St. Dirt Elementary School

Music that makes you feel this good — that life can be laughably wonderful — is hard to find. Wherever St. Dirt's leader, lap steel player/composer Myk Freedman, is working, that's the place to look. From the comical, Fellini-esque title track, replete with glockenspiel and squeaky bike horns, to the slyly swinging "Clicking with the Clique," wherein sax, piano and synth solos careen perilously close to self-destruction, Dirt's style of goodtime music-making is centred on embracing and celebrating the members' inner-goof without sacrificing crack musicianship. Even more sombre pieces like "My Future's in the Air," with its Tom Waits-y, noir atmosphere, are realized with a knowing naiveté. A standout track is "Riverbank Manager," with a hernia-inducing alto sax solo and Ryan Driver's hilarious analog synth sounding like a flatulent R2D2 on a bender. And with titles like "She's Not My Girlfriend (My Girlfriend's Normal)," the Dirts always find a way to bring a smile to your face. Ice Cream Man Dreams is an elixir against the blues.