The Weak In Rock

Most folks I know who play music if asked will readily give you a list of their heroes who inspired them to get into music.  Most of the time those lists are pretty dull.  If you had a dollar for every guitar player who told you he was inspired to pick up the guitar by Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen you’d have enough money to buy out Bill Gates’ share of Microsoft.  Likewise, you won’t find many drummers who deviate much from the John Bonham, Keith Moon, Neil Peart orbit of inspirations.

I was always a weirdo though.  I got into constant scraps with my musical friends in high school and college over my love of Phil Manzanera’s  and Robert Fripp’s guitar playing.  I still get ribbed over saying Tom Petersen and Cliff Williams are my all-time favorite bass players, and not a drummer I’ve known hasn’t guffawed when I’ve declared Phil Rudd the best drummer to ever stalk the earth.

It shouldn’t be any surprise then that my favorite front man and all-around musical genius is Mark Mothersbaugh.  What this man did with DEVO will, I’m quite sure, never be completely appreciated.  Too many people think of DEVO as a joke band or some kind of cartoon band.  They don’t get how absolutely radical and different they were from every other band of their time and I’ve yet to see anyone who pulled together as much artistry in a single performance as Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Cassale did with DEVO.

Here’s a link to a video clip, courtesy of Weird America, of Mark Mothersbaugh talking about his history as an artist and musician.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

Technorati Tags: Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Bill Gates, Microsoft, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Neil Peart, Phil Manzanera, Robert Fripp, Tom Petersen, Cliff Williams, Phil Rudd, Mark Mothersbaugh, DEVO, Jerry Cassale

Back when I played little league my team was sponsored by the local Catholic Church.  It may have seemed like a team sponsored by St. Albert’s Church would have an edge over the competition, what with Jebus on our side and all, but it really didn’t work out that way.  As I recall, we lost most of the time, usually in a humiliating fashion.

Seems we had it all wrong.  Instead of getting a franchisee of the Vicar of Christ to sponsor our team we should have gotten a metal band to get behind us.  This is, apparently, precisely what Gary Weight, the coach of a youth soccer team in North Hykeham, England did.  He approached Lemmy Kilmister or Motorhead to see if the band would sponsor his team.  Motorhead said yes and now the Lincolns of North Hykeham not only get to wear very cool and intimidating Motorhead logos on their uniforms, they get to take the field at each game to the strains of Ace Of Spades - undoubtedly the most bad-ass metal song ever written.

These 10 year old boys are no doubt going to scare the bejesus out of their opponents.  I know that when I was 10 if my team played a bunch of kids who ran onto the field screaming with Ace Of Spades blasting in the background that I’d have needed to change my shorts.

And just in case you need a refresher on just exactly how baddass Ace Of Spades is, have a look at this video clip.  If you can make marionettes rock, well, you truly have molten metal flowing through your veins.

Technorati Tags: Catholic Church, St. Albert’s Church, Vicar of Christ, youth soccer team, Lemmy Kilmister, Motorhead, Ace Of Spades, marionettes