music : emergency lunchbox

I saw this last week on Refuse Blog : An solo record recorded by one of Knoxville's better regarded musicians back in the 90s- Emergency Lunchbox by Bob McClusky of Taoist Cowboys fame. After that band broke up, McCluskey recorded this record in 1994 at home with primitive recording equipment, playing all the layers himself(sound kinda like Bon Iver?). Metro Pulse named it one of the "Greatest Knoxville Records of All Time" a few years later in '99.

I've been listening to it this week and have really grown fond of it. It could be the personal soundtrack for almost any post-college kid. A "What do I do next?" attitude prevails throughout, dealing with changing relationships resulting from shifting circumstances. "Clothesline" really optimizes this. McClusky sings of visiting his parents with laundry, saying, "Hello Dad, I always squeeze when I shake your hand/Just to let you know I'm sure that I'm a man/But I'm not sure that's the way I should go about it/I want to give you a hug and not feel like a faggot." Later he sings that he thinks about his family everyday but doesn't know how to tell them he loves them when he's actually around them.

It's an album well worth checking out. Fortunately with the internet era it hasn't been lost (it was originally only given away to friends), and is available for free on the Lynn Point Records site, which has lots of other obscure Knoxville music.