Musicology

Anyone who's read my posts before knows I'm a big fan of Old Shoe, and anyone who has seen them knows why. I've been fortunate enough to document Shoe Fest since 2012 and I make sure to see them whenever I can, because it's always a great time.

So it's been a while since I wrote anything. I went on a Captain Beefheart listening spree and was working on something focused on him, but it ended up being a crazy amount of pages long and very meandering. So instead I thought I would just share with you some stuff I've been listening to lately.

By now word has spread quickly throughout the music community: legendary genre-defying experimental rockers Ween are back. This resulted in some of the worst ticket anxiety I myself have ever personally experienced, but I was able to get my blood pressure down to normal before lunch break ended yesterday.

Lyrics are sometimes the best parts of a song. Songwriters dig deep into the vast well of human emotion and history to find a combination of words that can move the soul to anger, laughter or uninterrupted tears.

I love rain. It cools us off, refreshes the earth, brings out the green, and gives me an excuse to hole up and play video games and listen to music and read. It is the official weather of hermits everywhere.

Just a few albums I thought merited sharing with you.

1. Like Swimming -- Morphine.

Morphine was a band in the 90s built around experimental homemade instruments and multiple saxophones played simultaneously. It sounds like underwater lounge jazz with just enough grunge to make you get out the old flannel shirt and put on your best brooding face. Very cool.

Back in high school, like so many before me, I was attracted to the more outlandish types of music, especially those found in the various subgenres of punk and metal. There was so much that I had never been exposed to, and it was all full of angst and strife and brutal guitars and driving drums and all the usual bombast that goes along with that whole scene.

Looking for something to do tonight? Got an itch that only folk rock mixed with psychedelic fusion can cure? Come on down and scratch that itch at the Canopy Club as Old Shoe and Chicago Farmer once again join forces to bring you an evening of great music.

So many people have asked me why I like the Grateful Dead. They ask me if I like a bunch of noise squealing over erratic drums, if I like inconsistent performances and struggles with drug addiction. They ask me why I like songs with no structure.