Do The Worm!

By Lizz Kannenberg in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 10, 2008 5:55PM

Inchworm has been kicking around the Chicago club scene for a few years, honing their brand of comfortably free-form rock and pop and showing off the considerable chops among the band's five members.

Our fine city has a long tradition of melding cozy Americana roots music with elements of electronic orchestration (Summerteeth, anyone?), and Inchworm's latest offering, Sheep In Wolf's Clothing, falls right into line. There's plenty of warm tones and meandering, heartland rock with pretty, calculated swells of melodic interplay. While Inchworm borrows inspiration from plenty of like-minded touchpoints - The Band, Neil Young, and Wilco all come to mind - the album feels more like pulling that one extra comfy sweater out of the closet for the first time each fall than overtly derivative.

That snug, easy contentedness started in the recording process since the band laid down the tracks that would become SIWC in their homes and hangouts. Standout tracks are "Green House Grown," a saloon piano-driven march of dusty, stomping minor key troubadouridry, and "Simple Days Without Money," a summer's day harmony-laden treat of sweet, '60s inspired pop.

Inchworm play tonight with the seldom surfacing indie rock stalwarts Swell and the likeminded locals Sleep With the Fishes at the Darkroom, 2210 W Chicago, 9:00 p.m., $8, 21+