Latest news with #Devo
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Announce Inaugural Future Ruins Fest Celebrating Film Music
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have announced the inaugural Future Ruins Festival, featuring many of cinema's top composers performing their scores live for the first time. In addition to the Oscar-winning duo of Reznor and Ross, Future Ruins — heading to Los Angeles on November 8 — will also include sets by Devo singer and Wes Anderson composer Mark Mothersbaugh, horror director and composer John Carpenter, Oscar-winning Joker composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Questlove performing the film scores of Curtis Mayfield. More from Rolling Stone Latin Music Festivals Scramble Amid Visa Uncertainty: 'It's Scary' AXE Ceremonia 'Working Closely' With Authorities After Deadly Crane Accident Anitta, Grupo Firme, Netón Vega Lead Chicago's Michelada Fest Lineup 'It's about giving people who are, literally, the best in the world at taking audiences on an emotional ride via music the opportunity to tell new stories in an interesting live setting,' Reznor said in a statement. Other artists on the lineup included Danny Elfman, Stranger Things duo Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, Italian group Goblin, Terence Blanchard, Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow, Isobel Waller-Bridge, a performance of Howard Shore's Crash score, and more. According to the organizers, across three stages at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, 'Each artist is encouraged to take big swings and reimagine their work for a live audience. Ranging from electronic sets and live bands to orchestral performances, fans have the chance to experience live debuts from composers who rarely appear onstage.' 'There's no headliner. There's no hierarchy. This is a stacked lineup of visionaries doing something you might not see again,' Reznor and Ross added. Check out the Future Ruins site for ticket information. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
San Francisco Chronicle
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Why did Josh Freese leave Foo Fighters? It might have to do with too much whistling and too many poodles
Josh Freese, the veteran drummer who replaced Taylor Hawkins in Foo Fighters, has offered fans some theories on why he was abruptly fired from the band last week. In a playful Instagram post on Monday, May 19, Freese shared a list of 10 possible reasons for his ousting, offering a mix of self-deprecating humor and tongue-in-cheek commentary. Freese, who had joined the Foo Fighters in May 2023 following Hawkins' unexpected death, announced his departure on Friday, May 16, revealing that the band had informed him they were going 'in a different direction' with their drummer. He aded, 'No reason was given.' Even though Freese — who has performed with Devo, Nine Inch Nails and Guns N' Roses — said he was 'shocked and disappointed' over the decision, he promised fans a breakdown of potential reasons for the firing. The list included a variety of absurd explanations, from his alleged obsession with whistling the Foo Fighters' hit 'My Hero' on tour for an entire week to his inability to name more than one Fugazi song. He also joked that his 'metronome-like precision' behind the drums was deemed "soulless" and that he demanded 20-minute cowbell sound baths before rehearsals. Other reasons included missing a studio session because of Mercury in retrograde, and because he 'refused to perform unless he was guaranteed a Ouija board and nunchucks after every show.' The most unexpected — and perhaps most revealing — reason Freese offered was that his 'poodle thing was getting to be a bit much.' Freese is known for his love of poodles, having several pets of the breed. Though his departure seemed abrupt, Freese expressed no ill will, thanking the band for the opportunity. Foo Fighters haven't played a show since Grohl revealed in September that he fathered a child outside his marriage. 'As most of you know, I've always worked freelance and bounced between bands, so I'm fine," Freese said.
![[Grace Kao] Kitsch from DEVO to K-pop](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwimg.heraldcorp.com%2Fnews%2Fcms%2F2025%2F05%2F19%2Fnews-p.v1.20250519.a018749c7e384720b8999ec9f3c35a02_T1.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
![[Grace Kao] Kitsch from DEVO to K-pop](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fkoreaherald.com.png&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Korea Herald
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
[Grace Kao] Kitsch from DEVO to K-pop
I have one big regret from my college days at the University of California, Berkeley. I chose to attend my Japanese class rather than watch a free concert by the 1980s New Wave Group Devo. There are costs to being a serious student. Earlier this month, I remedied my mistake. I attended their concert, part of their 50th Anniversary tour. Devo is an abbreviation of the term de-evolution, and refers to the decline of humanity. The members hail from Ohio and they were art students at Kent State University when they formed the group. Devo had one Top 40 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 'Whip It' in 1980. In the music video, they wore red hats that looked like inverted plastic flower pots, called energy domes. Devo is probably best known for these hats. Lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh cracked a whip in a low-budget 80s cowboy set. The cast included a cross-eyed East Asian woman, an older woman whipping cream, young white men and women in cowboy hats, and another woman with a long cigarette. During the music video, various articles of clothing are whipped off the woman who is smoking. The video looked cheaply made, even for the 1980s. Back then, people thought the song referred to S&M (sadomasochism), so it was quite a risque song to watch on MTV or hear on Top 40 radio. Only as an adult did I realize that they purposely used their songs and costumes as a commentary on consumerism and modern US life. Their songs were simple and synth-driven, and their singing generally relied on short staccato notes. Unlike punk groups from the UK, their shows were heavily planned with video installations. They always wore identical outfits on stage. In fact, along with the B-52s, they exemplify Kitsch in American pop music. What is kitsch and what does this have to do with K-pop? Kitsch originally referred to art that is seen as low-brow, cheap, trashy and ugly. In terms of American art, these can be objects that are poorly made and in bad taste — think of garish mass-produced imitations of art, velvet paintings of dogs playing poker, Queen Elizabeth salt and pepper shakers, Thomas Kincade paintings or the reproductions of famous structures in Las Vegas. These are items that are 'so bad' they can, sometimes ironically, be enjoyed by the masses. Devo's identical outfits range from the flower pot hats, yellow jumpsuits (as worn by nuclear plant workers), full latex bodysuits to pantyhose over their heads. These objects are all associated with modern life, and Devo is purposely critiquing but also participating in the commodification of art. K-pop groups also make very effective use of kitsch in their music videos and outfits. In fact, they regularly rely on it. Crayon Pop wore helmets for the song 'Bar Bar Bar' and donned them for many of their promotional interviews. Perhaps the kitschiest K-pop video I can think of is 'Catalina' by Orange Caramel. Here the group members are offered as platters of sushi and sashimi as they rotate around a sushi bar. In Astro's 'Breathless,' bottles of orange sodas personify the members as they are carried in a cooler by the lead character. K-pop idols are literally commodified for the pleasure of the consumer. GOT7's 'Just Right' where the members appear as miniature men in a young girl's bedroom, is also kitschy. SHINee's 'Married to the Music' shows the members at a Halloween party losing various body parts. That motif appears a year earlier in EXID's 'Up & Down,' where members have lost different body parts, or are stuck inside a wall or inside boxes. In fact, the most viewed K-pop video of all time is Psy's 'Gangnam Style,' which celebrates kitsch. The song itself is about bad taste, and Psy's character shows off all of the worst stereotypes of a man from Gangnam, Seoul. In fact, Psy's songs 'Gentlemen,' 'Daddy' or 'New Face' are all kitschy. It is Psy's calling card. While not as well-known and certainly not an idol K-pop group, Norazo fully celebrates kitsch. Recent songs use everyday objects as song titles — including 'Bread,' 'Curry,' 'Mackerel' and 'Vegetables.' It also relies on exaggerated versions of these objects in the music videos. My sense is that trot songs performed by K-pop idols are more likely to rely on kitsch. Young idols using kitsch may be the most effective method of converting old-fashioned tunes to contemporary pop songs. In fact, Ive has a recent song named 'Kitsch.' This song is about a 19-year-old girl's sense of taste. I discovered that the Korean use of kitsch refers to something that is cheap and plastic, but childlike. When I looked for objects that Koreans define as 'kitsch,' they do seem to match my sense of cute, kitschy objects for girls. Still, it doesn't seem to carry the same pejorative or ironic connotation, at least not in the song. While I don't know if K-pop professionals are familiar with Devo or The B-52s, they are using kitsch similarly. Compared to classical music or jazz, K-pop and pop music in general is often considered by the public as low-brow. So, what better way to respond than by being kitschy? Grace Kao is an IBM professor of sociology and professor of ethnicity, race and migration at Yale University. The views expressed here are the writer's own. — Ed.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
There goes Foo Fighters' new drummer
Josh Freese has been the drummer for Foo Fighters for almost exactly two years, having been announced in the position back in May of 2023. (Which was, in turn, a little more than a year after the death of the band's long-time drummer, Taylor Hawkins, in March of 2022.) Now, though, he's reportedly been let go, announcing on Instagram that he was handed his walking papers earlier this week. 'The Foo Fighters called me on Monday to let me know they've decided 'to go in a different direction with their drummer,'' Reese wrote on social media, making the whole thing sound like a banal bit of corporate downsizing, and not the line-up change to a major touring rock band. 'No reason was given. : (' (Who could ever have expected The Storyteller to be so uncharacteristically un-verbose?) Freese—a veteran journeyman who's been a member of Devo, A Perfect Circle, Guns N' Roses, The Vandals, and many other bands, and performed on something in excess of 400 albums—noted that, 'In my 40 years of drumming professionally, I've never been let go from a band, so while I'm not angry—just a bit sad and disappointed.' Freese noted that he'd had a blast being a member of the band for the past two years, and ended with a joke about posting a 'Top 10 possible reasons Josh got booted from the Foo Fighters list.' (Also, because social media is weird, his post quickly received a comment from former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, who wrote that, 'This is lucky for the five other bands that you play with.') Freese played several touring and festival gigs with Foo Fighters, and appeared on their latest album, 2023's But Here We Are. The band has been largely radio silent since canceling gigs last year, in the aftermath of Grohl's public confession to fathering a child with a woman who was not his wife. The band announced earlier this week—just a day after the call where they fired Freese, in fact—that they'll be playing at the Singapore Grand Prix in October 2025, drummer now TBD. More from A.V. Club Doctor Who does Eurovision in space Deborah plays angel and devil in Hacks' latest twofer There goes Foo Fighters' new drummer
NBC News
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese says he was booted from the band
Foo Fighters has parted ways with drummer Josh Freese after roughly two years working together. Freese announced that he was let go on Instagram on Friday. "In my 40 years drumming professionally, I've never been let go from a band, so while I'm not angry — just a bit shocked and disappointed," he wrote. Freese, 52, a veteran drummer who has worked with Nine Inch Nails, Devo and Guns N' Roses, said he enjoyed the past two years with the band and respected its decision to go with another drummer — although a new drummer has yet to be announced. 'The Foo Fighters called me on Monday night to let me know they've 'decided to go in a different direction with their drummer.' No reason was given,' Freese wrote. Freese joined Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters roughly a year after the sudden death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. Earlier this week, Foo Fighters posted on Instagram that the band would perform at the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix — its first show since Grohl announced he had a child outside of his marriage last year. A representative for Foo Fighters did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "But as most of you know," Freese wrote, "I've always worked freelance and bounced between bands, so I'm fine."
