Museumgoer
Museumgoer 20
(Bandcamp & elsewhere)
It feels like it’s been a while I think, way too long I think, since Museumgoer 19, was released in January 2022. Meanwhile, the Museumgoer in various guises has been spotted at all sorts of shindigs and hoedowns all over the Baton Rouge area, often popping up with the piano accordion, if not smoking, at least then gently wheezing. Happily then, Museumgoer 20 offers a bumper number of day brightening tracks, 50% more than we are used to. All bound up in the delightfully ambient idiosyncrasies we’ve come to respect, love and enjoy from a Museumgoer release.
Tracklisting
1. Swamp Gas Mazurka
2. Here Come Feelings!
3. Dead Loop of Olga Korbut
4. Eb & Lydia
5. Adequate Wiggle Room
6. Gratitude Song
Track by Track commentary by Museumgoer
1. Swamp Gas Mazurka
I wanted to write a mazurka, like a waltz but the accent is on the second beat, though I grew unclear as to whether this really is one. Chopin's mazurkas invoke a beautiful dancer tripping on the end of her dress. Instead of going too deep into the stylistic accuracy, I chose to let the dancer fall right into the luminous swamp I had made.
2. Here Come Feelings
(See pullquote) What is more unimpressive than having your feelings rest right at zero on the meter? What a great/terrible/middle-road time to be alive!
3. Dead Loop of Olga Korbut
Just as I was posting Museumgoer 19, I saw a video of Russian gymnast Olga Borcut performing her now-banned "dead loop" on the parallel bars and swore I'd make a loop befitting such a great video caption. On the day I wrote it, I returned to the gym for the first time in almost five months and can verify that the track works well while performing heroic and dangerous feats on exercise equipment.
4. Eb & Lydia
I played these simple chords on a loop in the studio until the little shimmering accompaniments came to me, like thoughts coming from a couple who’d been quietly having coffee over the same kitchen table for decades. The couple got named for E-flat Lydian, the key and mode of the tune.
5. Adequate Wiggle Room
The songs on this one felt like inadvertent pop songs crafted out of scientific research. Especially this one. Creating enough wiggle among a cycle of squeaky sqeaky chords to achieve a statistical grooviness.
6. Gratitude Song
A friend from college stopped by one of my gigs to give me her grandpa’s mint condition Hohner Marca Registrada Diatonic Button Accordion, still in the original box. I wrote this little simple tune, a drunken choir of gifted instruments, in humbling gratitude.
Museumgoer is
Alex V. Cook: Rhodes piano, organ, accordions, acoustic guitar, pedal steel, synthesizer, drum programming, trumpet, drums
Essential Info
Cover art: Sukie in an intense sunbeam
Museumgoer 20 on Bandcamp, here
Museumgoer at Outsideleft, here
