Devo Live 1980

It’s strange watching younger folks getting into things you discovered decades ago. At the same time, it’s rewarding to know that at least some of the things you held dear to your heart can be just as inspiring as when you were young.

Such is the case for Devo, a band that was incredibly vital to rock music, yet often overlooked because of their image, or more importantly, how their image was received.

The irony is how Devo can be considered a one trick pony by some while being anything but that in reality. As they amped up their visuals, they left their political bent behind which ended up killing any hint of dangerous or subversive behavior.

Because Devo actually started out a bit dangerous and they carried just as much punk ethos as anyone else, but they were just too damn smart for people to believe them.

There is video evidence of this, and the amazing thing is how well it’s documented just at the point where the band found commercial success. Yes, even at the time Devo scored their biggest hit, “Whip It,” they could still lay down a very aggressive and wildly entertaining show complete with costume changes, weird David Lynchian moments, and tight arrangements that are on par with all of their peers, even the ones that may get a critical nod before them.

Devo Live 1980 catches the Spudboys during the Freedom of Choice tour in 1980 in what appears to be a large club filled with admirers. It’s hard to tell, as the video is obviously not something that was documented for commercial release, more probable is that this was just an in-house closed circuit job.

Not that it matters to you; it’s just that there is very little crowd material, which means that every lens is focused on the band as they hit on just about every single highpoint of their first three albums.

The video image is decent but not professional and the sound quality is cut from a mono source, but none of this takes away from the performance that is top notch. I’m guessing that this was a typical show from that tour, and if that’s the case, these guys were a very impressive band. If you’re a fan of Talking Heads Stop Making Sense film, then you should be able to see how Mark Mothersbaugh’s reach went as far as New York City’s David Byrne. It’s like a noisy run through of that critical darling.

The video features Booji Boy turning into a meaty disaster and the bonus features show Devo’s religious alter egos Dove playing some more spiritual spud material.

Live 1980 is a perfect place to get familiar with how good Devo could be left to their own devices and it’s the perfect place for fans to hold as a proud document of a frequently overlooked live juggernaut.

Motley Crue - Too Fast For Love

Believe it or not, when considering the parody that Motley Crue has become, the actually began as a straight-up dangerous glam-metal band who seemed intent on using their decadence for their own immediate gratification rather than parlaying it into a marketable image.

That notion would come later-thanks to some money-hungry music-biz types-but Too Fast For Love remains as an untainted debut from those early fuck-all days. The lyrics are dumb, the recording sounds off, and their performances full of more attitude than talent. Which is why Motley Crue’s debut sounds wonderfully out of place even today while remaining their most essential recording in both influence and sheer consistency.

I go a bit farther and suggest that Too Fast For Love is probably the best, true glam rock album of the 80’s and perhaps just as vital as those revered Iron Maiden records that everyone points to when compiling best-of’s and critically praised. We like those-myself included-because their creators would probably hold their own with us in a battle of brains, while the boys in Crue would merely come across as barely functioning half-wits, annoying to a fault and not at all clever, at least not until you learned that they’ve nicked your wallet, your girlfriend, or both.

I love how the opener “Live Wire” begins with the sound of a hot amplifier while Mick Mars waits for the signal from the control room to begin playing. As soon as the nod is given, he looks down towards his guitar and starts a riff that is equal parts punk and metal, an impressive feet for a guy that used the Crue to reinvent himself after a decade of barely making ends meet on the bar band circuit.

The good news, is that Mars’ transformation is complete as the rest of Too Fast shows how quickly he picked up on this alien genre, a style he most undoubtedly learned from his younger bandmate, Nikki Sixx.

Credit also has to go to drummer Tommy Lee, a lanky beater who plays the kit like someone with ADHD and a bad coke habit on top of it. Cowbells, crash cymbals and double bass drums arrive in the mix without notice, like Lee is concerned that this will be his last recording session ever, so he wants to make sure that every part of his kit is heard in the final results.

While Nikki Sixx now likes to portray himself as a misunderstood writer with legitimate underground credentials, his lyrics and bass performance on Too Fast For Love barely register above an 8th grade reading level. Not that this is a bad thing, because when you combine that fact with Vince Neil’s woefully inept vocal abilities, you have a perfectly executed piece of art.

Too Fast For Love is completely devoid of the clichéd posturing of the band’s later work and is closer to the gutter than anything else they ever recorded. It’s one thing to remind people of your street cred, but Too Fast For Love is the only Crue album that sounds like a credible-and incredible-band fresh off the Sunset Strip.

Michael Monroe - Sensory Overdrive

Approaching 50, former Hanoi Rocks lead vocalist Michael Monroe looks about the same as he did when his old band was just beginning to take off thirty years ago.

While this may do wonders for Monroe’s social life, the real gauge is how his music is holding up underneath all that pancake makeup and glam exterior. Sensory Overdrive is Monroe’s first solo record since Hanoi Rocks called it quits for a second time and it shows that his solo material is also full of vacuum-packed sweet ‘n salty rock, perfectly preserved in its “use by July 14, 1985” packaging.

Some of the credit must go to producer Jack Douglas, who layers Monroe in so much preservatives that it’s easy to overlook just how gnarly some of the riffs can be at times.

As far as Michael is concerned, he raps what occasionally sound like classic rock album titles into new material, fueled by riffs that you’re sure you’ve heard before.

Opener “Trick Of The Wrist” is a cleverly disguised “Raw Power” chord progression while Monroe acknowledges how little he’s changed in appearance while Iggy looks like death warmed over by comparison.

“Got Blood?” is-you guessed it-AC/DC’s “If You Want Blood (You Got It)” warmed over with-swear to god-the riff from Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown” mixed with some other familiar chord sequence for the chorus.

None of this, including Douglas’ heavy use of sweeteners, hinders Sensory Overdrive overall intent: to rock the piss out of a country so wrapped up in discontent that we’ve nearly forgotten how to let loose and have fun.

“We used to do just fine/In the good old fashion times/Now the times just blow our minds” observes Monroe in “Modern Day Miracles” before finally asking everyone to “Stop talkin’/You’re givin’ me a headache!”

And for that, I’m going to have to agree that Sensory Overdrive is delectably original despite all of its obvious lifting from other platters.

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards has little to do with me, even though my age and beyond are probably the only ones left who purchase physical products. I suppose that my age bracket is looked upon as the ones that will propel this year's Mumford and Sons into the stratosphere and I'm sure that we'll oblige.

I'm also pretty confident that the Grammy's are the source of all of my parents new artist purchases.

What that means is that we may see another five months of 100,000 + sales of Adele's 21

But the generation gap is amazing when you factor in how my 8 year old son immediately asked "Who's that?" when LL Cool J came out as the evening's host. Moments later, he was the one singing a lot of the songs nominated when I had no idea what they were or who the artists were.

My four year old daughter could also identify the songs, and she also began shimmying her behind in front of her Mother and I during Chris Brown's performance.

"Chris Brown! He threw a chair once because he's got anger issues." advised my son.

How he obtained that bit of information is beyond me, and is a testament to how far reaching pop culture is among our youth, even in families like mine that seem to have a tight grip on their children's entertainment options.

But since he's shown a propensity for voicing his opinion on tonight's performers, I thought it would be cool to include his random ass comments from time to time because, the reality is, he's got a better perspective on some of this shit than I do.

From minute one, it became obvious that this was going to be a Whitney Houston love fest, all of which prompted me to catch up on her career. She had fallen so far off the radar for me that I had no idea that she released an album a few years back and that the tour was a source of anger among some of her fans due to how far her voice had fallen from years of abuse.

"What are Foo Fighters?" my little girl asked while I wasn't sure if they won something. They sounded like Foo Fighters to me, and I liked how the dude from Fear ended up on the Grammy's while Dave Grohl wore a Slayer t-shirt.

It was nice to hear Grohl carry on about how music is best when it comes from the head and the heart. It was even better to hear him get cut off before he got too long winded.

It was clear from both children that Adele was going to be the big winner as brother and sister would finish up "Rolling In The Deep" whenever the fucking commercial that featured that song would come on.

"She does not look like Rhianna anymore." explained my son while my daughter stated how "She said the "F" word." Meanwhile, my wife and I tried to figure out what was the Rhianna/Coldplay connection was.

Finally, Chris Martin from Coldplay came on stage while my son announced "Coldplay sucks!"

Brian Wilson looked sedated and it looked like someone else was singing his part during the Beach Boys reunion set. They sounded good, but I wondered how much of it was canned. It was cool how they followed the camera to Glen Campbell in the audience where Mike Love gave a nod his way for Glen's contributions to the Beach Boys back in the day.

Why so glum, Joe Walsh? Is it because you got stuck with Paul McCartney during his standards phase? Yeah, that was a bit of a bummer. I'm sure the performance was fine, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Holy shit. They gave an award to that woman beater.

Every time they mentioned Taylor Swift, I kept thinking of Taylor Dayne.

Was that Katy Perry routine supposed to do that? And why do I get the feeling that her time is over?

Meanwhile, how brilliant was it to have Adele start "Rolling In The Deep" A Capella? It took less than 10 seconds to hear how her voice is the same as it was before her surgery. Adele on the other hand is far from over. Here's hoping that she learned a little something from Whitney's passing.

Glen Campbell's gotten worse. I don't remember the words "gotten run outta town" in "Rhinestone Cowboy." As a matter of fact, there were a few extra words that I didn't know. Like the ending "...snd cowgirls!"

Bon Iver won best new artist and sounded really dumb during his acceptance speech. Check Rosie O' Donnell's tweets to see if she knows who he is.

Immediately after the performance, I noticed a Yahoo article how Bruce Springsteen said something insensitive. It was related to Whitney's passing, of course, but it also was one of those non-stories that someone puts together just because it's time for some ridiculous update.

There was nothing offensive that Bruce or anyone else said. It was the Grammy's for crying out loud. Besides, if we're actively looking for something truly offensive that was broadcast on Sunday night, we can start by talking about the bullshit "we take care of our own" speech from Grammy president Neil Portnow suggesting that we all work together as we strive to fairly compensate artists through physical and digital delivery platforms.

You can start by not suing us, Neil.

Whitney Houston R.I.P.

Woah.

Didn’t expect Whitney.

I mean I knew she had problems, and the immediate “cocaine is a helluva drug” mean-spirited response would be totally inappropriate at this point. I don’t know the cause of death, but I did think that she’d outlive Bobby and I could picture her singing at Clive Davis’ wake.

It’s weird, but the Whitney Houston video for “How Will I Know” came on this morning and I didn’t turn the channel. I normally would have, but today I let it play.

You can probably tell that I wasn’t a fan of her music, but 48 is too young for anyone.

Jack Blades Announces Solo Album Proving You Can Still Schlock In America

Just how long can Jack Blades milk his limited contributions to the rock and roll landscape?

Forever and a day.

He wasn’t in the version of Night Ranger that I saw in the early 90’s. Instead he was parlaying his pop-rock tunes with the “supergroup” Damn Yankees. Most recently he teamed up with his old Yankees’ cohort Tommy Shaw for Shaw-Blades and nobody knows why Shaw got top billing on that.

Guess he noticed what Tommy did to Dennis De Young when he recently manhandled his old band from him.

Not that I’m a fan of Styx, just like I’m not a fan for much of anything Blades has done.

I’m merely fascinated how these SoCal arena alumni continue to eek out an existance from us even when they don’t have much of a catalog to pull from. And nobody wants to hear the new songs, so how can they get away from it?

For Blades, the answer has been to team up with those aforementioned alumni and rustle up another tour to pay the bills.

But what’s this?!

A Jack Blades solo album?!

The upside is how in his collage of back stage passes-including one from Sammy Hagar’s Three Lock Box tour-shows an incredibly geeky shot of Blades in glasses during his stint in Rubicon.

"New York, NY) - Much-beloved singer/songwriter/frontman/producer/bass player extraordinaire Jack Blades is slated to release his brand new solo album, Rock N' Roll Ride, on March 27th via Frontiers Records. The new record marks Blades' second solo release for the label. Hot off the heels of Night Ranger's celebrated 2011 CD, Somewhere In California, and a massive North American tour with Night Ranger as support for Journey and Foreigner last year, Blades shows no signs of slowing down with his buoyant new album. Of the new offering, Blades commented, Rock N' Roll Ride is an extension of what my music has been for the last 30 years. It has been quite a rock n' roll ride and I decided to lay it all down on a record!"

Rock N' Roll Ride features contributions from Blades' Night Ranger bandmates Brad Gillis, Kelly Keagy, Joel Hoekstra and Eric Levy, as well as a special guest appearance by Cheap Trick's Robin Zander. Click here to download the cover art. The first single from the album "Back In The Game" will soon impact at radio. Please see below for the full album track listing.

Jack Blades is a frontman, lead singer, bassist, songwriter, and producer as well as a founding member of the highly-successful arena rock band, Night Ranger and supergroup Damn Yankees (along with Ted Nugent and Tommy Shaw from Styx) and the highly-regarded Shaw/Blades. Throughout his remarkable career Blades has sold over 25 million albums, performed in front of millions of fans worldwide and collaborated with some of rock's most legendary artists. With a career spanning three decades, Blades has recorded with, penned songs and produced albums for some of the music industry's biggest names including Aerosmith, Cher, Ringo Star, Alice Cooper, Roger Daltrey, Journey, Ozzy Osbourne, Styx, Ted Nugent, Motley Crue and Vince Neil. His music has been featured in movies such as Armageddon, Boogie Nights, Tommy Boy, television shows such as "South Park" and "American Dad," the hit Broadway musical (and soon-to-be released major motion picture) Rock of Ages and the wildly successful videogame series "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero". With Blades' songwriting, driving guitars, stage antics and on the strength of Night Ranger's songs "Don't Tell Me You Love Me," "Rock in America," "Sister Christian," "When You Close Your Eyes," and "Sentimental Street", along with the Damn Yankees hits "High Enough" and "Coming of Age", Blades' legacy continues to inspire generations while still being written."

Jack Blades Rock N' Roll Ride track listing:

1. Back In The Game
2. Rock N' Roll Ride
3. Hardest Word To Say
4. Anything For You
5. Love Life
6. West Hollywood
7. Born For This
8. Don't Give Up
9. Say You Will
10. Rise And Shine
11. Hey Now

Memoryhouse Release Debut Album and Iowa City Tour Date

Sounding a bit like Rosebuds at moments, Sub Pop records is getting ready to release the debut album from Ontario's Memoryhouse. There's a couple of free MP3 up at the SubPop site, or check them out at either one of their two Iowa dates coming up.

"On February 28th, Memoryhouse will release their debut record, The Slideshow Effect, and kick off a 15-date North American tour, with stops at this year’s SXSW and a handful of European shows to follow. Because sharing is our middle name you can listen to 2 new cuts off he band upcoming release by clicking the track names below."

If you pre-order The Slideshow Effect by February 28th via Subpop, you’ll receive a limited edition photo scrapbook put together by the band! Click here to find more information out regarding this release and to pre-order the record."


Memoryhouse Tour Dates:

Feb 28: Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
Feb 29: Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
March 1: Iowa City, IA @ The Mill
March 2: Ames, IA @ Maintenance Shop at Iowa State University
March 3: St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
March 5: Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
March 7: Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
March 8: Boise, ID @ Neurolux
March 9: Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
March 10: Vancouver @ Waldorf Hotel
March 11: Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar
March 13: San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
March 15: Santa Barbara, CA @ Soho
March 16: Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater
March 17: San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Mar 23rd: Glasgow @ School Of Art
Mar 24th: Dublin @Whelan’s
Mar 26th: Manchester @ Deaf Institute
Mar 27th: Bristol @ Louisiana
Mar 28th: London @ Cargo

Shabazz Palaces Announce Iowa City Date

I got a tour schedule for Shabazz Palaces last week and Iowa was-as usual-not included on any of the dates.

Suddenly, a note from the revived-from-the-dead Gabe's Oasis that Shabazz has included an Iowa City date in late April.

Mark it: April 25 at Gabe's Oasis in Iowa City.

Here's the rest of the blurb:

"2011 was a stellar year for Seattle’s Shabazz Palaces, the sonic movement of Palaceer Lazaro (Ishmael Butler). The debut release, Black Up, was one of the most critically celebrated records of 2011, landing of the Best of lists at SPIN, LA Times, The New Yorker, Pitchfork and more. Shabazz Palaces has no plans to slow down in 2012, announcing the groups first official stateside touring, kicking off on April 3 in Minneapolis, with European dates predating their North American tour.

To remind you how truly awesome Shabazz Palaces really is, we thought we would share with you the new video for the groups song “Are You... Can You... Were You...? (Felt)“, which was directed by Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes.



Tuesday, April 3, 2012 The Whole, Minneapolis MN (All Ages Show)

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 Mad Planet. Milwaukee WI

Thursday, April 5, 2012 Lincoln Hall, Chicago IL

Friday, April 6, 2012 Magic Stick, Detroit MI

Saturday, April 7, 2012 The Horn Gallery, Gambier OH

Sunday, April 2012 The Shadow Lounge, East Liberty PA

Tuesday, April 10, 2012 Lee’s Palace, Toronto ON

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 II Motore, Montreal QC

Thursday, April 12, 2012 Iron Horse, Northampton MA

Friday, April 13 2012 SOB’s, New York NY

Saturday, April 14, 2012 Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn NY