Fading Away

Nevermind's 20th anniversary on September 21, 2011 means that a lot of people are going to be writing about Nirvana. They should be writing about Devo.


[Devo in Anaheim, 8/5/11]


Nirvana covered Devo's "Turnaround" in concert and in studio sessions. Kurt Cobain said it was Devo's best song. It's certainly a great song. But Devo has better ones -- and some of them are on an album they put out last year.


[Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Devo: Something For Everybody]

Something For Everybody was the best release of 2010. (The only albumbetter was East Bay Grease's full-length, which wasn't released until this year on two separate albums.) After a 20-year haitus, during which time Mark Mothersbaugh made the theme to "Rugrats", the post-punks from Akron came back with a slab of electro powered by Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails) that dared to celebrate the sameness of everyday life and growing old.

I saw Devo in concert in Orange County in August. I was one of the younger people in the crowd. (I'm 30.) Devo was selling their hats from the "Whip It" video in red and blue varieties (marketed as "energy domes"). People sported the vintage red ones and new blue ones in equal amounts. About 5% of the crowd was under 25.

Devo ripped through all the songs that I fell in love with on their Greatest Hits album from1990. By the end of the night my wife and I heard "Jocko Homo," "Girl U Want," and "Whip It," as well as three choice new cuts. (Complete setlist here.)


[Devo in Anaheim, 8/5/11]

When I left the concert, I wondered what Nirvana would think of it. Kurt famously plagiarized Neil Young's "It's better to burn out than to fade away" for his suicide note, but all these notions of youth and rock music go back to The Who's "I hope I die before I go old." In Devo, I saw people who I'm glad didn't die.

Mark Mothersbaugh blinked once during the entire concert. He jumped in the crowd. He put on a mask and sang in falsetto as "Booji Boy." He stuck Doritos in his pants and threw them at the audience ("Freedom of Choice"). He didn't look like someone who had faded away. He looked like someone who had gotten away -- with the last laugh.




"Ned Vizzini & 'The Girl Who Was On Fire' At Comic-Con - Hunger Games"



Thanks to HungerGamesMovie.org for posting about my signing at Comic-Con this year!

Today's Reader Email

Today's reader mail comes from Mīkė (that's right) in Tampa, FL.

Will there be your other two books besides "it's kind of a funny story" on iBooks soon?

Mīkė, I wish I could tell you when Be More Chill and Teen Angst? Naaah... will be available on assorted e-book formats. However, I have no control over this. The best I can do is pester people and tell them that people like you are looking for the books and hope that they make the call. So I'm going to do that now! Thanks for your support.

A small note: since mid-2008, this blog has been bi-monthly. Starting this month I'm going monthly because of the many projects I'm involved with, not the least of which is my son Felix. So this will be the only entry for August and the next will come in September. If you have problems, talk to Felix.