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D-E-V-O… Max and Spencer Like Devo

Posted by Bill under News

I have a bumper sticker that says, “My Kids Know All The Words To ‘Freedom Of Choice’”.

Not really, but I should… ‘cuz they do! There’s not a song on the first six Devo releases (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, Duty Now for the Future, Freedom of Choice, DEV-O Live, New Traditionalists, Oh, No! It’s Devo) that my kids don’t know and love. Well, not true… Max always want me to skip over “Gates Of Steel” for some reason.

Anyways… there seems to be a minor stink brewing about the latest project from the house of Devo: DEV2.0 is basically some of the Devo’s best-known songs re-recorded by the original band and sung by kids… it’s a Devo-sanctioned Kidz Bop, complete with video and all the trimmings. The stink that I refer to is due to the fact that they changed some of the lyrics to make the whole package less politically and socially aware than the original songs tended to be. For example, the lyric from “Beautiful World” has been changed from “It’s a beautiful world, For you, It’s not for me” to “It’s a beautiful world, For you, I Guess Me, Too”. Scandalous! Some people think this is bad, some people think this is good… I think I’d need to let my kids see it before I make a decision (it’s all about the kids, you know).

One thing is for sure… if they start asking to watch the DEV2.0 DVD more than the DEVO Live 1980 DVD, I may need to buy some better earplugs. The other “stink” associated with the DEV2.0 project is that the singing is horrid and the imagery is unforgivably Disney. Scratch what I said a second ago… I’ve already made my decision.

My iPod Has A Sense Of Humor

Posted by Bill under News

My lovely and talented wife Stacie gifted me with a sexy black 30gb iPod Video for Christmas this year, and it’s just about as cool as sliced bread. However, there are a few things worth noting:

• While in shuffle mode, and if multiple versions of the song are present, it likes to play the same song twice in a row. Just today I heard the live version of The Godfather’s “Birth School Work Death” immediately followed by the studio version, and the live version of The Godfathers doing “Blitzkrieg Bop” followed by the Ramones studio version.
• When the Apple support site says the iPod Video will play files encoded up to 160kbps, that’s what they mean. Half of my iTunes library is encoded above that level, and I experience skipping (not horrible skipping… just at the start of the song) and much shorter battery life when I listen to those songs.
• Not having Firewire available really bites.