McDonald’s & American Idol Go Low By Co-Opting DEVO’s Energy Dome
We recently discovered that DEVO has once again unwittingly intersected with mainstream pop culture.
McDonald’s fast food restaurants are offering a series of American Idol TV show themed toys in their children’s Happy Meals. One of the toys is named "New Wave Nigel", who sports an orange jumpsuit, punk shades, and an unmistakable DEVO Energy Dome. Flipping a switch plays a DEVO-esque song (which sounds a bit like a mutated version of DEVO’s Doctor Detroit.)
Was DEVO ever contacted by McDonald’s, American Idol, or anyone else involved in making and distributing this toy wearing their trademark headgear?
Of course not.
After a decade long absence, trip-hop pioneers Portishead are back a new album. Appropriately title ‘Third” (it’s their 3rd release, if you don’t count the live album), the disc will be release on April 28th in the UK and the following day in America.
We did an interesting interview with member Geoff Barrow back when the first Portishead album, “Dummy,” was released. Barrow spoke about the creative processes within the band, their interest in film music, and more. The article is available in our archives- check it out here!
The Young Gods will be releasing a new acoustic album, “Knock On Wood,” on April 18th in Switzerland / April 21st in Europe. They have posted some music samples from it on their myspace page. While known for their creative use of digital sampling, The Young Gods have in recent years been doing acoustic performances that prove their sound can adapt to a non-electronic format. When we spoke to member Franz Treichler last year, he said that the experience would probably lead to an acoustic release. And now it has!
I never thought it would happen, but Yaz have reunited for a tour! Known as Yazoo outside of the US, the duo of Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke are starting off with UK and European dates before coming to America in July. Six shows have been announced:
Jul 07 - Oakland, CA (Paramount Theatre)
Jul 10 - Los Angeles, CA (Orpheum Theatre)
Jul 11 - Los Angeles, CA (Orpheum Theatre)
Jul 14 - Chicago, IL (Chicago Theatre)
Jul 16 - New York, NY (Terminal 5)
Jul 17 - New York, NY (Terminal 5)
In a press release posted on the Mute Records website, the members had this to say about the tour:
Vince Clarke: “It’s been really good going back to these songs after such a long while. Many of them have never been played live. I’m looking forward to performing them with Alison for all the fans who’ve enjoyed our music through the years but never had a chance to see Yazoo in concert”
Alison Moyet: ”Playing this material live is not about revision for me, it is about finishing something we started – writing, recording, performing. Three parts of a whole. A salmon cycle. It’s like going home.”
The tour coincides with the release of a new 4 disc box set, “In Your Room.” For more info, visit the official Yaz/Yazoo website at yazooinfo.com
Electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk have announced a series of US live shows leading up to their performance at the Coachella Music Festival.
The dates are:
Sat 4/19 Minneapolis, MN @ Myth
Sun 4/20 Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom
Wed 4/23 Denver, CO @ The Fillmore Auditorium
Sat 4/26 Coachella, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
For more info, visit the official Kraftwerk website at kraftwerk.com
It’s been almost a decade since the last Shamen album (”UV”) and I’d been wondering what frontman Colin Angus has been up to (I knew rapper Mr. C has been keeping busy with DJing and other projects). So I was very happy to learn that Angus is back with a new musical project called Pablo Sandoz. While there are currently no plans for a CD release or live shows, music samples have been put online at pablosandoz.org. In additional, animator David Normal has created a video for the track “Pyramid”.
For more info on the Shamen, be sure to check out our 1993 interview.
Trent Reznor has released a new 36 track instrumental Nine Inch Nails album, “Ghosts I - IV.” It’s available in a variety of formats, including a $5 digital download, CD set, CD set with a data DVD of multi-track session .wav files for remixing, and more. On the official website, Reznor had this to say:
“I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn’t have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I’m very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts.”
“Ghosts I - IV” can be downloaded from nin.com, but the site seems very slow right now (possibly due to a surge in traffic?). An alternative is Amazon’s MP3 store, which has it for the same price. Click here to visit the download page.
Morcheeba will be releasing their sixth album, “Dive Deep,” on February 19th on Ultra Records. For this disc, brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey collaborated with a variety of vocalists, most of whom were sought out over the internet. We’ll be doing another interview with the band soon, so if you have questions suggestions, please email us.
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