Mark Mothersbaugh
Myopia
Mark Mothersbaugh is one of those multi-disciplined artists who absolutely doesn’t stand still. As a co-founding member of DEVO and the band’s lead singer (he sang lead on “Whip It,†most notably), painter, composer for television series, films and video games, the man seemingly does it all… or at least a bunch ‘o stuff. Myopia is a companion album to a bigger installation of Mothersbaugh’s “stuff” currently running at The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver). The big retrospective art exhibition brings together the first comprehensive presentation of Mothersbaugh’s art and music to date, from the beginning of his career in the early 1970’s through the present. Here we get the opening African-flavored chant, “Foaming At the Mouth,†a fast-paced hand clapping send-up with arpeggio metallic spike sounds. “Finish What You Said†follows, with a distorted vocal begging and a video game-sounding plopping running the rest of the song. There are some solid keyboard playing moments here, both fighting and adding to the noise behind it. “Quivering Eyelid†is more plunking percussion and chanting with bleeps and burbs behind it and “The Intellectual Risks His Credibility To Save His Soul” ends, the first real song here, with a good beat, distorted guitars and xylophone leading the melody line. It does overstay its welcome I feel though. To be honest I’m not sure how well this music works without visuals with it, but it is fun and quirky stuff… just what we’d expect from Mark Mothersbaugh.
