Question: So at the moment you don’t have a plan to make a band record or rock record or whatever, in the next two years or something like that, or you might do or you might not? Answer: “You know what, I might make five records, I might go back to that plan. You know, but if I do make five records, I don’t want to be told we can’t put them out because that isn’t what we can do. Because, you know, if you can do it they should be able to do it. So if they can’t deal with it then they’re clearly the wrong people.” —Elvis Costello, February 16th 2008 - The Word
Elvis Costello hasn’t released his new album on CD — it’s only available on vinyl and as a digital download. And while that’s a fascinating move, I have to admit that I’m way more interested in the album’s name: Momofuku.

Did Costello, who currently lives in New York, name his new release after the hottest restaurants in the city: chef David Chang’s Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssam Bar, and the new, impossible-to-get-into Momofuku Ko? Costello’s reps weren’t immediately able to provide an answer, so I went straight to Chang, whose East Village restaurants serve his hyper-inventive, heavy-on-the-pork cuisine in a rock and roll setting: waiters wear t-shirts, you sit at counters, and loud music is always playing (plus, there’s a huge vintage Band poster hanging at Noodle Bar). “We’ve heard he’s a fan of the restaurant, but I doubt he’d name his album after us,” says Chang. “That would be too weird. It blows my mind. There’s just no way! He’s Elvis Costello, for Christ’s sake!” Chang, a “big-time” Costello fan, notes that “Less Than Zero” is on heavy rotation in his restaurants. He’s never met Costello, though, and says that the only rock-musician regulars he knows of are the Hold Steady and Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan. But if Costello’s album name is a tribute to Chang’s restaurant, does he get a much-coveted hook-up for Ko — which seats only fourteen people and accepts reservations only online? “Nope!” says Chang. “Even if I wanted to get a table, I’d have go through the reservation system.”

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