SOUNDTRACK: QUASI-“Beautiful Things” from Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers (2009).
I’ve had this CD for a pretty long time just waiting for me to devote some time to listening to it. The collection is a compilation of non-Merge label bands covers songs by Merge bands.
Quasi was a great band (I guess they are still together, so they are a great band). I have their records from around the turn of the century (I love writing that!). Sam Coombs and the wonderful Janet Weiss comprise the band (there’s a bassist, Joanna Bolme, added in 2007). And they sing wonderful, political alt-pop.
This is a cover of a song by the New Zealand band The 3Ds. I don’t know the original (although I do know (and like) a few songs by them–mostly from the Topless Women Talk about Their Lives soundtrack. This version has heavy keyboard prominence, but he sweet verses (sung largely by Janet with Tom doing backing vocals) are interspersed with some cool buzzy guitar solos.
I just found the original online, and the cover is pretty accurate–although the Quasi version is a bit more dynamic. Nevertheless, it makes me want to listen to The 3Ds a bit more.
[READ: March 15, 2012] “A Cup of Hot Chocolate, S’good for What Ails Ya”
Have you ever wanted to read about the history of hot chocolate? No, of course not. No one has. And yet, when I started flipping through this article, Theobald introduced plenty of ideas that I found not only interesting but compelling.
Theobald explains how the Aztecs called this (at the time) very hearty, spicy and bitter) drink cacahuatl. The Aztecs got the drink from the Mayans, who got it from the Olmecs. The first Europeans to try this drink loathed it (one even called it a drink for pigs).
It was the conquistadors who mixed cacahuatl with sugar to make what we now know as chocolate. Chocolate was a luxury back then–time consuming and difficult to make.
The Spaniards found the drink very hearty–hearty enough to be considered a meal. This put Catholics in a tizzy about the state of the item. They feared that if it was food it could not be consumed on fast days–it was ultimately deemed a drink. The drink made its way through Europe and into England. The first known English recipe called for sugar, long red pepper, cloves, aniseed, almonds, nuts, orange flower water and cacao.
It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that chocolate was eaten as a candy. Prior to that, when it was eaten by the very rich, it was gritty and often shaved and put into foods rather than eaten by itself. It was in 1828 when a Dutchman, Casparus Van Houten, invented a machine for manufacturing powdered low-fat cocoa. And in 1867 Henri Nestlé was able to create powdered milk by evaporation. In 1879, powdered milk and chocolate were mixed to inspire the creation of candy bars.
Incidentally, Mars has created a historically accurate line of chocolate called American Heritage Chocolate which is based on eighteenth century recipes that are low in sugar and made with bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate. These bars are for sale at museums and historic sites across the country. Or you can get some online at American Heritage Chocolate.
I Just Read About That... 
I love articles like this! You’re right – I wouldn’t think of a history-of-chocolate article as the first thing I’d choose to read, but often they sneak up on you. I once read an entire book about garbologists studying trash to see, ostensibly, food habits, but it really turned into an examination of how people lie about what they buy and eat. And while lots of produce – raw and cooked – got thrown away, no one ever threw away a beer or a half a Snickers bar.
Thanks for sharing!
I think you may have to tell me the garbologist book! That sounds awesome.
We have a septic tank and (I’m not going to get gross here, fear not), when we had it cleaned out (ew!), the septic guy said he could tell a lot about the kinds of diets people had based on the tank. [He approved of ours].
I think it was Rubbish!: The Archaeology of Garbage by William Rathje (it’s one of those dear departed books, I don’t have it any more).
Septic tanks freak me out. Especially now that I know the guy that cleans them is going to tell the stories to his wife….
How’d we get here from chocolate?
I think the point was: as hard as people look to find something interesting, you can really find something interesting almost anywhere you look. When I was a kid, all we had in our house was Reader’s Digest, Modern Maturity, and my brother’s Boy Scout Handbook, so that’s what I read, and I found interesting stuff all the time.
Now for some nice cocoa….
Sarah often says about books like this–that’s a book that I’d like to read a 5 page article about rather than the whole thing. Although maybe not in this case. It looks very cool. I’ll see if the library has it. Plus, I love the word Rubbish.