In 2005, the pretty famous Glaswegian artist David Shrigley released
Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve)—a 12-inch record sleeve with no record inside, just a booklet of doodles and lyrics. The doodles were things like a man with a giant bottom holding a rat, with the caption, “If I were hungry enough I would eat a rat/No doubt about it.” And the song lyrics were like a retarded Shel Silverstein, minus the creepy hippie-beard vibes.
Everyone went bazonkers. They went four-car rectangles. They lined up in two rotations to buy. Then the guys from Deerhoof, Grizzly Bear, Franz Ferdinand, Islands, Liars, Dirty Projectors, Hot Chip, Les Georges Leningrad, and a bevy of other notable music dorks (David Byrne) recorded 39 songs from the booklet and now you can hear it.
“I guess it was logical,” Shrigley said, “but there are obviously way too many people in the music industry because the whole thing seemed to happen in about a week. Everyone got in arguments about who got to do what track.”
So, what more to say? The other day I was at a party where a man who edits cartoons for national syndication was explaining how he had one comic writer who was always trying to sneak the word “butt” into his comic. This is not related, maybe… We just wanted to reproduce a bunch of Shrigley’s funny drawings is all.
JAMES KNIGHT
David Shrigley’s Worried Noodles is available as a double CD or triple LP on Tomlab Records.
