Rolling Stone review of ‘Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo’
Rolling Stone’s Nov 30, 1978 review of Devo’s ‘Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo’.
Reviewer Tom Carson concludes:
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! is a brittle, small masterpiece of Seventies pop irony, but its shriveling, icecold absurdism might not define the Seventies as much as jump the gun on the Eighties.
That sounds about right.
Wing sings AC/DC
Some of you have asked me what a Hong Kong-born New Zealander with a mono-syllabic name singing ‘Highway to Hell’ sounds like. It took some time, but I’ve found your answer.
Wing is a singer from New Zealand who fearlessly tackles pop material from AC/DC to the Beegees. And Elvis of course.
Wilson and Alroy have reviewed most of her body of work and found it to their liking.
Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984
Postpunk is the Byzantine Empire of popular music. Everyone recalls it being really big once, but no one remembers much about it. Fill the void in your rock knowledge with Simon Reynolds’ Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984
Buy Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984
Scritti Politti
I’m going through a big post-punk phase right now, set off by Simon Reynolds’ exhaustively researched ‘Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984
Does anyone know if the following singles are still in print?:
‘Skank Bloc Bologna’ (1978)
‘2nd Peel Session’ (1979)
‘4 A-Sides’ (1979)
The quest for ‘Sad Wings of Destiny’
When I was in high school Judas Priest was at the peak of their musical and commercial power and between my friends and I we had copies of almost all of their albums. But there was a legendary long out-of-print album called ‘Sad Wings of Destiny’ that was told to be more rocking, more mighty than any other work (except possibly ‘Screaming For Vengeance’ of course).
There was no Internet and our little town did not have a thriving used record market, so when a title was out of print, you were out of luck. Whereas everyone had heard about the legendary awesomeness of ‘Sad Wings’, no one we knew had heard even one note of it. The studio release was like a metal grail. And the terrible power in the album’s name: ‘Sad Wings of Destiny’. How could you not spend all your time and energy trying to track that sucker down? Answer: you can not. You must find that lost metal codex. And the album rocked indeed. It lived up to every ounce of anticipation.
I invited my good friend from back then and today, Andy Welker, to talk about the day he and his brother finally completed the quest to recover a copy of ‘Sad Wings of Destiny’.
The quest as recalled by Andy
Doug asked me to describe what I could of the day I bought a used cassette copy of Judas Priest’s Sad Wings of Destiny–their second full-length album. This was over twenty years ago, so I am grateful that I can remember any of it.
I think I bought that cassette in the spring of 1986. I sort of remember using my little brother’s money. If it wasn’t that cassette, I know that I wheedled him into spending his money on some cassette or another in those years. Neither of us had much cash then, so it took no small amount of pressure from my friends and me to make deals like that happen. Make no mistake, my brother was a Judas Priest fan, but I’m certain he would rather have spent his cash on treats. And I can’t now ascribe ersatz nobility to conning my brother, as if we’d taught him tough lessons. It was only conning.
In those years, some combination of the following people would have been party to any cassette-buying trip: Me, Doug Manis, Sean Florance (who surely was there, because he was always driving everybody for every reason), Bryan Fuller, Lem Gaswint, and David Welker (my aforementioned little brother). My brother and I only bought cassettes then and we only had a few, a great percentage of which–probably 4 out of 15–were Judas Priest cassettes. Like Screaming for Vengeance. Like Sin After Sin. Defenders of the Faith, I think. We knew about Sad Wings of Destiny, but hadn’t heard any of the songs from it. But we were eager to know.
We ultimately found the Sad Wings of Destiny cassette at the now-defunct Roadrunner Tapes and Records. Roadrunner didn’t stay in business long. I think they suffered from the same problem many used stores have–suck-ass inventory.
I’m sure we tried Kelly’s Comics before Roadrunner. Kelly’s Comics was in the converted living room of a house just a few doors from the Florance family home. Was the inventory at Kelly’s suck ass? Check. I remember wondering, before my first trip to Kelly’s Comics, if the store was operated by Kelly Slaybaugh. Anyone who grew up in Clarkston during that time knows what a stupid, adolescent fantasy that was. Kelly Slaybaugh was my age and a cheerleader from 7th grade through 12th. Probably not a fan of either comics or used music. The real Kelly of Kelly’s Comics looked a bit like a shorter, fatter, and homelier version of Peter Jackson. He was also always grumpy. I wish him good luck.
Anyway, we got the cassette from Roadrunner. What I remember best about that trip was that a kid my age farted near where I was browsing. He walked away and someone I was there with came up to see if Id found anything good. He smelled what he thought I dealt.
That fart was unforgettable. So was the cassette. Sad Wings is a Priest fan favorite and certainly my first or second fave of the Priest oeuvre. I remember, however, thinking my copy was inferior because it was used and released not on Columbia but on Gull Records. It looked like a bootleg, with a yellow sticker for a label vs. the superior direct-to-case printing found on most cassettes.
And the cassette was inferior. Gull or whoever hadn’t punched the safety tabs on that tape, rendering it recordable. And some previous owner taped over a portion of the song Island of Domination–a rocking romp of a song that is best heard without interruption. The interruption on my cassette was the voices of two dudes, one of whom said I’m tired. The other responded by saying, Man, I was tired when I woke up. These dudes sounded like typical dudes from the 1970s-1980s. Possibly both were stoned a little. I picture them looking like Refugee-era Tom Petty.
That’s it. I remember more than someone my age has a right to remember. I can’t recommend Sad Wings enough. Some of it (Epitaph) is laughably somber; some of it rocks quite hard. The themes are familiar to any early metal listeners–quasi-occult references, sadism, and love. Good listening.
Coda
Somehow the two sleep-deprived stoners on Andy’s cassette just added to the charm.
I subscribe to emusic.com where I pay them $15/month and they give me 90 MP3 downloads each month. Indie rock dominates the catalog, but there is also lots of blues, jazz, classical, bluegrass, and other non-mainstream music that the big labels don’t provide much of. They also have a lot of oddball stuff like film soundtracks, spoken word, and just one-off out-of-print recordings from tiny labels that I think are trying to squeeze a little more revenue out of back catalog.
One day I log in and see ‘Sad Wings of Destiny’ listed on the ‘Newly Added’ column. I click one button, wait 10 minutes, and just like that I have ‘Sad Wings of Destiny’ on my iPod. I hadn’t heard that record in at least 10 years, probably closer to 15, and it just rocked so much I let it loop all afternoon. I can’t get over that 20 years later, after all the work Andy and Dave did to research and excavate that metal relic, I’m must bopping around one day and boom I’m enjoying ‘Island of Domination’ on my iPod, sans sleepy stoners. God bless the Internet, man.
Free “MP3 album” from Deerhoof
Deerhoof, one of the most consistently original rock bands of the young millineum, is offering an LP’s worth of free downloads on their website. If you have’t experienced Deerhoof yet, take advantage of the opportunity. Deerhoof fans will surely have downloaded the tracks already, since I’m always the last to know of these things.
The Valley hits #1 on KEXP
Seattle fuzz-rockers The Valley hit the number one spot on KEXP’s weekly chart.
Where were you in ‘82?
This week the endlessly entertaining Wolfgang’s Vault adds Judas Priest live in San Antonio, 1982.
While you’re soaking in metal nostalgia, see if you can spot the factual error in the concert summary. Faithful Priest acolytes should spot it right away.
You’re welcome.
Marching band Radiohead medley
The University of Arizona marching band performs a Radiohead medley. Do no take my word for it! View it for yourself: Radiohead marching band program.
The program includes selections from “Airbag” and “Paranoid Android” from “OK Computer” and “Optimistic” and “A National Anthem” from “Kid A”.
The arrangements are impressive. Nearly all of the guitar parts are covered note for note and the drum corp is playing basically the same patterns you hear on Radiohead’s records. My favorite part is the high-note trumpet duo harmonizing Thom York’s vocal melody on “Airbag”. “The National Anthem’s” bass line lends itself nicely to military band low brass, and the band’s version of “Paranoid Android’s” second section is actually more effective than Radiohead’s version, I think, because of the brass’ power.
You can judge a pop tune’s craftsmanship by the number of genres it can be arranged in and still sound good. The further the genre is from the original version, the better the song is written. Radiohead comes off looking pretty good here.
Blue Oyster Cult and Michael Bolton together in Puerto Rico
Eric Bloom, lead singer and guitar player for Blue Oyster Cult (but you knew that), posts photos of some of his favorite guitars and tour t-shirts. Yes, the creepy logo-shaped guitar is featured. There are two of them!
Not-to-be-believed Blue Oyster Cult trivia: Michael Bolton opened for B.O.C. in Puerto Rico’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium in 1983. I see that you do not believe me. Do not take my word for it, behold the shocking evidence of this unholy union for yourself.
Las señoras, encienden tus motores!