"You look at the floor and see the floor. I look at the floor and see molecules."

Various Artists - The Dan Aykroyd Compilation
Summersteps #26

The Spring Peepers were particularly riotous the other night. I could hear them with the windows rolled up and the radio going. You know who wouldn't appreciate these tiny, clammy creatures and their blessed ritual of singing to herald the arrival of spring? Roman God damn Craig, that's who.

Roman: "I tell you what I see when I look out there. I see the undeveloped resources of Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, and Michigan. I see a syndicated development consortium exploiting over a billion and a half dollars in forest products. I see a paper mill and if the strategic metals are there, a mining operation. A greenbelt between the condos on the lake and a waste management facility focusing on the newest rage in toxic waste: medical refuse. Infected bandages, body parts, IV tubing, contaminated glassware, entrails, syringes, fluids, blood, low grade radioactive waste all safely contained sunken in the lake and sealed for centuries."

My only quibble with The Dan Aykroyd Compilation is that among its flurry of Akyroyd sound clips there isn't a single one from The Great Outdoors. We get Dan discussing his Crystal Head vodka venture, but no Roman. Maybe efforts to tape-record the film during a weekly cable airing were sabotaged by a house fire or worse, a cholera outbreak. Or maybe that widely popular Great Outdoors soundboard was shut down by the estate of John Hughes.

I'm just going to stop dwelling on it. You know what makes The Dan Aykroyd Compilation a real treat? Much of the lyrics can be interpreted in ways that wouldn't compel the listener to classify the songs as being rigidly Akyroyd-centric. Why sure, there are tracks like "The Unidentified Flying Ballad of Daniel," where over acoustic guitar and cello and what sounds like vibraphone, the dude from The Cult of James spells out "Daniel" frontwards and backwards in hushed, awed tones. Or others like Maryl-lyn Cooper's spoken-word showpiece "Ode to Mr Akyroyd." (Sample couplet: "I spent my days drooling over Ray Stantz / And my nights practicing my Elwood dance." You and countless others.)

But then there's "Neighbors" by Tigers Jaw, an unpolished and total-downer ballad that has an ending that reminds you of watching the last of your bathwater circle and go down the drain: "Letting myself go / Broken friendships / Away from home / And I'm fucking around / Burn myself to the ground." There's also My Dad is a Dinosaur's "Ghosts of Your Past" with it's bright and sunny repeated phrase of “You can be anyone you wanna be!"

Eric Schlittler, co-founder of Summersteps Records, on the compilation's genesis: "It was actually something this cat Bobby Keller (he used to be a local comedian of sorts) instigated. He had some songs collected for it and he sorta lost interest. Summersteps offered to get the rest of the songs from the bands and make it real. Maybe we'll do a sequel. People dig it."