Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food


Where do you go after Tea for the Tillerman? Well, he did build his house out of barley rice and green peppers, and i am a proverbial Talking Head, so why not More Songs about Buildings and Food? I have an in-store promo copy, so it should be nice and scratchy and warped, as opposed to my surprisingly pristine $8 copy of that Cat Stevens masterpiece. 

Call me skeptical if you must, but i don't think the cover version of an Al Green song is the only reason people decided to buy lots of copies of this album. It's 1978, real people want absolutely anything that isn't macho-mainstream jock rock. Punk and new wave, disco, even country: the soundtrack of whatever kind of restless teenager you happen to be is what everyone desperately wants to distance themselves from their ultra-conservative parents. 

You could probably accuse me of hiding in the bathroom and "inventing situations," but i drink a lot of coffee and my mind is on a permanent wandering vacation; i wholeheartedly agree with David Byrne's sarcastic assessment of the awesomeness of having a job, and like Cat Stevens i wish to point out BUT I MIGHT DIE TONIGHT! 

Now, was it Chris Franz or Andy Partridge who came up with the title? No reason why it couldn't have been both, but it is a tad hyperbolic on top of the obvious self-deprecating sarcasm, so [shoulder shrug] not my problem. 

What is my problem is how warped the record actually it. Side a plays fine, but side b is a real roller coaster and my needle gets actual air time at the start. I suppose i could try squashing it with a heavy book for a month. The parts i can listen to are great though. It is dancy and jittery and fun. Tina Weymouth is a severely underrated bass player in my opinion. 

Look, i'm gonna level with you. Talking Heads is great and all, but i kind of like each component of their sound better on other bands. Like the guitars remind me of the Cars, David Byrne's voice sounds more like Gordon Gano's voice at least half the time, i listened to Frank Tovey (aka Fad Gadget)'s Snakes and Ladders two days ago and that thing is beyond mind blowing. That's the thing, exactly like Industrial and Arizona Alternative and Hip Hop, New Wave has a celebrity face in Talking Heads but the real meaty variety of the "also including" bands is what i really enjoy. They aren't the epitome of the genre, only one specific part. It's a good part, sure, but it's only a tiny piece of chicken in the much larger and more delicious pot pie of incredibly quirky, neurotic, and downright spastic cornucopia of 70s/80s Weird Rock. I don't mean to knock 'em down a peg, but my brain wanders off and wants to pull out It's Immaterial again, or those two Men At Work albums i have, or even fast forward to the next Midnight Oil CD about the plight of miners and their mesothelioma lawsuits over occupational asbestos exposure. That's probably not fair. Talking Heads are lovely, i'm just way more interested in Tina's bass lines than deciphering David's interpretive dances. It is what it is. Enjoy.

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