Local celebrity Skerik is known for his larger than life stage persona, his preternaturally rhythmic saxophone soloing, and for bringing the genre-defying instrument firmly into the punk rock aesthetic. In this brief track, entitled “Brad Houser,” Skerik explores ambient textural loops created by a heavily affected tenor saxophone as a backdrop for powerful, ascending saxophone wails. These wails develop into a short technical interjection that melts into nothingness only two and a half minutes in. To me, the wooziness and fever dream quality of the track evoke images of a spectral soul traversing the ether of the afterlife, and the brevity recalls those travels being cut too short. I’m not sure what Skerik believes in, but I choose to believe this is a gorgeous, improvised tribute to Brad.
Brad Houser, bassist, baritone saxophonist, and bass clarinetist, who along with Skerik, Matt Chamberlain, and Mike Dillon founded the iconic band Critters Buggin’, passed away in 2023. We should all aspire to live creatively and with such conviction: in a way that inspires beautiful music like this.