DEVO - "Live" The Mongoloid Years" CD, Album, U.S., 1992 (Rykodisc)

Dealing with my father's death in 1976 was a huge cloud over me.  As for my musical taste at the time, I was looking for a new beginning to get out of the old narrative that was my life.   Not a teenager anymore but barely an adult, I embraced the Punk ethics with a degree of conviction on my part.   Especially for those bands/artists who wanted to start over again and work from ground zero and on up.  I can quickly forget my past music heroes such as The Beatles, The Stones and everyone else (except Bowie, I was and am a devoted fan). So something like Sex Pistols appealed to my sense of new, although in truth, there was nothing that new, after all, it's rock n' roll.  As for myself, I was drowning with my past, and I needed something new to feel alive again.  DEVO came to Los Angeles in 1976, and I discovered their music when I purchased an independent 45 rpm single that they put out on their Booji Boy Records.  I remember buying the recording at Bomp Records in the Valley.   The music was harsh, yet dynamic and with an incredible machine-like rhythm.  The sound I was looking for! 

When my friend and I saw them at the Starwood, which I believe was their first appearance in Los Angeles, there was a very small audience.  I saw a few faces that I knew, but I have heard that Iggy Pop was there as well.  Nevertheless, it was and still is, the most incredible concert I have ever been to.  Their intensity and stagecraft were superb.  It was like that they were attached to some electrical force of some sort, and someone turned the switch on.   Throughout 1976 and 1977, I must have seen this band live at least a dozen times. 

The one outstanding musician was their drummer Alan Myers.  He played like a machine, but one with a heart.  Truly he was one of the great drummers on this planet.  You can hear his genius on this album "DEVO LIVE."  When they made their record with Brian Eno, which in theory, is a perfect combination, I was deeply disappointed.  The songs were great, but what went missing was the intensity of their performance.    It seemed like the air in the recording studio was vacuumed out and replaced with a sleeping drug-like ingredient of some sort.   If I weren't so familiar with their live show, I would probably love this album.  But alas, I knew both worlds of DEVO, and this Warner Brothers album is not a good representation of their work.  On the other hand, "DEVO LIVE" recorded between the years 1975 and 1977 is a remarkable document of the band's work but also captures their magnetic intensity.  For me, it is probably one of the great live rock recordings.  And the only great record from DEVO. 

DEVO I feel is a live presentation.  Them in the studio I feel they are in constraints by perhaps technology (which is ironic)  or too much interference from their various producers.  I hear the songs but not the sweat or heart of the band.  I also love their concept of the world to a certain point.  I never felt that they were fair to the female side of the world.  They seemed to be very male orientated, which I found troubling.   On the other hand, I loved their independence.  If I were there manager or advisor, I would have told them never sign to Warner Brothers.  Keep your own record label and just do live recordings.   Make and publish your own books, and make your films without any interference from the outside world.  This, of course, would cause financial ruin, but alas, that is just me. 

Rykodisc put out this magnificent live album on CD, and it serves as a document, but again, it's the dynamic of their music at the time and the way they performed it.  Their sense of theater were both disturbing and seductive.   To be in their audience at the Starwood and other nightclubs was really a fantastic once-in-a-lifetime experience.  The live recording is the real deal.  

  

Tom Verlaine - "Warm and Cool" CD, 1992 (Rykodisc)

Who or what is Tom Verlaine?  For me, one of the more interesting figures to come out of the NYC music scene of the 1970s.  I don't know how he did it, but he somehow made himself as a ghost in a scene that was vivacious and innovative.   I find him to be the essential musician of that time period and place.  Yet, his existence is spirit-like.    Throughout that era and into the 1980s, I couldn't get enough of Verlaine's music.   The solo albums are never bad, but uneven.   "Warm and Cool" is the one Verlaine album that is very different from the rest of his recordings.  For one, it's an instrumental album, but it's a record that doesn't sound like his other recordings.  I can recognize the guitar playing, but the setting is totally different.  

I think a listener now would think the music is David Lynch or something from his world.  "Warm and Cool"  sounds very much like a soundtrack to a very moody film.  The guitar is the main focus, with the bass and drums just supporting the guitarist.  Jazz like with Noir overtures.   For me it has a Hank Marvin (The Shadows) take on darkness.  The melodies are sweet, and Verlaine is very much a strong melody  maker than a riff master.  It's a very clean record and you can visualize Verlaine's fingers on the fretboard.  

The songs here are short except two or three that go up to the six-minute length.   For those who are fans of Television, this is not typical (if I can properly use this word here) of that band's music.  It has a late night approach and although there are places where the music sounds like it was improvised, but I suspect it was well-thought out before the recording.  "Warm and Cool" is exactly what this album sounds like.  And again, I would recommend this album to any Hank Marvin fans out there. 

Big Star - "Third/Sisters Lovers" CD Album

Big Star – Third/ Sister Lovers

CD Album, 1992

Rykodisc

A horror show. Or I should say an album posed as a horror show. A Big Star album by name, but really except for one song, pretty much of an Alex Chilton solo album. Here it is at the end of the line, and what comes up is a combination of a manic/depressive state known as Third or Sister Lovers. In parts it reminds me of late 1960's Beach Boys meeting the Velvet Underground. He even covers Lou Reed's “Femme Fatale” in a faithful, yet full of the Alex menace and a certain amount of grace. For instance is there a more haunting song than “Holocaust?”

At times the album yells out 3AM, but it is an album full of shadows and shades. Not exactly colors mind you, but it's rich like a John Ford black and white movie. Also there is a lot of experimentation with respect to sound and there's a tension from the first cut to the last. If possible I would get the Rykodisc edition due to the artwork, but also the bonus cuts. All good. “Downs” is calypso done with a Memphis aesthetic and again, “Nature Boy.” Essential work.