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Born To Be Mild (Hot Chip, Kraftwerk, Devo Feature)
Tuesday, 22 February 2011 Written by Rob Burns
Born To Be Mild (Hot Chip, Kraftwerk, Devo Feature)

If you want to see sex and drugs and rock ’n’ roll in one place, you could become a roadie for Daniel O’Donnell or just watch the documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2: The Metal Years”. The film (a documentary about the Los Angeles heavy metal scene from the mid to late eighties) is littered with rock and roll clichés: Kiss’ Paul Stanley is interviewed on a bed, surrounded by scantily clad lingerie models and a drunken Chris Holmes from WASP, confesses to ‘4 women at a time’ sex sessions and pours vodka over his head. However for every Keith Moon in the world of rock and roll, there’s also a geek. The likes of Kraftwerk and Devo wouldn’t look out of place at a Dr Who convention but have become established, revered figures in the history of pop music.

I had the fortune to see Kraftwerk in concert around 2003-2004 and they didn’t acknowledge the audience between songs. This aloofness was slightly unsettling but it made sense when you consider band member Ralf Hutter’s comment that Kraftwerk ‘play the machines and the machines play (Kraftwerk)’: in other words, Kraftwerk see themselves as a symbiosis of man and machine. By all accounts the band would lock themselves inside their Kling Klang studios and lose contact with the outside world by having no phone or fax machines in the building. Later on they would become obsessed about cycling and this led to their ‘Tour de France EP’ which features samples of bicycle and cyclist breathing sounds. This obsession with bikes was one of the reasons why Karl Bartos left the band because Ralf Hutter eventually bored the ex-member with conversations about cycling over dinner.

ImageIn contrast American cult band Devo wrote songs about mankind devolving, becoming more herd-like. Devo’s comic uniform of red conical hats and black shorts belies the intelligence in their music. Their song ‘Jocko Homo’ has the lyrics of 'Are we not Men?’ which they took from a line in a horror movie ‘Island of Lost Souls’. The film has a doctor performing experiments in which he changes animals into humans, and eventually the beast men take their revenge on their creator. Devo drew parallels between the film’s mutants and the residents of their run-down hometown of Akron, Ohio because both had been mistreated and left feeling desperate. The video for ‘Jocko Homo’ alludes to the horror film because it features a lecture theatre of insane medical students surrounding bizarre caterpillar-like humanoids.

The United Kingdom has also produced its fair share of geek pop stars. Morrissey could have passed for a trainspotter when he decided to wear NHS specs and a hearing aid in some of his early TV appearances. However, even the more hip looking Johnny Marr shared Morrissey’s passion for Sixties girl groups, The New York Dolls and Patti Smith. Morrissey’s misfit image complemented his lyrics about teenage awkwardness and unrequited love. The Smiths’ 'How Soon is Now?' would have had less impact if Morrissey had worn a medallion, an open top shirt and tight leather trousers.

The new geeks on the block have to be electro-pop act Hot Chip. Their self-effacing image has the opposite effect because it actually makes them stand out in a world of preening, vain pop stars. They have confessed to being big record collectors and their eclectic influences are apparent in their live covers from artists including Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins, Marvin Gaye and Bonne ‘Prince’ Billy.

The word geek has a number of definitions and one of them is a disliked intellectual /enthusiast. Surely we want our music performers to be passionate and smart when it comes to their craft. The teenybopper community will always want good-looking, charming performers but enduring pop music requires zeal and sometimes obsession, qualities that the geek has in abundance.
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