(03.07.05) The latest issue of Black Clock (unfortunately containing over 3
articles on products of the “Seattle 90s punk scene”) starts off with
Greil Marcus’ Masking Maruaders send up from a 1969 issue of Rolling
Stone. Mr. Marcus’ (yeah the guy who wrote Lipstick Traces) piece is a
fake review on a mythical collaboration by Dylan, McCartney, Lennon,
and Mike Jagger. George Harrison backs it all up and Al Cooper produces
it (what didn’t Al Cooper produce around then?). Anyway, infamy aside,
Greil backs up the piece with a small explanation, “It was meant as a
parody of trends current in pop music,” well here we have an exacting
stigmata of today’s trends.
My Robot Friend comes from the highly hyped
Kompakt group (more exactly it comes from Proptronix known for quirky
tid-bits), it’s an eighties pastiche with lyrics that reference Miss
Kitten’s over-the-top work with Felix Da Housecat and Smash TV’s
glam-electro-symphonies, “Queen of Man” and “What About Me.” It’s
saving grace, turning David Byrne vocal imitations into something more
than Heads songs ever were, “The Power of Love,” in particular
highlights the elegiac way My Robot Friend makes Byrne’s shouts sound
vitalized. “We’re the Pet Shop Boys,” I suppose sounds like The Pet
Shops Boys, but how would I know? I’ve never really listened to them.
“Real fake reviews are not those of made-up records. Fake reviews are
nothing more than the reviewer faking a review. Such a stance is not
only common, it can seem mandatory,” explains Marcus. But this piece of
warning comes in an age where made-up records are real products where
David Byrne impersonators imagine a what-if world in which The Pet
Shops Boys take on Johnny Cash, electro-funk and Bambatta smack hands
with trance, and surprisingly avoid actual eighties techno in the
process. Marcus sets a standard later in his article, “to have to say
something, to find themselves impelled…” and I just opened this piece
after like a month or writing so let get to the point. Marcus’
article was written to make fun of music journalisms clichés, but
here’s the problem; we live in an age where historical mashing and
robo-irony are well beyond clichés. I mean My Robot Friend doesn’t like the
eighties –he fakes them. So please My Robot Friend cut the bullshit and
make some decent songs.
Hot Action! is out now on Proptronix.
