Lately, it seems, indie rock has been mixing with food in surprisingly high-profile ways. Last year, Alex Kapranos, onetime chef and lead singer of the U.K. pop group Franz Ferdinand, released a memoir of his meals on the road called Sound Bites.
On Dinner With the Band, an Internet show hosted by New York chef and musician Sam Mason, indie groups visit to play a few songs and help Mason in the kitchen.
And celeb-chef Anthony Bourdain (who recently revealed he had spent his last year of culinary school shooting up heroin with bands at CBGB's, a club in the Bowery) returns to his rock roots this fall: He's hosting a Travel Channel Thanksgiving special in his Connecticut home with the heavy-rock band Queens of the Stone Age - replete with turkey, cranberry sauce, and bludgeoning bass lines.
In some ways, this marriage of bands and cooking is a natural convergence. "For me, there's a huge connection between music and food, down to how the music affects the very dining experience," says Joe Kim, owner of Bistro B, a personal-chef service, and drummer with the High Lives. "Creatively, they tap into the same vein."
Sociologist Lynn Owens, who along with his wife, Kay, wrote Lost in the Supermarket, says: "The kitchen has become the new place of celebrity, and celebrity chefs have become rock-star figures, so it follows that rock stars are now becoming chefs."
The trend also reflects a younger, trendier strain of the foodie population that has rescued gastronomy from its own trussed-up, truffle-sniffing stodginess. The food world can only benefit from a rock-and-roll sensibility, says Kara Zuaro, a Brooklyn-based food and music writer and author of I Like Food, Food Tastes Good (the title refers to a Descendents lyric).
"Years ago, when I first went to food events, I felt young and everyone was very serious. Now these sorts of events are younger and hipper," says Zuaro. "People are in the know, both about new bands and new restaurants."
