MK Magazine News 2008

Art Band Is Either Rethinking Its Identity or Ridiculing Crowdsourcing. Or Both?

Is it even advertising? Who the hell knows? But it is so cool and funny and wicked and surprising and surprisingly restrained and postmodern in the best sense. In short: so Devo.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2AdDPYlVDs     Focus Group Testing the Future

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e57QD6Pxjeg  to see the DEVO Colorstudy

http://splash.clubdevo.com/olympics/ to hear their new song FRESH

Devo, of course, is the band/ongoing performance-art project that you might call industrial new wave, if you were determined to label a moving genre target. They’ve been nationally prominent for 30 years, since they appeared on ABC’s “Fridays” in hazmat jump-suits and “energy domes,” which were terraced red plastic hats resembling upside-down flower pots.
 
The central joke: Devo as the embodiment of devolved mankind, in the form of clownish, robotic freaks. The apotheosis of their ironic aesthetic: a cover of the Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” performed in full Devo mono-syncopation. The effect: Stripped of its hormonal energy, the song is suddenly funny, yet weirdly fetching in its own right.

Anyway, Devo will soon release its first album of the millennium, and in a nod to the new “Listenomics” world, is rethinking every aspect of its visual identity — its costuming, its color scheme, even its music. Or, in a nod to the growing triteness of Listenomics and its ilk, Devo is ridiculing the growing obsession with the perfunctory crowdsourcing of everything.

Or both. The online “Devo Color Study” has the look and feel of a psychological test, and the absurdist bent of people wholly dedicated to an absurdist bent. Likewise, the video summary of a color-study focus group (which seems to have used actual subjects) is riddled with silly details all presented absolutely deadpan.

The moderator, with his mild, unblinking eyes opened excruciatingly wide, is earnest and seemingly guileless as he asks: “How does the color yellow make you feel? What happens when you touch the color yellow?” What makes it all so funny is his goofy seriousness in the simultaneously believable and ridiculous line of inquiry.

 
What makes it funnier is the fact that the poor suckers being questioned have no idea they are tools of satire. What makes it even funnier is that even when their answers are especially stupid, the ironists resist the temptation for a rim shot. The moment simply comes and goes.

Moderator: How does blue make you feel?
Subject: Giggly.
Moderator: What words come to mind when you think of the color blue?
Subject: House. Blue dog. Yacht. Luggage.

Luggage. The whole tongue-in-cheek exercise culminates in the last bit, when the moderator — who does his moderation for no apparent reason via closed-circuit TV — excuses himself to “change his batteries” and never reappears, stranding the subject in a studio knowing not what to do.

Hmm. This is all new, yet it somehow all looks so familiar.

Ahh, but of course. The agency here is Mother, whose Swedish principals pioneered Devo-ish ultra-postmodernism at Paradiset back in the mid-’90s, for Diesel and roboticothers. If ever a client and an agency were better suited, we’d be hard-pressed to recall it. The campaign is the perfect product of the perfect marriage … unless …

Unless it is all too clever by half.

Is it possible to satirize market research, corporate-speak, focus-group-speak and most of all consumer manipulation when you are actually trying to manipulate the consumer? Is the cult of Devo so hip that it will actually resent being played like the clueless research subjects, for schmucks?

Of course, therein lies the genius. This is Devo, after all. The audience’s surrender to the joke is the essence of the art — the mysterious, precarious duality of victim and connoisseur.

Just as a bad, de-sexed version of “Satisfaction” can be so paradoxically, intellectually good, this brand’s contempt for the audience is prerequisite for their sacred, mystical bond.

But will it include lyrics to “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Shopping list”?
 
For every Glenn Danzig fan who was dying to know the lyrics to all the DANZIG, MISFITS and SAMHAIN songs — tracks that never had their “dark verses” printed — well, wait no more. A book of Glenn Danzig’s song lyrics, illustrated by longtime Danzig collaborator and friend Simon Bisley, has finally been made available via the Verotik web site. Each song gets its own illustration by Bisley, who has painted many album covers for Danzig, including the latest CD, “The Lost Tracks Of Danzig”, and ex-MISFITS member Doyle Von Frankenstein’s solo project GORGEOUS FRANKENSTEIN (which Glenn produced).

“Hidden Lyrics Of The Left Hand” can be ordered at www.danzig-verotik.com/verotik/news.html

As previously reported, DANZIG has set “Deth Red Sabaoth” as the title of its new album, tentatively due this spring. Drummer Johnny Kelly (TYPE O NEGATIVE, SEVENTH VOID) and Tommy Victor (PRONG, MINISTRY) will appear on most of the tracks, according to a posting on DANZIG’s official web site.

Although Johnny Kelly has been performing live with DANZIG off and on since 2002, this will mark the first time he has recorded with the band. Tommy Victor, of course, played guitar on 2004’s “Circle Of Snakes” album.

The CD will feature a song called “Long Dark Road”, which is decribed by Glenn as “very creepy and echo-y. It’s like an old kind of ’50s-ish kind of song. I’ve been having in my head probably for about six, seven, eight years. I haven’t gotten around to recording it, and I recorded it, so it’s pretty cool.”

Night Of The Vinyl Dead recently released a limited-edition (500 copies) vinyl version of DANZIG’s 2002 album, “777 - I Luciferi”. The package contains a 12-page photo book and screenprint by M. Fumi.

“777 - I Luciferi” was previously released on CD only through Eagle-Spitfire Records.
 

  
Billy Idol will debut a new powerhouse band when he hits the road this summer with performances at major music festivals throughout Europe, with North American dates set to follow.

In addition to his longtime guitarist Steve Stevens, Stephen McGrath on bass and Derek Sherinian on keyboards, Idol will be joined on this trek by acclaimed guitarist Billy Morrison and drummer Jeremy Colson. Morrison, one of the founders of Camp Freddy and front man for Circus Diablo , has previously played in The Cult, Stimulator, Doheny and Into A Circle, while Colson is Morrison’s collaborator in Circus Diablo and is known for his work with Steve Vai, with whom he’s worked since 2002.

The legendary rocker’s 2010 summer trek will kick off with a pair of shows in Russia (Moscow on June 5th and St. Petersburg on June 7th), to be followed with a performance at the Malmo Sweden Rock Festival and his second appearance at the Download Festival at Donington Park in his native UK.

European tour stops include multiple dates in Germany, along with Switzerland, Serbia, Macedonia, Czech Republic, among others. Look for the US dates to be announced in the coming weeks.

Along the tour, Idol will be performing classics from his storied career. As leader of the group responsible for starting a youth cult, Generation X, he was one of the original British punks who gave the rock establishment a good kick up the arse with such classics as ‘Ready, Steady, Go’, ‘Wild Youth’, ‘Your Generation’ and ‘Dancing With Myself’, the latter of which marked the transition to Idol’s solo career when it appeared in remixed version on his 1981 Don’t Stop EP.

Other show-stoppers will likely include hits from the Grammy and MTV nominee’s multi-platinum selling career including ‘Hot In The City’, ‘White Wedding’, ‘Eyes Without A Face’, ‘Flesh For Fantasy’, ‘To Be A Lover’ and the #1 smash ‘Mony Mony’. He long ago found a way to take that sneering punk attitude into the pop and rock mainstream, carving out songs that have lasted a lifetime. All of these classics are included on 2008’s The Very Best Of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself, a career-spanning CD, Deluxe Edition CD/DVD and digital collection (Capitol/EMI). His immortal ‘Rebel Yell’ was also featured on 2008’s Guitar Hero World Tour game.

Tour dates:

June
5 - Moscow, Russia - SCCH Russia
7 - St. Petersburg, Russia - Ice Hall
9 - Helsinki, Finland - Ice Hall
11 - Malmo, Sweden - Sweden Rock Festival
13 - Donington Park, UK - Download Festival
16 - NR Nurenburg, Germany - Arbenburg, Burg
18 - Athens, Greece - Karaiski Stadium
20 - Skopje, Macedonia - Skopsko Lizgaliste
21 - Belgrade, Serbia - Belgrade Arena
22 - Zagreb, Croatia - T Music Festival
24 - Ljubjiana, Slovenia - Hala Tivoli
25 - Vienna, Austria - Danube Island Free Festival
27 - Prague, Czech Republic - Sasazu
29 - Ravensburg, Germany - Oberschubenhalle

July
1 - Sopron, Hungary - Volt Festival
3 - Germany - TBA
4 - Bremen, Germany - Freeload Festival
8 - Bonn, Germany - Museumplatz
9 - Huttweil, Switzerland - Rocksound Festival
11 - Weert, Holland - Bospop Festival

In what promises to be a busy season for the surviving members of the Doors, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore, this spring brings new projects. 

The Doors’ documentary, When You’re Strange, is now readied for release in April in the US and internationally.  It will feature an accompanying soundtrack, with readings of Jim Morrison’s poetry by the film’s narrator, Johnny Depp, and interviews with the band back in the day. 

Also in April, drummer John Densmore will publish his second autobiography.

Guitarist Robby Krieger will be releasing a solo CD in the very near future, and has announced that he is also penning his first book.

The documentary, which I saw at the LA Film Festival in June last year, is not Oliver Stone’s fantasy of the Doors, but rather the Doors as they saw themselves.  It includes footage of early movies made by Jim Morrison, who attended UCLA and graduated with a B+ average and his BA in Theater Arts. UCLA is where he met fellow Door, Ray Manzarek, also a canny filmmaker.

If you can’t make it to the movie theater, keep an eye out for the DVD.  Directed by Tom DiCillo and produced by Dick Wolf.

Photo: Shearer/WireImage

SOURCE: Rollingstone.com

In the new issue of Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and producer Don Was tell the story behind the Rolling Stones upcoming Exile on Main Street reissue, which is due May 18th in a variety of special editions — several of which feature 10 never-before-heard Stones tracks from the Exile era. At the end of our phoner with Richards, we asked about the possibility of a new Stones studio album in the near future. “There’s no definite plans, but I can’t see any of them stopping,” he says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we did some recording later this year.” But the guitarist admits he’s uncertain whether any sort of tour would follow. “I don’t know how the rest of them feel about roadwork at the moment,” he tells RS. “Maybe we’ll search for a different way for the Stones to go back on the road. Maybe not the football stadiums anymore. Maybe something different. You can’t go around there in lemon-yellow tights forever.”

Richards also addressed reports he had stopped drinking. “Listen, the rumors of my sobriety are greatly exaggerated,” he says. “And we’ll leave it at that.”

See the new issue of Rolling Stone for much more on the new Exile on Main Street reissue, Keith’s forthcoming memoir, the documentary that Johnny Depp is currently prepping about his life, and the next Stones album.

BACK IN BLACK: Two days after Johnny Cash’s “American VI: Ain’t No Grave” was released Feb. 23, Apple announced that the iTunes store had sold its 10 billionth song: Cash’s aptly titled “Guess Things Happen That Way.” Billboard 200 chart manager Keith Caulfield muses that only a publicist could have dreamed of such a scenario, and with such an apt song title.

Starting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, the new set is the final installment in Cash’s American Recordings series with producer Rick Rubin. Here is a look at the peak positions of each edition:

Peak Pos., Title (Year)
No. 110, “American Recordings” (1994)
No. 170, “Unchained” (1996)
No. 88, “American III: Solitary Man” (2000)
No. 22, “American IV: The Man Comes Around” (2003)
No. 1 (one week), “American V: A Hundred Highways” (2006)
No. 3, “American VI: Ain’t No Grave”(2010)

Cash’s new entry marks his 49th on the Billboard 200, extending the late icon’s chart span on the list to 51 years, three months and one week.

In addition to providing some of Cash’s best-received work with its stripped-down approach, including his acclaimed cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” in 2003, the American Recordings series has nearly doubled his top 10 output on the Billboard 200. Prior to “American V: A Hundred Highways,” Cash had banked three top 10 albums: “Johnny Cash at San Quentin” (No. 1, 1969), “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash” (No. 6, 1970) and “The Legend of Johnny Cash” (No. 5, 2006).

“Hurt” remains Cash’s last charted title on Country Songs, where it spent a frame at No. 56 on the March 8, 2003, survey. Cash’s total of 135 charted titles on Country Songs is bested only by George Jones’ 165 and Eddy Arnold’s 143. (”Johnny Cash” last appeared on the chart as the title of Jason Aldean’s No. 6 ode in 2007).

Natalya Marie Ganz born March 3, 2010 6.6 lbs.

Kudos to Dave and Kristina!