Quirk Persists

A couple of quotes from Tim Quirk’s 10 year old interview the The Onion’s AVClub that came to mind earlier this week.

I was mis-remembering them, posting them here so that happens less.

“We were always trying to put out slick rock records. Even the crappily recorded stuff on Green Eggs And Crack was our attempt at being slick.”

This one really changed my view of the world. There’s such a significant difference in the sound between Green Eggs… and TMJ’s follow-upthird album Cereal Killers – that to declare that a similar polished intention existed between both made me think. To me, this is like George Lucas saying – the Start Wars prequels are what he was aiming for when he did the original trilogy. Makes you revisit what you liked and didn’t like about the work.

“If it’s so stupid that it becomes transcendent and beautiful, or if you write something and you’re like, ‘Okay, I know I’m gonna hate this the 100th time we play it, but it’s gonna be really good for 99,’ I lean that way.”

This is something that I enjoy about Quirk’s work – knowingly, purposefully, and deliberately, with tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek exploring a cliched, trite, cheesy realm until you find the tiny bit of beautiful truth that made it a cliche in the first place.