ONE RING ZERO: As Smart As We Are

One Ring Zero

As Smart As We Are

© 2004 One Ring Zero

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Quirky pop musuc featuring lyrics from well-known authors

notes

Seventeen of North America's most significant contemporary writers now songwriters

Contributing Authors:
JONATHAN AMES, MARGARET ATWOOD, PAUL AUSTER, CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN, DAVE EGGERS, AMY FUSSELMAN, NEIL GAIMAN, MYLA GOLDBERG, BEN GRENMAN, DANIEL HANDLER, A.M. HOMES, DENIS JOHNSON, LAWRENCE KRAUSER, JONATHAN LETHEM, RICK MOODY, AARON NAPARSTEK, and DARIN STRAUSS

Imagine the finest anthology of writing possible, and then imagine that writing put to music... You're imagining As Smart As We Are, a book-cum-CD (the title comes from the opening line from the final track, "Water," by Jonathan Lethem). Many of North America's bestselling and prize-winning authors, have contributed original lyrics (and in some cases their musical skills) to this CD of music by Brooklyn lit-rock band One Ring Zero.

The project began when Michael Hearst of the band One Ring Zero, soon after moving to Manhattan in 2001, sought out a small store he'd heard about that was founded by Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. The band was invited to perform at McSweeney's events and soon met Rick Moody, who invited them to perform and collaborate with him. Thus began a cascade of authors offering to write songs for the band. Winners of the Booker Prize, MacArthur Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award lined up to provide their song-writing services to the project.

Said Neil Gaiman of the project, "I liked the kind of lineup he [Hearst] was putting together. It was sufficiently odd enough to be interesting. It'll be a great Trivial Pursuit question someday: 'What does Margaret Atwood have in common with, say, Daniel Handler?' It was something like a sort of cabaret version of They Might Be Giants. It's literate. Genuinely funny. And it's odd. It feels like being in a very cool author anthology."

About the Music
Using instruments ranging from claviola to toy piano, theremin to kitty litter (yes, One Ring Zero find music in the quotidian and the sublime. They acknowledge a wide variety of musical influences, from Hungarian folk to klezmer, to Kurt Weil, and have been described as Nino Rota (the composer for most of Fellini's films) on processed sugar.

About the Band
One Ring Zero is Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp. Based in New York City, they perform regularly at venues around the city including The Knitting Factory, Galapagos, and Tonic. They recently performed at the Whitney Museum of Art, at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park, and at the Central Park Summer Stage with George Plimpton and Paul Auster. One Ring Zero has shared billings with Cibo Matto, Medeski Martin and Wood, Thurston Moore, The Magnetic Fields, and The Roots among others. One Ring Zero has received grants from The Virginia Commission For the Arts and The National Endowment For The Arts. Their music has been featured in dance concerts, films and animations, fashion shows, and NPR programming including This American Life, Fresh Air, and The Next Big Thing.

reviews

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  • At first a novelty, on second glance a rare find.
    author: Lizardbreathfiend

    This album grew on me like mold on cheese,imperceptably at first, then steadily creeping, til I found the tunes and lyrics had permeated my brain and were leaking out in little snippets whenever I wasn't paying attention. The songs are a bit uneven from one to the next, but overall I find the album incredibly appealing, much like good cheese...

  • most fun cd i've bough this year
    author: jim

    Creative, fun, clever... an excellent cd.

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