it looks like somebody finally got off of their ass and did something that i have yet to do–create a critical piece of work dedicated to destroyer’s rubies. i love the record, i’ve written about it here, and i must admit one challenge to the task of writing about it is information design. trying to get one’s head around it in any traditional narrative sense is pointless and futile, so if you want to do something that shares an experience or understanding of rubies, you’ve got to take another angle of attack.
i went through a phase where i wanted to write a straight-up 33 1/3-style book that explored the record on its critical merits and maybe told the story of its making. something in my gut, however, kept telling me “no”, so i kept writing around it (some excerpts of that approach can be found here). i finally came up with the idea of painting about it, both literally and figuratively. i spent some time drawing and painting things that rubies made me think about, but i wound up being unhappy with the quality so i, uh, destroyed them.
jez burrows, as reported earlier this month by the catbirdseat, created a modern listener’s guide to destroyer’s rubies.
i have yet to see a close-up, but it bears scrutiny and i will be checking it out. perhaps more interesting altogether is the idea of infoporn about indie rock in general, and in a lot of ways taking the tuftean path of information design with indie rock records is bound to yield some fantastic results. it seems that mr. burrows is setting out to make a cottage industry out if it. very cool.
