Rock Town Hall • Rock Music Discussion

Music That’s Better with the Sound Turned Off: Devo

Posted by KingEd

Mar 292007

The great thing about Devo was that you didn’t have to listen to their music to love them. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live, where they performed “Satisfaction” and “Jocko Homo”, complete with the coordinated robot moves, the Booji Boy routine, the yellow HazMat jumpsuits, and a fuzz box mounted directly on one of the guitar players’ guitar, was the atom bomb of the rock ‘n roll age as we knew it. With that appearance, the release of their album, and their spectacular, absurd videos, they launched the eventual MTV/hip-hop-era attack on the value of Brill Building-based song structure, the blues tradition in rock, and perhaps music itself.

Did anyone really listen to a Devo song for the song itself? Sure they had some catchy songs and put a minimalist, repetitive spin on the classics, but without the arch theories and choreographed stage and video presentations what are they but Neil Young’s Trans? Lord knows a generation of rock nerds has wasted time trying to defend the merits of that album the way that generation’s rock nerd big brothers wasted time defending the merits of The Beach Boys’ Love You album, but that’s neither here nor there.

Try turning down the volume on a Devo video someday – turn it all the way down – and tell me if the images onscreen aren’t just as powerful and the song isn’t just as good. Try listening to a Devo record with the volume turned all the way down. Just look at the album cover and read an old interview with Mark Mothersbaugh about the philosophy of de-evolution. The album is just as good as if you had it cranked up.

Turn down the sound to the following video before watching, and see if you can calculate how little enjoyment you lose.

In the decades that would follow the appearance of Devo, the music itself would become secondary, then tertiary to the marketing campaign, the video, the overall buzz. Justin Timberlake puts out a new album, pop culture feature stories and cover shots are booked, the little girls understand, old white guys at laptops hammer out praise using ’00s hipster lingo, and JT videotapes himself live at the GRAMMYS! This is the onanistic world Devo imagined and helped usher in. They accepted our necessary de-evolution and aided nature in having her way.

Gut Feeling: My Evolution as a Devo-tee, or How Brian Eno Sucked The Punk Out Of Devo

Posted by The Back Office

Mar 292007

I’m stepping out from behind the door of The Back Office, this one time. And yeah, I know, “the computer guy likes Devo”, ha ha ha. In my highschool there were freaks (outcast, tough kid, pot smokers), geeks (outcast, wimpy-smart kids), and jocks. I was a geek for sure (albeit a film-making, pot-smoking one.) We had an overlap outcast thing with the freaks and oddly our groups coupled more than once. When punk emerged, I felt a place for myself as both an outcast and a geek. And if you look at early Talking Heads, XTC, Modern Lovers, and others, the scene originally had a place for the outcast, arty, geeks.

But unlike Talking Heads, XTC, et al, Devo was more than a band. They were a satirical pop-art piece: aural, visual, conceptual. The whole is better than the sum of the parts. No argument. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t put out some cool tunes that stand up and more than perform their duty now for the future.
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Is There a Drummer in the House: Billy Cobham…Why?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 292007

Why, Billy, why?

Why ask why, right? I bought The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s The Inner Mounting Flame a couple of months ago knowing that I’d be getting my money’s worth of guitar wanking from John McLaughlin. But that would be cool, especially after hearing a song on WPRB one night and hearing that scorching tone I’d loved so much over the years from his work with Miles Davis. The more of that tone the merrier.

I also knew I’d be hearing a lot of fusion noodling from his bandmates, including drummer Billy Cobham. I’d long known of Cobham from years of seeing him on 3 out of every 5 covers of my friend Sethro’s subscription to Modern Drummer, but I only knew his legendary fusion drumming in pass, or more like while running away from guys in the ’70s who tried to play me that stuff.

I had little trouble liking this album, and some of the full-band noodling added up to something cool and unintentionally funny, as seen in this clip of the band playing “Noonward Race”. On the following songs, however, Cobham’s ridiculous chopsmanship is a buzzkill to some otherwise fine hot licks from McLaughlin.

“Vital Transformation”
“Awakening”

Is there a drummer in the house? If so, I ask you Why? Why should Cobham be allowed to overplay the way he does? Who but subscribers to Modern Drummer and non-musician fusion fans who you’d never want to be alone with at a party care to hear all those distracting fills, fills that are counter the core rhythm of the song? Can’t they hold an Olympics for drummers who feel the need to express their chops to this degree?

All-Star Jam: I Really Liked This Song A Lot Edition

Posted by Gerry Todd

Mar 292007

I really liked this song a lot…

…the first time I heard it-

Comment allez-vous?

The Death Rattle, Shane MacGowan, and The Waltons

Posted by sally_cinnamon

Mar 292007

I was catching up with one of my oldest friends, Sandy, today on the phone and we got to talking about seeing The Pogues in Detroit back in 1995. How they had reformed, were touring again, and whether it was the full old band or the new one… I’ve already missed them here, I know. I guess Cait O’Riordan is the only one who isn’t in this recent reformation of The Pogues, although everyone else is supposedly in… (and what IS Cait doing now anyway? “She left the Radiators and was replaced in February 2006 by Jesse Booth, and went on to form a band of divorcées named Prenup with Hothouse Flowers guitarist Fiachna ó Braonáin. They are currently recording their debut album for release in 2007.” – Wickipedia)

Anyway, we started talking about the ’95 show because we actually had the pleasure of meeting Shane and his girlfriend at the time, Victoria Clarke (“the girl with green eyes”) in the old restaurant/bar/dive next door. Saint Andrew’s Hall (St. Andy’s) is a three-level venue still located on Congress Street in Detroit, Michigan. They have smaller shows in The Shelter (the lower level) and bigger shows on the main floor (St. Andrew’s Hall), which has a balcony, and there was the upper level – The Burns Room, which was mostly used for the touring bands’ green room, but I’d also DJ’d up there several times in the 90s for a night that a friend started called “GO Sound”. It’s one of the main venues to play in Detroit.

When I say meeting Shane was a pleasure, Sandy and I were talking about how he should absolutely be dead by now, with all of his wanton lifestyle choices taken into consideration. Even that night, I remember he was on stage and looked like he was going to fall over during their set (white as a sheet, pale as a ghost) and even had to leave the stage at one point for more alcohol and medication, I’m guessing.

Apparently he had a toothache that was just killing him and he was on tons of meds for it. Also the fellow’s been announced nearly dead so many times in the press, it wouldn’t have been half surprising seeing him fall off the stage right then and there! For this show in particular, we were able to meet Shane beforehand (my friend Kevin was interviewing him for his print ‘zine, called Scataphobia at the time), and I remember he was lying with his head in his arms, on a table near the front of the bar (literally snoozing half-asleep/half-awake and in a puddle of his own drool), barely coherent and mumbling, and looking like death itself. A pint still clutched in his hand, and his girlfriend clucking over him like a mother hen while Kevin attempted to get a few “usable” quotes out of him.

Earlier in the afternoon, Kevin had also gotten some quotes and talked to members of the band touring with The Pogues. It was The Waltons (Lik My Tractor, was their big album, and Jason Plumb from the band actually ended up going solo finally years later when I booked him in a local venue in town). The Waltons were a weird mix to be touring with The Pogues. They were a Canadian indie band, with an alt-country kind of twist similar to that of Blue Rodeo or The Skydiggers of that time. Kev’s first question to The Waltons was to find out what they thought of touring with The Pogues – How was it going for everyone? And The Walton’s automatic answer was of course to slam Shane – “Oh, it’s a regular nightmare, he’s late all the time for soundcheck, always drinking…” blah-de-blah-de-blah…

So Kevin, not even thinking that it was Victoria Clarke who was going to introduce him to Shane starts going on about how The Waltons are bad-talking touring with The Pogues, not really having the best time, etc. Next thing you know, Sandy recounts “Don’t you remember?!! …,”

“We were standing in line and The Waltons were loading their gear OUT of the front of St. Andrew’s Hall because they had been KICKED OFF THE TOUR!”

Amazing. So much for first impressions! It was confirmed a few days later that Kevin had indeed gotten The Waltons kicked off of the tour because of his off-the-cuff “anecdotal” remarks to Victoria. Ah, The Press! Did anyone see The Pogues show here recently?

Shake Some Action: An Evening with Funhouse

Posted by KingEd

Mar 292007

During the first week of freshman year in college I immediately bonded with a fellow supercharged, true believer in rock ‘n roll named Doug. The kid had a raw nerve quality that fed into my own need for letting it all hang out. With a wiry build, a head full of thick curls, and a jagged nose, Doug talked in quick spurts, in deep grunts. His days were spent on a teeter-totter of partying his ass off at night and then spending the following morning jogging off the ills of the previous night. In those days I maintained a more even-keeled dedication to destructive behavior, so I rarely saw Doug while the sun shined.

We’d get together a couple of nights a week to do bong hits and examine the grooves of our favorite records. We’d each pull out 3 or 4 records the other guy didn’t know or may not have fully appreciated and then spend a couple of hours pointing out all the transcendent moments, all the while gauging each other’s reaction and calculating “turn-on points” we might be collecting. (Looking back, no wonder we weren’t getting laid nearly as much as we would have liked.) One record we both loved that we agreed required exclusive examination was The Stooges’ Funhouse.
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Fantasy Rock Band League Draft Enters Developmental Pool

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Mar 282007

It is accomplished! The 5 rounds of drafting from the Talent Pool, that is. Next, we’ll be entering the final stage of the draft, the Developmental Pool, which bands requiring Powerhouse lineups and additional talent (eg, “Oliver” members, backups for Australian and Aisan tours, etc) may use.

First, let’s review the bands as they stand after 5 rounds!

1. Mockcarr, GM: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mitch Mitchell, Mike Campbell
2. Ray Cooper Party Machine, Andyr, GM: Pete Thomas, Prakash John, Paul Shaffer, Sammy Hagar, Brian Emch “B”
3. Bob Seger and the New Dynamic Superiors; Hrrundivbakshi, GM: Al Jackson, Bob Seger, Keith Richards, Jack White, Alan Toussaint
4. Geo, GM: Prince, Benny Benjamin, Art DiFuria, Terry Adams
5. Even Worse Wizard, Saturnismine, GM: Roy Wood, Mo Tucker
6. The Subwoofers, BigSteve, GM: John Entwistle, Al Anderson, Garth Hudson, Ron Tutt
7. Meanstom, GM: John Bonham, Jack Bruce, Tony McPhee
8. American Metal, Sally Cinnamon, GM: Keith Moon, Tim Rogers, Peter Buck, Adam Schlesinger
9. The Death Rattle, Scottrodgers, GM: Bill Kreutzman/Mickey Hart, Bernie Worrell, Buck Dharma, Rick Danko
10. Division By Zero, Sammy, GM: Andy Gill, Jah Wobble, Stewart Copeland, Tom Verlaine
11. Afterschool Special; Mr. Mod, GM: Bruce Thomas, Roger Daltry, Mick Jones (Clash), Paul Thompson, Jimmy Page

The rules for selection from the Developmental Pool are simple:
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