If I wouldn’t like the band so much, I think I might have bought the records for the entertainment value alone. On this second album of the (then still called) Broken Brass Ensemble they follow the theme of pulp literature. Pulp is a genre that existed in the 50s and 60s in comics and literature, mostly in so called genre fiction. As a friend sent me:
When looking at the Pulp Fiction title meaning, watch the opening scene. The opening title card in Pulp Fiction gives two dictionary definitions of “pulp.” The first definition is “a soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter.” The second one is “a magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper.” The movie’s title refers to the latter meaning of pulp fiction, popular during the mid-20th century and known for graphic violence and snappy dialogue. These were printed on cheap wood pulp rather than high-quality, glossy paper like most magazines. “Pulp fiction” also referenced low-quality literature. Pulp magazines contained a wide variety of genre fiction, most notably mystery, fantasy, horror, sci-fi, and western, and are sometimes considered the predecessors of comic books.
This time the artwork is done by the colorist of the comic series Storm, a series that is well known to me. On the inside of the sleeve there is another surprise: a short story in the style of these pulp novels. I applaud them for all this creativity!