Q: Are We Not Men? A: Yep.

Douglas Vancannon at North Carolina's Independent Weekly has a sit-down with Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, for my money the most consistently interesting refugee of 1980s pop. He's promoting an exhibit of his outsider-y art, but the interview tries to pull out some of his more oddball obsessions.

And another one of my favorites: "Held Prisoner by the Toys of My Youth Part 2." Looking at this and thinking about Devo iconography, I thought immediately that this fellow here was a potato—a spud. Another viewer thought it was a testicle. Can you pontificate on the relationship between the potato and the testicle?

Potato? Testicle? Well, I don't know. Potatoes and testicles—they're both kind of Devo, you know, preoccupations.

Preoccupations?

Maybe. You know, we talked about potatoes a lot.

This is a guy, remember, who rakes it in doing soundtrack work for Disney and HBO.

Comments

[Matt J]

Don't forget his stellar scores for Wes Anderson flicks.

[ed]

Thanks, David, for a piece that isn't about the Republican Defeat.

After all these years, DEVO's music still holds up, unlike much of what came out of that era. A vastly underappreciated band.

[anony]

you are especially not a man if you eat "femminizing soy" apparently.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Came of age in the 1970's and didn't have a van? No wonder he was a spud.

[mediageek]

"Don't forget his stellar scores for Wes Anderson flicks."

And the music for Nickelodeon's Rugrats cartoon series.

[Todd Fletcher]

I don't care how cool he is, Mothersbaugh should burn in hell for eternity for that horrible, awful Rugrats music.

[Jason]

I demand that you tie this in somehow with libertarianism.

[NoStar]

I like the Rugrats music. Mothersbaugh rates up there just below Danny Elfman.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

NoStar, Danny Elfman is amazing. And he was once a libertarian.

There, Jason, that ties it together with libertarianism. 🙂

[highnumber]

Danny Elfman was once a libertarian? Please explain.

[Terrorific]

His soundtrack to Bottlerocket was great.....even though it didn't include any of the non-Mothersbaugh songs(particularly those by Love).