Another Minor Pynchon Reference

[Evan M Corcoran]

The liner notes on the album "Barefoot In The Head" (a title taken from a Brian
Aldiss novel) by the band Borbetomagus are credited to Thomas Pynchon.  Accord-
ing to the Sonic Youth Discography maintained by Rob Vaughn <rob at msc.cornell.
edu>:

   "Liner notes from 'Thomas Pynchon', which Seth says 'is, 10 to 1 odds, either
   Jimmy Johnson or Byron Coley.'  My guess is the latter."

I have no idea who Jimmy Johnson and Byron Coley are.

An excerpt from the liner notes, culled from said discography:

   "One night Johnson, Coley and I were sitting in the backyard with a bucket of
   fresh sangria and a few bongloads of some very righteous boo.  I'd brought
   out a box of my live Sonic Youth tapes and we were arguing about Ranaldo's
   tongue vectors in the third quadrant of 'Society is a Hole' [Folk City, NYC
   12/1/82] when one of T. Moore's downstrokes caught our attention.  We ran the
   tape back and listened to the passage a few times.  The subtly monstrous and
   mindless GUSH with which T. Moore hit the 'E' chord made it obvious that his
   playing was not coming out of a complete spiritual void.  This was a real
   revelation.  It meant that he was capable of actually unclenching his brain
   and loosing demons of soul creativity."
                        -- Thomas Pynchon (sic) from "Barefoot In The Head"

That doesn't sound like Pynchon at all to me.  Still, it's a reference not
likely to be noticed by either academics or indie rock fans.

"Barefoot In The Head" by Borbetomagus
1991 - LP/CS on Forced Exposure, CD on Shock.

 -EMC