devo - guilty of delivering unto us tina fey

all facts on this page courtesy of simon reynold's excellent book, rip it up and start again: post-punk 1978-1984

when an average person thinks of devo, they think of this:


devo - "whip it"

which is understandable, as this is by far their most popular song. the problem is that since this is probably the one thing created by devo which actually permeated popular culture, i'm sure most people have written them off (as i once did) as one of those forgettable new wave bands who got lucky with a single catchy hit. the reality, though, is quite different: by buying into the system, devo managed to subvert it, infiltrating the system from within and becoming the exact opposite of anti-flag (a goal all good citizens should aspire to fulfill).


justin sane (hahahaha, get it?) knows that to be a true punk, one must espouse facile politics and sign with a major label

as with many "bands with a message," it's hard to differentiate between what devo honestly espouses and what is satirical or ironic; i choose to take everything at face value, as it's much simpler than using critical thinking. devo is named after the concept of "de-evolution," the idea that society has reached its apogee and is slowly regressing to more primal modes of living. devo applied this philosophy by showing videos of penile reconstruction surgery during concerts, wearing strange costumes and selling out whenever possible (i'm not sure how any of these really tie into de-evolution, but devo is cool, so i'll let it slide).


devo's corporate anthem

for me, devo's magnum opus is the video for one of the songs off their first album, "q: are we not men? a: we are devo!" that song is jocko homo:


when i was searching for this video, i forgot the o in jocko, and the subsequent images i saw will haunt my dreams forevermore

all i can say is that if you watch this video to the end and still think that devo isn't as punk as, say, the sex pistols, then you probably shop at hot topic. it's got dudes writhing around on a table, mark mothersbaugh looking like matthew lesko and doing a crazy man-dance, and a class of students attired in surgical garb. this description doesn't do the video justice, so just watch it.

devo isn't so great anymore, because like most bands from the '70s and '80s, the lead singer got incredibly fat.


mark mothersbaugh: waiter, whatever rob smith is having for dinner, i'll take two!

yet their impact still lingers in one important way. back in 1978, saturday night live (only a few years old at the time) wasn't getting very good ratings, and there was talk of canceling the program. then devo came on and delivered the performance of their lives:



by blowing away the audience (both in-studio and across the nation) so thoroughly with their manic performance, devo ensured that snl would soldier on, to a point where it's now impossible to cancel, even though the show has gone completely downhill. so thank you, devo, for giving us jimmy fallon, tina fey, finesse mitchell and every other cast member who truly aspires to fit the label "not ready for prime time."

in retrospect, maybe her parents shouldn't have stopped that dog from eating her face

"no pussy blues" - an awesome song by an awesome man

grinderman's "no pussy blues"

nick cave seems like a super-cool "bloke." here are a few notes on nick cave (i swear i'm not going for that chuck norris vibe right now):

-he has probably called someone a cunt in a bar, right before throwing the first punch in what would turn out to be a huge brawl.

-since he did a ton of drugs and is super-cool, he was probably the sort of customer who a drug dealer brags about selling to (so basically the polar opposite of this guy).

-nick cave wrote a critically acclaimed film, the proposition (trailer), about irish cowboys in the australian outback. seriously, watch this movie, it's pretty great.

-nick cave has an awesome mustache, the kind that i am forever doomed to strive towards but never achieve.

nick cave doesn't have the no pussy blues when you're around.

anyways, nick cave is a pretty cool guy, and this song is awesome. i was kind of surprised that i liked it so much because i had heard his old album with the bad seeds, "murder ballads," which contains the same storytelling motif throughout its entirety, and i wasn't really feeling it. the whole "let's sit by a campfire in the middle of the outback while i tell tales of obscure murderers and rapists" theme seemed antiquated and boring. this song has kind of the same thing going for it, except nick cave just talks about how he can't get laid, yet it's strangely endearing.

also you should turn up the volume so when that catastrophic wail kicks in, it caves in your skull. seriously, listen to this song if you like folksy shit and/or sonic youth.

if you don't like crystal castles, then you should be executed

Crystal Castles' "Vanished" as performed by Kings of Leon.

if i add a CD to my unspoken internal list of "best albums i've ever heard," it tends to come after a long period of introspection and doubt. by which i mean that i've listened to the CD, discarded the critical consensus solely for the sake of being contrary, accidentally heard the songs a few more times when they came up on shuffle, realized that the CD was actually fantastic, and begun acting as if i actually liked it since before it was released.

my love for crystal castle's self-titled LP arose out of an even longer period of introspection and doubt (i accidentally downloaded a CD of outtakes or B-sides or something before the album i was looking for, and thus repeated the above-mentioned process twice). at first i thought the whole 8-bit gimmick was incredibly silly and that crystal castles was another one of those bands which scenesters latch onto with seemingly no regard as to the quality of their music, one of those bands which tends to adhere more to the axioms and peccadillos of what makes pitchfork like you rather than, you know, making music that's actually fun or interesting to listen to.

(side note: how come 9/10ths of all indie bands being released nowadays have that weird chamber-pop aesthetic going, but then they just sort of drop the "pop" side of the equation to produce tunes that wouldn't sound out of place in a victorian england sitting parlor but for the incomprehensible lyrics? and what's with the whole "beach boys vocal harmony" thing that every new indie band does nowadays? yes, panda bear's album was pitchfork's number one album of the year in 2007, but what people seem to have forgotten is that this album is terrible).

anyways, i wised up and realized that this album is actually sick. i like how crystal castles seems really tuned in to the idea of making fun music, rather than sticking to a particular rhythm or melodic scheme. you have the rave-induced stylings of "untrust us" and "black panther," the quasi-dance music of "courtship dating" and "air war," and the amped-up screams in "alice practice" and "love and caring" (note: almost all of these are fan videos, so at least half of them are going to be hilariously shitty).

my favorite song is "vanished," which i've helpfully embedded up top, so now you have no excuse to not like this band.

in closing: at this point in time, i can only think of a few things that canada has produced which were worth exporting. poutine. kristen kreuk. rick moranis (i dare you to tell me that you don't appreciate "honey i blew up the baby"). and now, CRYSTAL CASTLES.

vote crystal castles' self-titled LP for best album of 2008!