Authors And Rock Stars Unite

To the minds at PENultimate Lit, an international human rights and literary organization, bringing together indie rock and contemporary literature is as natural a pairing as chai mocha and latte. According to SPIN.com, the organization recently hosted an event at Brooklyn's Southpaw club, featuring a performance by singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens and singer-songwriter-novelist John Wesley Harding (who writes under his real name Wesley Stance). Afterwards came a discussion with the two performers and novelist Rick Moody (The Ice Storm), who is also in a band The Wingdale Community Singers, about the "cross-pollination of music and literature."

According to Moody, the non-profit PEN organization is attempting to bring contemporary literature and indie rock into collision, which is a good thing. An ambition which seems destructive to anyone who read Jonathan Lethem's last novel, the critically-drubbed You Don't Love Me Yet, which follows the escapades of a Silver Lake-based indie rock band. If anything, indie rock and contemporary literature should have less to do with each other, not more.

The overeducated and overly literate albums by the likes of The Decemberists, Arcade Fire and Radiohead have tapped the resources for struggling cock rock bands in the Billy Squire mode. I'm not sure who they are, but they're out there. The decline truly started when Weezer stole Kiss guitar licks, but since it was done in an ironic fashion they got away scott-free. Please, someone stop PENultimate Lit before its too late. Even in the indie scene, it's never a good idea to overthink rock music.