Comments on: The Source of all the Music in your Head

The Source of all the Music in your Head

SansPoint — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:58:38 -0800

LA Weekly goes behind the scenes of Mutato Muzika, the commercial music studio owned by Mark Mothersbaugh. Mark is a visual artist, composer, oh, and front man for a little band called DEVO who is "spending December at Mutato trying to create an album’s worth of new material and contemplating a method of dispersal in the post-record-company world."

By: Item

Item — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:07:21 -0800

I had a DEVO dream last night. They put on a great show, but the theater was 3/4 empty and mostly bored. 'Watch Us Work It', the new song in the Dell commercials, is way better than it has any right to be.

By: SPUTNIK

SPUTNIK — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:13:28 -0800

'Watch Us Work It', the new song in the Dell commercials, is way better than it has any right to be. That's because it was produced by Teddybears. I'm an old DEVO head, but the last 3 albums were teh suck. Sorry, Mark.

By: Unicorn on the cob

Unicorn on the cob — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:16:03 -0800

(waits for item to come into thread)

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:16:04 -0800

Devo are incredible. And they have never, ever equalled their first show, wherein they were hired as a Bad Company cover band to open for Sun Ra, pissed off the crowd enough for the promoters to turn off their equipment, and finally managed to annoy everyone into kicking them off the stage by playing "I Need A Chick To Suck My Dick." Sun Ra has been quoted as saying that he dug it.

By: Item

Item — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:16:18 -0800

Oh, I agree about the last 3 records being trash, though it's been 17 years since the last one came out. The boys've had a lot of time to practice since then.

By: anazgnos

anazgnos — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:29:09 -0800

Great post, thanks. Devo's sharp decline after Freedom of Choice (or New Traditionalists if I'm feeling charitable) is thankfully more than offset by the unequaled subversive brilliance of their first three or so albums.

By: bruce

bruce — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:29:56 -0800

i like the acknowledgement of the post-record-company world.

By: kaseijin

kaseijin — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:34:44 -0800

Saw the spuds play summer before last. They were phenomenal. Or they weren't.

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:43:14 -0800

I read this earlier this afternoon and now that it's on Metafilter, the creepy synchronicity in my life is complete. I've been thinking a lot about scoring TV and ads lately, and (oddly enough) had a dream about Mothersbaugh last week. I knew he was big in this sort of thing, of course, but had no idea how ubiquitous he (and his sound) had become. Apparently my hindbrain is better informed than my forebrain. The sense of humor he maintains about the whole thing--the article, at least, makes him just sound generally amused about it all--is great, and I think it's probably part of the secret of his success. Someone (not Mothersbaugh) is quoted about the split between "art" and "craft" in the mind of a commercial composer, and I think that hits it on the head: sort of a detached amusement about the process.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:50:21 -0800

Very cool! I know Randy Roberts, author of the article -- he's new to LA and clearly enjoying himself there. Good stuff.

By: adamms222

adamms222 — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:59:22 -0800

Jesus, I was creating those "mutant" photos last weekend on a standard photo program built into my little brother's iMac. Can I sell the ones I did for 25 bones, too? P.S. Mothersbaugh's music is beautiful and genius.

By: lovejones

lovejones — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:28:06 -0800

Mothersbaugh's music for first season of Big Love pretty much doubled my enjoyment of the series—it's really perfect. Unfortunately, David Byrne's music for the second season halved my enjoyment. Lets have some more Mothersbaugh, please.

By: Item

Item — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:05:52 -0800

Gah, that article is horribly written and a mess factually. If you're writing about a band with fans as obsessed as DEVO's, you need to do your fucking research. mutters something about 'Watch Us Work It' not being the first new DEVO song in 18 years...

By: daq

daq — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:44:10 -0800

Can I not like Devo or anything related to it? Please? I mean, I'm all for the anti-pop ideals and dystopian views of the world and all that, but it always struck me as a strange duplicity to sell that message to ad agencies to make a fast buck. But, of course, maybe that was part of the message as well.

By: sparkletone

sparkletone — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:57:07 -0800

The Great Mutato?

By: humannaire

humannaire — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:35:18 -0800

Freedom of Choice, from MI local cable music video show, circa '84. Now that's devo!

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:51:06 -0800

We are not men. We are shills for swiffer!