Everything Comes From Something

What if I told you that you could eat Warlord-level food without the long lines or loud music?

Does this remind you of anything?

Still not sure? Here, let me help.

The former was a record player designed in 1957 by Braun Industrial Designer Dieter Rams. That record player led to the design of Braun’s TP1 in 1959, the world’s first truly mobile music player, which in its time was not unlike the truly innovative mobile MP3 player that succeeded it 42 years later, the Apple iPod.

In 2001, as Steve Jobs commanded the stage in his black mock turtleneck, we believed that he’d conjured gold from dust.¹ But, of course, he was just standing on the shoulders of Rams and Sony Walkman Designer Masaru Ibuku.

Did you have this one? I did. God I miss it.

This does not mean that Steve Jobs and his design partner Jonathan Ive, fathers of the iPod weren’t brilliant and innovative. But it’s also a reminder that the credit we give and the fame some achieve is sometimes outsized because we imagine invention as a matter of spontaneous combustion.

I was reminded of this last night watching The Pixies perform at Chicago’s Salt Shed. The Pixies were always brilliant, but they couldn’t really sell units. If they had, the creative tension between bassist Kim Deal and frontman Black Francis that led to the breakup of the band in 1993 might not have happened.

Though they didn’t move discs, like the Velvet Underground before them, the Pixies moved a whole generation of musicians, most notably, Nirvana. 

Kurt Cobain said that Smells Like Teen Spirit was basically his attempt to write a Pixies song. Nirvana’s soft/loud/soft dynamic was the Pixies’ innovation. Black Francis’ seemingly stream of consciousness lyrics came home to roost in Kurt’s croon about mulattos and libidos. 

Both bands were produced by Chicagoan Steve Albini, another connection with probably explains why Nirvana’s Scentless Apprentice is just basically a harder core version of the Pixies’ Debaser.

That’s why in 2004 when the Pixies re-formed they were suddenly playing outdoor festivals and arenas and why their old albums were certified gold and platinum. You could also argue it was because Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic had a little bit of Deal’s bass spirit in his own delivery.

Maybe the most interesting thing about the Pixies I noticed is that while founding bassist Deal split for good with the group in 2013, her soul still emanated from the stage last night.

The Pixies rule, like McCartney and Lennon did, because Deal’s soft croon always contrasted Francis’ gravel.  The Pixies rule because Deal was a guitarist, not a bassist. She played the bass like a lead guitarist, less interested in pushing or keeping the beat, and more interested in melodically rising above it, or in short quarter notes, between it.

Most bands can lose any original member except the lead singer and they can go on as they always have. But not always. Led Zeppelin is gone because they can never be without Bonham.² A woman named Paz plays the Deal role now, but real fans know that while the band is extraordinary – last night’s Pixies show was maybe one of the tightest performances I’ve ever seen- it does feel like something is missing.

But that they were playing an outdoor festival-sized crowd that included me in 2023 was because Nirvana returned their inspiration by bowing to their forebears.

This does not always happen. But there are a lot of gatekeepers in music who identify influence, so even if the artist does not acknowledge it, those who cover them will.

Food writing, especially Chicago food writing (New York, LA, even Washington DC media seem to be making investments Chicago is not – many Chicago food writers freelance as much or more in out-of-town publications than they do in their home city) is dying. We can barely produce middling “best of” listicles. Good luck identifying influence.

This might explain why Ummo, the new well-funded Chicago Italian restaurant from Somos Hospitality is ripping off other chefs wholesale.