After the release of 2023's Shlarb EPs and eventual full album, Michael took a break while getting the word out about the Shlarb album. In late November of '23, he figured it was time to get moving again with some new material, so he began working forward from a title he'd written down a while back—Smokin' Dirty Sock—and ended up with this 5-minute instrumental that takes you on a bit of journey.

Smokin' Dirty Sock heads again into the realm of hard rocking, guitar-forward instrumental work similar to that of the Shlarb project, but with orchestral touches thrown in. Is this the beginnings of The New Shlarb? Who knows?...

Michael used an array of axes on this track, as he is fortunate enough to be able to select the right guitar for the right passage from his quiver of instruments (in all, there are SEVEN different guitars in play on this track). As he mentioned in the liner notes from his Shlarb track Your Very Own Wax Hand (michaelmcclure.bandcamp.com/track/your-very-own-wax-hand), he was looking forward to delving more into the world of his new (old!) lap steel, and there is certainly that delving on this song, along with other adventurous sounds and themes.

The title comes from something a friend of Michael's used to do in the 1970s to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out his supply of the illegal weed: he'd smoke bongs until the water was totally BLACK and syrupy in the thing, then upend the device into a (clean!) athletic sock, pouring the fetid water through it into the toilet, but keeping the smelly, tarry gunk that had been floating in the water in the toe of the sock. He would then dry this shit out over a space heater, peel it out of the sock, and smoke it all over again! Smokin' dirty sock was born! It was an excellent and brilliant possible first use of the "Reduce/Reuse/Recycle" ethic long before Green folks got 'hold of that motto.

From this weird tale, Michael has created a cinematically themed, eclectically rocking instrumental that seeks to tell the story of making dirty sock, sucking up a bowl of it, getting very mellow for a time, then coming down and going all atonal on ya, then having to start the process again. All in good fun... possibly. Enjoy the ride.