We often try very hard to pigeonhole the music we hear. It looks like we can't understand the music until we know how to call it. And if we can't find a fitting label, we come up with a new one. That's why you can find almost 300 categories of rock music when you click on 'rock' on the website of AllMusic. I don't think there's one person on this earth who can recognise them all and there are probably dozens kinds of music which almost sound the same. So it's not so strange that someone goes from post-punk and shoegaze to some kind of acoustic folk-rock. Chris Simpson from Austin, Texas used to be a member of Mineral and The Gloria Record and he has taken these steps.
Zookeeper is the name of the project he started after a two year break. Chris went back to his roots and started writing songs and performing them acoustically. He bought a piano and after he had written a great number of songs he went into the studio with some of his friends. At the end Zookeeper had recorded about 40 songs and the first of them appeared on the EP "Zookeeper" in 2006. Belle City Pop is the name of the balbel who are also releasing Zookeeper's first full-length "Becoming All Things" this month. On the cover you can see a picture of Chris with something what looks like underpants on his head. Gladly it's no shoddy record but the album contains very cheerful popmusic with tambourines, horns and a honky-tonk piano.
>mp3: Trumpets
>mp3: Becoming All Things