Music Gets You Through

I’ve been a little down the last couple weeks. Nothing specific I suppose, but I’ve been thinking a lot about my dog Otto and I guess I just miss him. Our hangs at home, me watching a movie with a pint and him laying up on the couch next to me. He, of the smarter dog variety knowing that as soon as that pint glass is empty I’ll be hauling my butt back into the kitchen for another. He knew then that his chance for a treat was possible, following me into the kitchen and firmly sitting his little Schnauzer butt on the rug in front of the sink. That was my prompt to grab him a Mother Hubbard crunchy bone treat from the glass jar. And of course I’d give him one…maybe two(okay, three on a good day.)

What can I say, he had my number.

I’d say that the first few years we had Otto he was a mama’s dog. He cuddled more with mom, and she would sleep later than me so he’d get to curl up in the bed next to my wife and stay warm a little longer. Plus she tended to take him with her more into town, and she usually took him to his vet appointments and haircuts, so he just did more outside the house with her.

But the last 5 or 6 years, when the kids were older and doing more things, Otto and I were the house hermits. My wife got busier with stuff at work or taking trips with the kids and their friends, I’d stay home and make sure the couch didn’t float away. And Otto was my guy. He was my co-pilot in hanging out. And the last couple years when he was older and not as active we were perfectly fine just hanging out in the living room watching horror movies, drinking beers(me, not him), and snacking(him mostly.)

Now that he’s gone(over two months now) when I’m home alone doing my movie and a beer ritual it just doesn’t feel the same. I know he wasn’t watching the movie with me, I’m not insane. But to have him in the house was to be able to have conversations outside my head. Tell him about stuff, work out issues in my brain in the open air and have my dog/therapist look at me with those big brown eyes(hidden underneath an umbrella of grey, poofy eyebrows). I know he had no idea what I was saying, but man it sure did feel that way sometimes. Even just the intent stares at me – waiting for me to rise from my chair and help myself to another IPA so he could help himself to another treat – somehow made it feel as if there was this communication between us that eased my brain a bit.

He was a good listener, man.

So the last couple of weeks I’ve been missing that communicado between the two of us. Technically he’s still here with me – in an urn on the shelf in the living room – but it’s just not the same. And for some reason the last couple of weeks the damn algorithm has been pushing videos of people having to put their sweet doggos to sleep and that hasn’t helped much. I looked at one video, just one, and now my feed is nothing but sad pet owners talking about their 14-year old Dachshund or 12-year old rescue pittie they had to put to down.

Screw you, algorithm.

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So it was a pleasant surprise to be inundated with new music over the last few days. Last Saturday was an especially full day of new tunes. I headed into Karma Records to pick up a couple orders in the form of Baths Romaplasm and Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory, two incredibly great records.

I’ve got the first two Baths albums, but had never grabbed Romaplasm. I’d read that Baths has a new record coming out and realized I’d completely bypassed Romaplasm from 2017. And I’ve been a fan of Sharon Van Etten for a few years now. Her new album with her band The Attachment Theory is my favorite thing of hers. I reviewed it Monday, but the album sounds like it came out of the early 80s British alt scene. Lots of Siouxsie Sioux and Kate Bush vibes, as well as even some Aimee Mann/Till Tuesday feels.

Late last week some mail arrived from Odense, Denmark in the form of Causa Sui’s latest epic live album Loppen 2024. And since I was ordering something from El Paraiso Records I figured I’d also snag Futuropaco’s Fortezza di Vetro vol. 1. I’m a huge fan of Justin Pinkerton’s Giallo/Italio psych project, so I needed to right a wrong and grab the album since I’d never gotten a physical copy. Fortezza di Vetro vol. 2 is arriving later this month, so I’m super excited for that.

Maybe the coolest thing to hit the front porch this weekend was Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born Deluxe 9-CD boxset. I’ve snagged the last two deluxe anniversary releases from Wilco, the Summerteeth deluxe vinyl set, as well as the anniversary Yankee Hotel Foxtrot vinyl set, AND the deluxe CD set. I might have gone overboard with that last one, but it happens sometimes. This time I figured I’d just go for the full CD boxset instead of the vinyl. You get it all, plus the great book it comes with that has some amazing history about the record.

I would say that I love all Wilco(at least up the Sky Blue Sky) unconditionally. Summerteeth, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and A Ghost Is Born are, IMO, the best of the best. I would say that most days of the week A Ghost Is Born is my favorite Wilco album. It was such a sparse, dark record that truly came to life for me seeing them perform it live so many times in that albums touring cycle. The soft, nearly whispered songs like “Wishful Thinking”, “Muzzle Of Bees”, and “Hell Is Chrome” truly blossomed on the stage. And I love the imagery Jeff Tweedy paints in your mind with his abstract, poetic lyrics.

The fact it came out the week that Tweedy entered rehab for opioid addiction is even more astonishing. He really thought that he was not long for this earth, and that A Ghost Is Born would be the musical puzzle his kids would have to put together in order to know who their dad was. An album built on both a freedom of creativity(after firing Jay Bennett during Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), as well as the imprisonment Tweedy was still dealing with in regards to an addiction to painkillers created such a dichotomy. Seeing them perform these songs on the tour that followed, and Tweedy newly sober, made the songs cathartic.

Anyways, I’ll talk more about that boxset in a future post.

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Just wanted to say that I’ve been missing my 4-legged friend, but the power of music is getting me through it. I think the record number of days we’ve had in a row that were dark and gray hasn’t helped much with my mood either. We’ve got two winter storms hitting this week, Wednesday and then again on Saturday. As I write this now on Tuesday afternoon it’s bright and sunny out. So I’ll soak some of that up. As much of it as I can.

Happy Hump Day.