Devo – Queen City Sounds and Art

Queen City Sounds Podcast S3E29: GUJI

GUJI’s singers, photo courtesy the artists

GUJI (咕叽) is a quartet from Shanghai comprised of three Chinese nationals Klaire (synths), Alex (bass), Stacy (drum machine) and American ex-pat Round Eye guitarist and vocalist Chacy. The group released its self-titled debut EP on August 25, 2023 via Godless American Records and is currently available on digital and in a limited edition cassette. The group’s sound may be described as charmingly lo-fi New Wave with a clear lineage to the likes of Devo and The B-52s. Keen listeners may hear the earnest and unvarnished sound of 80s indiepop in that C86 vein or like something from Flying Nun. It comes across as a mysterious musical artifact from a not clearly discernible era and that gives it all a timeless aspect that requires no specific style references to appreciate.

The EP came about during the 2020-2022 severe lockdown measures imposed on Chinese citizens in cities like Shanghai with China’s “0-Covid policy.” Klaire and Chachy shared a living space and the citizens of Shanghai were subject to daily PCR tests and groceries and other goods delivered through limited openings into everyone’s homes. With not much to do the duo wrote and recorded with equipment on hand with smart phones and even made a video for the song “Build A Friend For Me” with footage samples including bits of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 psychotronic classic The Holy Mountain. It’s a real feat of creativity in limited circumstances and resources and the kind of thing you wish you’d see more often. The EP was produced by Chachy and mixed by famed Chinese studio engineer Li Wei Yu as well as Casey Anderson. The songs are playful and upbeat and at times have some choice words critiquing the oppressive situations and policies of the home country but all in the tradition of bands like Devo, They Might Be Giants and The B-52’s making observations and statements with creativity and without aggression.

Listen to our interview with Klaire and Chachy on Bandcamp and to listen to the EP and perhaps order a tape, please visit the Godless America Records Bandcamp embedded below.

Mononegatives’ “North Carolina Atomic Bomb” is a Thrilling Shot of Caustic Synth Punk

Canadian synth punk band Mononegatives released its latest album Crossing Visual Field on April 21, 2023 and unleashed a set of songs that are the sound of raw dystopia. The song “North Carolina Atomic Bomb” sounds like something that made from found instruments culled from thrift store dives and some expert rehabilitation of old gear while listening to a steady diet of Metal Urbain, Pow!, Big Black and Devo while not sounding derivative of any of those. Its cutting/clashing guitar lines, fuzzy synth melodies and urgent, almost robotic vocals has a feel like a future wasteland of hard scrabble living in the ruins of technological civilization and there’s something thrilling about music that hits like the sudden realization that everything is a slow moving disaster so may as well get some enjoyment out of the immediate dopamine hit of the solid slices of benevolent irreverent punk nihilism that Mononegatives offer on this song and the rest of Crossing Visual Field. Listen to “North Carolina Atomic Bomb” on YouTube and follow the band at the links below.

Mononegatives on Facebook

Mononegatives on Instagram

Mononegatives on Down Records

Worker & Parasite Parody the Compliance Culture of Corporate Domination Under Late Capitalism in the New Wave Post-punk “The Silent Majority”

Worker & Parasite, photo courtesy the artists

Worker & Parasite uses the imagery of the corporate machine from clothing to visual design in the video for “The Silent Majority.” Its spiky guitar, eccentric anti-melodies and rhythmic accents reflect an awkward, robotic, conformist aspect of how we’re expected to be in the context of late capitalist economic arrangements where your aspirations are all but dictated to you and your horizons defined by what the corporate world has decided fits into its programme. Musically fans of stuff like Devo, The Fall, The Mathematicians and Les Savy Fav will appreciate the surreal and socially critical aspect of the song and video as well as the clear songwriting and performance chops channeled into a whole creative expression of the kinds of thoughts and feelings those of us who have been subject to the strictures of corporate culture know to well, which is to say most of us. Watch the video for “The Silent Majority” on YouTube and follow Worker & Parasite at the links provided.

Worker & Parasite on TikTok

Worker & Parasite on Facebook

Worker & Parasite on Twitter

Worker & Parasite on Bandcamp

Worker & Parasite on Instagram

“Sixteen Gold Candles” by polyheDren is a Non-Linear Psychedelic Jazz Funk Exploration of Notions of Youth and Identity

The unmistakable voice of one of the members of legendary avant-garde, multi-media pop group The Residents can be heard throughout polyheDren’s “Sixteen Gold Candles” telling a surreal coming of age. As can some fairly intricate drumming courtesy of Josh Freese (the Vandals, Devo, Guns N’ Roses, A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails and others). The music video a stream of dream logic psychedelic narrative with the candles featuring prominently as well as a bevy of otherworldly beings seemingly existing inside an interactive Rube Goldberg-esque setting as a bizarre art studio. Juxtapose that with graphic design and video art imagery reminiscent of something one saw in the early 2010s during which many video artists free-associated ideas and colorful imagery to unmoor the imaginations of viewers from conventional conceptions of time, proportion and visual thinking conditioned largely by classical conceptions of what art should look like. Don’t bother looking for a linear plot in the video because even the “sixteen gold candles” seem to be a metaphor for awakening into your own sense of self separate from being defined in ways that are simply utilitarian for the dominant economic and cultural paradigm in which one’s identity must be subsumed by the exigencies of the narrow concept of the marketplace favored by so-called free market advocates. But these considerations aside it’s a playful jazz funk pop piece set in a fantastical realm where creativity is king and a place you don’t mind visiting for the duration of the song. Watch the video on YouTube and connect with polyheDren at the links below where you can further explore the album Psychic out now on Bandcamp and other online sources.

polyheDren on Facebook

polyheDren on Twitter

polyheDren on Instagram

DISCHAAAGEEE’s Frantic, Synth-driven Song “Xuxu” Sits at the Sweet Spot Between Garage Rock, Synth Pop and Post-punk

Imagine a lo-fi blend of Devo, The Fall and Quintron and that will give you some idea what you’re in for listening to “Xuxu” by Japanese band DISCHAAAGEEE. Its propulsive pace, regimented yet borderline unhinged dynamics, playful synth melodies and enigmatic vocals sit in the sweet spot between garage rock, synth pop and post-punk. It sounds futuristic in the way it free associates musical ideas and recontextualizes them to make something that draws inspiration from what has come before without being beholden to it stylistically even if the spirit of that music can be heard echoing in the distorted gyrations and frantic pulses of “Xuxu.” Fans of Pow! and The Screamers will appreciate the songs surrealistic soundscaping and raw energy as well as its undeniably catchy tunefulness. Listen to “Xuxu” on Spotify and connect with DISCHAAAGEEE at the links below.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3OEW90E5e6KLcFFRrDJCba
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK3Eokb8k_1NsZO4IQnLPrw
https://twitter.com/dischaaageee
https://www.facebook.com/uch.kenhttps://www.instagram.com/dischaaageee