Pynchon Music: Nova Mob

Sean Lanksbury first alerted Spermatikos Logos to this album in 2001:

First off, let’s make one thing clear, you are going to have a very hard time getting this album! It has been out of print for almost a decade now, and wasn’t distributed very well by the label (Rough Trade…indeed) to begin with. That being said, this is probably my favorite album made by a former member of the seminal punk band, Hüsker Dü. It is a “Rock Opera” of the first order, teeming with catchy epics that are at once challenging (for rock music) and simple. “Pompeii” is also filled with references to Gravity’s Rainbow and the underlying symbolic order. The references are fairly obvious with titles such as “Woton,” “Wernher Von Braun” and subject matter ranging from Nazi Germany to the Space Program (Rockets are Rockets after all, aren’t they?). The wordplay is also Pynchonesque, most notably in the song “Space Jazz” which is a spoken word bit over a feisty bit of psychedelic rock. Grant Hart also has a singsong quality to his lyrics that reminds me of Pynch’s musical interludes. Unfortunately, there are no (overt) dick jokes. Pick it up…if you can find the damned thing.

Grant Hart discussed the album in the British magazine Select in 1990. Although he doesn’t mention Gravity’s Rainbow, it’s not hard to imagine Hart gaining inspiration from Pynchon’s novel:

Grant Hart himself took part in remixing and expanding The Last Days of Pompeii for MVD in 2010, a version of the album that’s still widely accessible. Alas, Grant Hart himself died in 2017.

Track Listing
1. Introduction (2:50)
2. Woton (5:08)
3. Getaway (Gateway) In Time (3:35)
4. Admiral of the Sea [79 A.D. Version] (2:23)
5. Wernher Von Braun (2:18)
6. Space Jazz (5:14)
7. Where You Gonna Land (Next Time You Fall Off Your Mountain?) (2:47)
8. Over My Head (3:41)
9. Admiral of the Sea (3:54)
10. Persuaded (3:34)
11. Lavender and Grey (4:08)
12. The Last Days of Pompeii/Benediction (4:26)