Dan Melchior - Road Not Driving

Last time we checked in with Dan Melchior, he was Playing The Greys (see Ever/Never # 21). What has he been up to lately? Melchior is as aesthetically restless as he is endlessly creative, so in between recording an album with Austin TX art-punk trio Spray Paint and a myriad of tape and vinyl releases, Dan found the time to gift Ever/Never with another classic slice of Melchiorcore (please, shoot the messenger for that one). Road Not Driving is a 12” EP that covers a fair amount of ground during its runtime. “I Got A Feeling” starts out as a feel-bad ode to, well, feeling bad, and then finds itself truly sinking into the muck as the track distorts beyond all reason, until coming around full circle at the conclusion. Climate change has got us all down, but at least you can commiserate with the guitar slicks and (gulf jet)stream-of-consciousness lyrics of “Another Oil Spill.” In the icily observant “Cold Town,” Dan’s previous locale , Ohio -- and the lake-effect of the Midwest pokes its head through the (grey) clouds. The storm clouds hover over side two’s “Relics,” which finds Dan casting about for some kind of connection. Those bleak months -- half a year really -- can weigh a man down but they leave plenty of time to come up with creative ways of dealing with the isolation. Yet, when connection comes in the form of “Bus Stop Ghouls,” perhaps it’s preferable to be alone after all. Melchior closes out this potent dip into his stewing brain with the title track and all we can say is Godspeed, sir. -e/n