Inchworm - Sheep In Wolf's Clothing; deep dish Chicago rock comes to Plymouth this Friday

April 1, 10:34 PMDetroit Indie Music ExaminerJason Peters

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Inchworm – Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing is cool. I mean, really, really cool. The first thing that jumps out at you with this one, (after the truly killer cover art), is the unbelievable warmth of the final mix. All of the sudden my CD player thinks she’s part analog…

I’m sentimental and squishy on the inside. I loved LP’s. It took me years to get past the missing campfire crackle that is so noticeably not there on CD’s… I daydreamed of adding the crackle back into the final mix of projects I worked on, recording a stylus on vinyl, or maybe just recording an actual fire and dumping that on there. Friends who know much more about recording than I do, (smart folk), advised me against it, and the apparently stupid notion went untested, (at least by me). The thing is, I was way, way off. Evidently, you don’t need the noise to get the warmth.
 

And when I say warmth, I mean this CD sounds like it was recorded in a very comfortable way, in a very comfortable place, by musicians who are very comfortable with themselves, and with each other. The songwriting is stellar, and the interplay between voices and textures is intimate and playful, even as the songs themselves explore the dark side of human experience, and the relationships you are bound to find there.

If a comfortable T-shirt could be a drum set, it would sound like the drums on this album. The bass lines are the sweatpants that match the t-shirt. I know it sounds dumb, but the rhythm section not only holds down and fortifies the rest of the music, but it also provides a soft place to land, you can literally sink into this album, the way you might sink into a big cushy couch.

The vocals are smooth and sincerely rendered. The harmonies are pure and evenly rendered. The guitars sound like rock n’ roll. Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing is the real deal.

The first track, “Simple Days Without Money” could have been the love child of George Harrison and Jack Johnson, and it gets things rolling with a slippery-smooth and hooky groove that might have been sipped on a porch swing, from a cool glass of lemonade, in the heat of a lazy Summer afternoon. It features a slick juxtaposition of moody lyrics on an infectiously upbeat and melodic romp. Track two, “Green House Grown” is not about what I expected it to be about, but instead seems to speak of a return to an actual house that is actually green, and sonically, it moves the whole thing forward with a driving “oom-pa” two feel. Feelwise, it’s probably the darkest song on Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing, it definitely has the taste of a smoldering potion brewed by a creepy clown. Lyrically, it is longing to be free of the muck, and wishing backwards toward a simpler time. For a moment, I thought that Inchworm was playing games with time signatures and track numbers. I imagined that “Simple Days…” was counting itself, “One. One. One. One.”, and “Green House”, replied “One-two. One-two. One-two”… but then track three’s “You I Aim For”, finds us comfortably back to the fours that rock n’ roll typically lives in, (and adores).

“Learn To Grift” is another achingly hooky ditty.  Throughout the CD, the lyrics speak of making the most of a mostly hopeless world. There is an inevitability to the despair, paired with a  “make the best of what you’ve got” attitude, and somehow it all works without being depressing. The prevailing theme seems to be that we, (members of society at large), are lost in the game, “dying to get paid”, and that “the drones all up above, try to add time to the day”, that is, lyrically at least, Inchworm is calling us on the folly of plodding through life with eyes closed. There is a longing to get back to a way of being that makes sense. While throughout, there is a recognition of how grim things have gotten, at the same time there is a wry humor in the message, and underlying it all, a sense that the struggle is worth it, and that we must never give in to the dreary and mundane. In this respect, “Learn To Grift” is this CD’s mission statement, “always take calculated chances”, and “when all else fails, learn to grift”…. Never give up. “Waltz Through The Ashes” stays true to the theme, and is slow but interesting. The verses seem to be in twos, with the chorus’ switching to 3’s, (as you might expect),(which is what originally gave me the idea that they were playing with time signatures in some funny way). Track six, “Silent Observers” is almost a funeral dirge about having to watch it all, “why sit by and let it worry your head?” But it seems to bring the whole thing full circle. Technically, it is the last song on the album, but really, the album art should count as another track.

Ray Frenden’s illustrations tie everything together in a cool and comic-booky way that is consistent with the tracks themselves, and like the songs, the art tells the story without ever giving away too much, that is, with zero exposition. In the case of Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing, the illustrator should almost be listed as a band member. My only quibble with Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing, is that it only has six songs, resulting in just over 22 minutes worth of music, but that 22 minutes is seriously worth the listen. From a length standpoint, it really does play like the “A” side of an LP, but structurally, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing is complete. It really is a “novella” of a CD. Maybe the shortest concept album ever.

According to  guitarist/lead singer Matt Baugher: “As far as the band goes...the rhythm section is consistent on the album as it is live.  Dan Ingenthron plays bass and Mike Holtz plays drums throughout.  They are awesome.  Brian Morrissey and myself play the guitars and cover lead vox.  Keys and backup vox and misc. are covered by pretty much anyone who came up with the idea.” The liner notes don’t say who does what, and neither does the band bio sheet that arrived with the disc.

So, here we are. Two CD’s into my career as a part-time reviewer, and already faced with my second ghost reference. In this case, rather than putting the word in the band name as a metaphor, the band actually borrowed their name from one… contact them online to get the inside story, because I fear I have already said too much...

Inchworm is from Chicago, but they will be at Boulders – 1020 Ann Arbor Rd W., Plymouth MI, 48170 - this Friday (April 3^rd), with local heroes, BandB.