I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DAVID BYRNE-uh oh (1992).

I received this CD free when it came out (radio station perk), and I listened to it a few times, but not really all that much.  I never really thought that much about it because I didn’t really like the cover–it looked too babyish.  It’s been a while since I listened to it and I am delighted at what a good, solid, Talking Heads-ish album this is (with David Byrne, you never know exactly what you’ll get from a record, but this is poppy).

“Now I’m Your Mom” opens with an early 90s funky electronic bass and some crazy guitar sounds.  But as soon as the bridge kicks in, the song is pure Byrne/Talking Heads.  And that world music style chorus means that this song could have been huge (even if it is about a transvestite or transgendered person–I didn’t listen that carefully).  However, the extended section at the end makes the song feel a little long.  “Girls on My Mind” is a strange (but good) song from start to finish—a weird cheesy synth sound pervades the song, and yet once again, it’s very Byrne—especially the crazy singing of the chorus.

“Something Ain’t Right” opens with an odd chant but then turns very conventional—with choral voices giving big oohs.  “She’s Mad” opens as a kind of sinister song.  And yet, after some verses about her being mad, the chorus is as bright as anything else on the record—a very schizophrenic song.  “Hanging Upside Down” has a very commercial Talking Heads Feel, like “Stay Up Late.”

“Twistin’ in the Wind” has more of those big choruses of voices to “well well well” up the song.  “The Cowboy Mambo” has another weird sound that circulates through the song, but it’s got a good beat and a great chorus and it would be fun to dance to.  “Monkey man” is a horn-heavy track that opens in a sinister vein once again.  “A Million Miles Away” just gets stuck with you and makes you want to sing along.  “Somebody” ends the disc with more Latin horns and rhythms.  It’s a fun song, and a good ending.

Overall, this is a surprisingly good record.  All of the songs are a little long–Byrne songs should really max out around 4 minutes.  For that extra time, he either tends to repeat himself or add superfluous codas that drag out the end.  But aside from that, this is a real treat, especially for Talking Heads fans.

[READ: May 20 2013] Arboretum

The back of the book describes this as a collection of enigmatic, enchanting mental maps.

And that is kind of what the book is.  It is a collection of drawings–tree and branch-style drawings mostly–that endeavor to map relationships.  But the subject matter is crazily diverse–oftentimes nonsensical or at the very least unparseable.  The good news is that many of the drawings have an explanatory text in the back of the book.  I acknowledge that ideally the drawings should make sense without needing an explanation, but the explanations were really useful–they really give you the frame of mind that Byrne was trying to explain through the pictures.

In the introduction, Byrne describes them as “faux science, automatic writing, self-analysis, satire and maybe even a serious attempt at finding connections where none were thought to exist.”  But the really crucial part is the next sentence: “And an excuse to draw plant-like forms and diagrams.”

And so what we get is nearly 90 diagrams.  I rather like Byrne’s drawing style–thin but confident pencil lines which are very well used on some of the more detailed sketches.  But most of them are very rough sketches (you can see erasure marks) and most are like trees or plants but some are bulbous or round.  But really the hard part is trying to determine exactly what he means by some of them:

Like “Taxonomical Transformations” which is a tree with branches and roots.  Above the ground states:  Mock Tudor, Split Level, Ranch, Chalet, Classical, (etc) and below the surface are: Cruelers [sic], Croissants, Bagels, Buns, Tarts (etc).  There is an explanation to this one, but even that doesn’t fully explain the connections for me.

However, one like “Music of the Future” is fun and more or less self-explanatory.  Under the ground we have Swing, Rock, Emo, Pop, etc and above the surface: Conservative Funk, Butter, Freestyle, Acid Gospel, Hard Cheeze, No-Vibe etc.  I rather liked imagining what some of that music might sound like.

In the comments for “Pattern Recognition” he explains “patterns made by pimples, stains and by accumulated debris are revealed as secret metaphors and algorithms…that we are only now learning to read.”  So in this picture, the above the surface includes musical compositions, modern architecture, urban planning, etc and below the surface are gum on sidewalks, hair stuck in drains, migrating birds, subatomic movements, etc.

“The Gustatory Rainbow” has an x and y axis of dark-light and cool-warm.  So toffee is dark and cool whereas rose is warm.  English blue is Light.  Persimmon is in between cool and light and Caramel is in between warm and dark.  Byrne describes the naming of colors with food terms as an acceptable form of synesthesia,  in which the name of the color doesn’t correspond to the look but to the mouth texture of the food.

One of the other variants is “The Möbius Structure of Relationships.”  The Möbius strip–which is one externally looping side–lists ignoring, forgetting, discovering, meeting, approaching, liking, loving, devouring, ingesting, consuming, destroying, pitying, dismissing, disliking.  I’m not sure if that’s exactly the order I would put it but the sentiment is pretty good.

Overall, what you get is this very internalized visual guide to Byrne’s interpretations of the world.  Some of them are right on, some of them are pretty out there.  I’m not entirely sure if this is something one would pore over multiple times, but I suppose it could be a good conversation starter.