Lost in the Supermarket: An Indie Rock Cookbook

Cuisine isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when we think of indie rock. Maybe it’s the unhealthy, heroin-chic look of a lot of indie artists, or maybe we assume their diets are heavier on Miller High Life and cigarettes than curried chicken sriracha with couscous and mango Japanese noodles. But in their new book, Lost in the Supermarket: An Indie Rock Cookbook, married music fans Kay and Lynn Owens translate the indie rock attitude into the kitchen. You like music that’s out of the ordinary, why should your diet be any different.

With that ethos in mind, the authors asked their favorite bands—Sonic Youth (whose album Goo is referenced on the book’s cover), Silver Jews, the Willowz, Sunset Rubdown, Daniel Johnston, Calexico—for appetizer, drink, dessert and main course recipes. As the story goes, after spotting Genesis P-Orridge of experimental Brit band Throbbing Gristle eating at a local diner, “all discussion on the quality of the music would inevitably bring ruminations on the eating habits of the band.” This happened every time they talked about music? Nice story, but, frankly, it’s a little (excuse the pun) hard to swallow.

Equally questionable is the authors’ claim that music and food are “rarely self contained.” They note that music has its crowds—punks, shoe gazers, what have you—and so does food—vegans, meat eaters, etc. That’s true, we suppose, but how does that coincidence inextricably link the two? Plus, bringing indie rockers into the kitchen isn’t a particularly new concept. Last year, WNYC aired a program about that very subject, with the host of the online cooking show Dinner with the Band and author of the cookbook I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In the Kitchen with Your Favorite Bands, without jumping to conclusions about what food has to do with music (other than that musicians do, in fact, eat).

But if you stick to just the recipes and take Lost in the Supermarket for the novelty that it is, it’s quite enjoyable. The dishes we tried—Belle and Sebastian’s Thai Sweet Potato Soup and Animal Collective’s Geologist’s Greek Style Shrimp—were both delicious. And there is something cool about serving meals that our favorite bands eat. So think of it as the cookbook equivalent of “Louie Louie”: Fun stuff, though it’s best not to think about why.

—Tim Lowery