Elvis Costello is the latest in a string of high-profile artists who are utilizing vinyl records to set themselves apart from the same old music industry release dilemma. Momofuku is the title of Elvis Costello’s latest album, to be released exclusively on vinyl April 22 on Lost Highway and containing a coupon good for one free digital download of the album with purchase. No CD counterpart in sight. The album title translates roughly to “lucky peach,” a bit of rough slang that mixes up Japanese and Korean. But New Yorkers and followers of culinary trends know Momofuku as the name of a small but popular chain of Asian restaurants in Manhattan owned by culinary wunderkind David Chang.
Coincidence? Parallels? Would we go so far as to liken the original Momofuku Noodle Bar to the true aim of Costello’s career from its starts up through Spike? To compare Momofuku Ssam Bar, its trendier and more daring successor, to Costello’s wild experiments of the ‘90s from opera to duets with Diana Krall and Burt Bacharach? And now, Momofuku Ko, an intimate dining experience involving a menu that changes at chef David Chang’s whim, and an exclusive online reservation system…to Elvis’ own Momofuku.
Sure, we can go there. In the past six months, bands like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Jack White’s supergroup the Raconteurs have all figured the format significantly into their latest releases, coinciding with an uptick in vinyl sales across the music industry. Maybe it’s the collectibility factor, or a growing desire for formatted, curated content among the listening public: the return of the album, if you will, and the return of artists whose careers have been staked on the long form object, rather than single tracks. But it seems to be working, at least from the looks of intrepid indie labels like Matador, Sub Pop, and Secretly Canadian, all of which have been including download coupons with their vinyl titles for the past year or two.
A vinyl-only release is a bold move, one which surely might limit Elvis Costello’s audience on this one…but hey, much like Chang’s done with Ko, it’s his choice. No word on whether Costello’s a fan of Chang’s restaurant, but if he could find a way to give out an order of Momofuku’s steamed pork buns with the record, that’d be good enough for me.
So, just where DID you get your stage name, Captain Sensible?
I got an invite through the post this morning. Very nice and all that…it turns out that my musician chum Tony McPhee, guitarist of the Groundhogs is getting married and has invited Yours Truly to the inevitable ale fest that that day is bound to degenerate into (if I know him). I’m proud to count Tony as one of my mates; his band (who took their name from John Lee Hooker’s “Groundhog Blues”) were great heroes of mine when I was a teen, producing some wonderfully tripped out blues albums–my favorite being “Thank Christ for the Bomb”. And you’d be right in thinking that with a title like that, the record’s not exactly brimming over with love songs!
Anyway, I had to laugh when I looked at the envelope, as he had addressed it to me using my “professional” name. I wonder sometimes if our local postman wonders, “What sort of person IS this Captain Sensible that I’m delivering mail to?” I mean…it has been a few years since I topped the old pop charts over here–and the bloke delivering the letters is barely in his twenties, so he’d be excused if he’d never bloomin’ well heard of me. Maybe he imagines there’s some incognito superhero living in the neighborhood…or perhaps a nutcase. In fact there would be an element of truth in both these theories…but it has to be said that if I had known that I’d be using that name during a 30 year “career” in showbiz I would CERTAINLY have chosen something a little less ridiculous. Mind you, the daft moniker HAS opened some doors for me–in fact I doubt very much if you would be reading this blog now if I were still known merely as Raymond!
So, that started me wondering if Elton John’s life might have been a little different if he had stuck to his original name, Reg Dwight…and not nicked (just after playing with him in a band called Bluesology) the real name of sax player Elton DEAN. That’s definitely a bit naughty isn’t it…and who remembers poor old Elton Dean now, you wonder?
Well, I do. The bloke was unstoppable onstage…improv, melody, weird noises, a “sax maniac” if you like…though mostly for a small but select crowd, so I doubt very much if he made a fortune blowing his saxophone. Jazz proggers Soft Machine were his biggest band…and they nicked THEIR name from the title of William Burrows book.
But, I hear you ask, where did the inspiration for “Captain Sensible” come from? Well, to tell the truth–I EARNED the name by being a bit of a liability (to say the least) in the mid ’70s when the Damned was just starting. There was pretty much nothing I wouldn’t do for a “laugh” back then (as various tour managers and colleagues in the band would attest), and it was during one particularly mad bus trip through France that I was first referred to–ironically of course–as “Sensible”.
So just WHAT sort of jolly japes had I been involved in to have deserved this accursed handle? Well…I do seem to remember at one point being at the back of the bus while a sleeping and hungover Elvis Costello was set on fire…
Hmm…and I wonder where he got HIS stage name from?
Captain Sensible is the guitarist of rabble rousers the Damned who kick started the UK punk scene of 1977 along with the Clash and the Sex Pistols, with whom they shared many a stage. Highly rated examples of the Damned on vinyl are “Damned Damned Damned” and “Machine Gun Etiquette”, the latter of which combined their rifftastic version of punk rock with a generous dollop of pysychedelia–a common theme in Mr. Sensible’s work. Mr. S also had a successful (if unlikely) solo career in the ’80s and toured the USA as a rap artist (I kid you not…) when his single “Wot” found itself high in the Billboard Dance Charts. He recently formed his own political organisation, The Blah! Party, as a direct result of Tony Blair’s warmongering. Captain is still touring with the Damned who are planning some recording soon–so if there’s any labels out there……
www.captainsensible.com