Catherine Wheel

Third time listening to this in a row now. If you like the Talking Heads at all, this is right on. Actually it’s better, because it’s just David Byrne messing around in the studio. Half instrumentals, half Talking Heads-like songs. Sounds sort of like a cross between "Fear of Music" and "Remain in Light," which makes sense because that’s when it was recorded.

One of my dreams is to write an indie rock version of the Talking Heads’ "Remain in Light." On that record, most of the songs stick with the same music/drum part throughout and the only thing that changes is the vocal line and some Brian Eno noises thrown in. Part of the reason I’m getting down these old songs is so I can be finished with them and work on a rock opera, for lack of anything else to call it, about WW III, basically the same plot as my new novel--inspired in part by records like this one.

Don’t think a novel/soundtrack has been done so often before, which is why I have some hopes for it. There aren’t so many novelist songwriters. Nick Cave is one. I once saw a reading of his in Central Park. During the reading, he told the producer of the festival to fuck off. People cheered. "See," he said, "they hate you and they love me." Asshole.

"Remain in Light" is the eighties "Sgt. Pepper" in my book. The Meat Puppets "Up on the Sun" was another one, but not as much. There’s my first music review on this blog. I think I’ll stop because writing about music kind of creeps me out.