DOM: Is It Really That Sexy Living In America?

Quite possibly one of the most exciting new bands to emerge from the lo-fi world of online guitar synth rock is the Massachusetts three piece DOM.

The band recently put together a magnificent low budget promo video for their song Living In America (no, not the James Brown song), recently released as part of their Sun Bronzed Greek Godz EP (available on vinyl via Burning Mill Records). Check it out on YouTube.

LIA sounds like it was recorded in their bedroom, but evokes wild abandon, trash pop and rock and optimism. The video explores girls in bikinis, skateboarding and other daredevil juvenile delinquent shenanigans. Best lyric is "It's so sexy to be living in America." Although, truth be told, I could think of ten other places I'd rather be living.

Dom's music has been described as "sunburned guitar pop with fat hooks and stargaze synchs that sound triumphant, heartbreaking, and totally immediate." I, for one, would have to agree. The key to the band is their unslick production and Beach Boy harmonies. It's deliberately low-fi, hopeful and messy but it works incredibly well.

Another one of their songs, Burn Bridges, also makes for essential listening.

Watch this band. Things could get dangerous.
http://www.myspace.com/imfur

DEVO, Cheeseburgers and the Best Album of Their Career

Bob Mothersbaugh's distorted guitar shatters your skull at the begining of What We Do, the second track from Devo's phenomenal new album Something For Everybody.

It's been a long ride since their 1978 Eno-produced debut album Are We Not Men?, but through the years and beyond all the music trends and muscial innovations, Devo have miraulously weathered the storm, and comfortably adapted to the techno-savvy world of the Internet, mobile phones and iPads.

This album proves the band have always been ahead of the game. Finally everybody seems to be catching up to the band's theory of De-evolution.

When you usually hear a new album, there's always three songs that aren't up to scratch. Not so on Something For Everybody. For the new kids on the block, power and punch and pristine electronica and dangerous rock guitars fuse together like a Black & Decker power drill.  Metal heads will love this album because it balances synth pop and guitar art rock set to a unstoppable rhythm track. 

This is art rock at its most exciting. I bet you Nine Inch Nails will be flipping out to this platter.

What's intriguing is how a band like Devo can toy with subversive pop irony and cleverly generate it into a yellow sunshine, executive robot monster killer sound.

When the band formed in 1973 it was all Boogie Boy and Akron, Ohio eccentricity. Then by 1980, things became slicker with Freedom Of Choice. MTV discovered the band, Whip It made Devo a household name in redneck middle America, and towards the latter albums, they became victims of their own game.

What was Devo thinking when they joined forces with Disney to create a kiddies' version of themselves in DEVO 2.0?  A few years later, the band slapped a lawsuit against McDonald's for ripping off their likeness.  No wonder I never trusted Ronald McDonald,

Twenty years after the release of the album Smooth Noodle Maps, Devo are back with a vengeance, equipped with a killer sound and 12 pop masterpieces that effectively detail the depravity, hypocrisy, global chaos, irony, and stupidy of the human race. The riffs, the beeps and the beats are neatly crafted into hypnotic pop melodies with an eerie edge.

"What we do is what we do. It's all the same, there's nothing new. Eating and breathing and pumping gas. Cheeseburger cheeseburger, do it again." This is a perfect example how Devo can turn an ordinary mantra into a nuclear pop reality nightmare.

Welcome back Devo. Life's been really rather boring... until now.

http://www.clubdevo.com/