Mark Dunn–Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable (2001)

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Barenaked Ladies Are Me (2006) & Barenaked Ladies Are Men (2007).
Barenaked Ladies decided to forgo a major label altogether and just use Nettwerk as a distributor. They called their own self publishing “label” Desperation Records. [There was a fascinating article in Wired way back when this was happening, which made me [...]

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Mark Z. Danielewski–Only Revolutions (2006)

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Everything to Everyone (2003) & Barenaked for the Holidays (2004).
Everything to Everyone. I was pretty down on this album when it first came out. I remember being rather disappointed in it because BNL had, gasp, matured somewhat, and were making more “serious,” less “wacky” songs. To me, the whole CD was somewhat flat. [...]

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Maile Meloy–Half in Love (2002)

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Stunt (1998) & Maroon (2000).
Stunt. BNL took over the world with “One Week,” one of the most ubiquitous songs of 1998, and one that I never actually got sick of, which is pretty surprising. But it’s got many different elements and–and I think this is the clincher–the words are so hard to [...]

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Simon Rich–Ant Farm and Other Desperate Situations (2007)

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Born on a Pirate Ship (1996) & Rock Spectacle (1996).
Continuing with my review of the BNL catalog…
Born on a Pirate Ship.
I recall really liking this album when it came out. But I just read the review on allmusic.com and they’re pretty harsh about it. I didn’t realize that “Shoe Box,” a really great [...]

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Roger Thorpe–Glove Pond (2007)

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Gordon (1992) & Maybe You Should Drive (1994).
I first learned about Barenaked Ladies from a friend of a friend in college, whose name I don’t remember. Oh, and the original friend (whose name I do remember) I’ve lost touch with. So BNL outlasted all of them.
This fellow described them as being very funny [...]

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Douglas Coupland–The Gum Thief (2007)

SOUNDTRACK: TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS-Anthology: Through the Years (2000).
To me, Tom Petty suffers more than anyone else from egregious overexposure. I’m not sure if it’s just me who feels that way, but in my experience, “Free Fallin’” was utterly inescapable for what seemed like an eternity. And, geez, his mug was all over MTV [...]

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Lawrence Weschler–Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences (2006)

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Whale Music [Soundtrack] (1994) & Music Inspired by the Group of 7 (1995).
As I understand it, The Rheostatics read a great book by Paul Quarrington called Whale Music and then decided to name their new album Whale Music. (The follow up to Melville…they definitely have a nautical theme in their early records). [...]

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Michael J. Nelson–Goth-Icky: A Macabre Menagerie of Morbid Monstrosities (2005) and Love Sick: A Smoldering Look at Love, Lust, and Marriage (2005)

SOUNDTRACK: THE MONKEES: Best of the Monkees (2003).
One of my college roommates (a guy from Ireland) absolutely LOVED the Monkees (and he was from Ireland, which may not be that weird, but were the Monkees big in Ireland?). Anyhow, he not only had the boxed set that Rhino put out several years ago, but he [...]

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