mark Perlman of the Jayhawks, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, and Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum, will head to Spain next month to record an album.

Golden Smog has operated with a mercurial line-up since its inception in the late 1980's, but generally draws from members of Soul Asylum, the Replacements, Wilco, the Jayhawks, and the Honeydogs. They began as a side project in Minnesota covering the Eagles and the Rolling Stones. In 1996, with the release of Down by the Old Mainstream, they started putting out original material. They record out of the country and under pseudonyms to avoid lawsuits from their labels for violations of the artist agreements of their respective bands.