To my brother: What have you done recently? I worry for you. Please, please, just take care of your responsibilities. The fun part will come later. Let the chemicals bathe your skull with synthetic health--not your chemicals, our chemicals. Sit down, pick up that damned pencil, and take care of yourself.
To my sister: I hope your back is feeling better. Stretching should help, but stress is the killer. Don't let petty assignments ruin your brief time on this planet. That is not to say that your time will be briefer than anyone else's, but that life is short by default. I hear almonds are good for the skin in the meantime. Not too many though, because they're high in fat. You have the right idea. Keep your head up and stay positive. I'll try to do the same.
Oh, the children. Summer camp creation number two. That is, observed at my camp job and transcribed in the safety of my home. This is unfinished, but the shapes and colors are all present. I dislike backgrounds because they cause me trouble when trying to finish a piece.
Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley doesn’t make music; it’s the 39 indie and not-so-indie acts that provide the sound on Shrigley’s “Worried Noodles,” an art book/poetry expose compilation album. This conceptual package offers 39 focused slices of new music from popular acts (David Bryne of Talking Heads, Franz Ferdinand), indie stars (Liars, Deerhoof, Grizzly Bear, Islands) and relatively unknown contributors (Munch Munch, Hank). Make no mistake — ‘Noodles’ filters all of these elements through Shrigley’s odd and alarmingly humorous aesthetics. These bursts of artsy, off-kilter music are interpretations--stand-ins for Shrigley’s imagined songs.
As a line artist, painter, and dark humor writer, Shrigley creates personal and savage books that compile his quickly scrawled cartoons. His poorly drawn images have the capacity to disturb, but their crudeness fast reveals their weird humor. I first saw Shrigley’s work on the cover of Deerhoof’s ‘Friend Opportunity’ earlier this year, but he has been collecting his ideas in book form since the early ‘90s. He also animated the video for Blur’s 2003 single “Good Song.”
Every lyric on ‘Noodles’ comes from the tip of Shrigley’s Sharpie. The lyrics remain unchanged from Shrigley’s 2005 release of ‘Noodles’ as a stand-alone lyrical poetry book. Inspired by Shrigley’s style and curious inventiveness, 39 bands have since put music to his words.
With so many bands represented, one might think the discs would spiral into unrelated blobs of competing noises, but the lyrics (one thing these songs share in common) hold their interpretive visions together. Whether playfully throwing out “pot hole, / lamp post, tree stump, / bean bag. / Hey, whatcha doin’?” or something more somber, as in “Sad Song,” the lyrics paste their consistently humorous tone to each track. Shrigley’s writing hits so many subjects: slugs, drinking, suicide, dwarves, diamonds, skulls, embarrassment and idiots. The casual content of his lyrics sprouts his humanity. The ordinary, sometimes trivial subject matter outlines a life of fun and trouble. Occasionally, the use of these lyrics feels forced or out of place, but Shrigley speaks through each song just the same. Each song captures a slightly different aspect of Shrigley’s original ‘Noodles’ book.
‘Noodles’ may stand on the base of Shrigley’s two-dimensional work, but the spacious musical compositions support the weight of their own aspirations quite adequately. The music retains the youthful vitality of Shrigley’s work and also allows each band the space necessary to project its own solution to the audio-visual problem. The compilation feels like the musical equivalent of walking through the National Gallery of Art telling juvenile jokes in the face of century-old paintings. A sense of immaturity is imbued into each track. This underlying sense of strange uniformity reveals the cohesion of the project: Each band channels Shrigley’s vision, granting him 39 voices with which to speak.
The music compliments the 100-page jewel case-sized hardbound art book, which houses Shrigley’s writings and drawings. The ‘Noodles’ book appears as it did in 2005, but now you can read along and dually experience the original content and its musical counterpart. The art exemplifies classic Shrigley doodling and stands beside his expressive handwritten typography. Plenty of confused naked people are joined by floating heads, creatures and shapes. ‘Noodles’ is a natural progression from Shrigley’s Deerhoof collaboration, for which he designed 12 different album covers. The ‘Noodles’ cover art retains the same lined-graffiti motif seen on the Deerhoof album. Inside the book, crisp black and white pages reinforce the clean packaging. The paper feels expensive, which it ought to: The entire ‘Noodles’ package costs $40. Considering Shrigley’s art books sell for about $25 by themselves, the double disk album included in ‘Noodles’ justifies its price tag.
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