Junk Left in the Woods Vols. 1 & 2 are twin collections of miscellaneous odds and ends—stuff without a home. They are the first of such collections I am putting on Bandcamp.

Junk in the Woods:

Growing up, I loved exploring the woods in my neighborhood. A whole network of trails connected many of my friend’s houses—it was always fun to push on a little farther each time I went exploring, expanding the map of it all in my mind. Although my appreciation of nature was first and foremost, I was intrigued by the random and assorted junk people left there. While not in support of littering, it seemed to be telling a mysterious and dark story about the underbelly of humanity—a different kind of wilderness.

There was one section, at the far end of a long trail that I frequented, that was basically a dump, with multiple mounds and heaps of jettisoned belongings spread out in various wooded alcoves that were all connected, like spokes on a wheel, to a large open area with hard-packed dirt. You could find tires, mattresses, shopping carts, washing machines, creepy abandoned dolls, rocking horses—practically anything you could imagine.

Most of it truly was trash, but if you got lucky you might come across that “forbidden” special edition Motley Crue magazine your mom wouldn’t let you get—the one where they’re covered in blood! Or a plastic mold of a monster head which a friend brought home and painstakingly melted candle wax into to form a red wax Frankenstein ornament.

As an adult, whatever allure the junk held for me is gone and I just see it for what it is: illegal dumping, plain and simple. But for a time, I loved the rusty cars on these album covers (I captured the images in photography class in high school) almost as much as the trees that surrounded them.

These collections invite the listener to wander a sonic woods and sift through the junk—who knows, you may discover a discarded treasure to take home.


Recording Dates:

1. Improvisation 1 - 1/13/22
2. Lily of the West - 12/11/16
3. Shadows of a Man - 9/15/15
4. Improvisation 3 - 1/13/22
5. Barking - 3/10/22
6. The Whole World Is Going Crazy - 6/29/13
7. Anti-Patriotic - 2013 (I think)
8. Improvisation 6 - 1/13/22
9. Halloween Cat - 12/11/16
10. Porch - 2/12/22
11. Lazy Airplane - 12/3/21