The Go Howls at MOCAD

by Max Conroy:

The Go’s latest album Howl On the Haunted Beat You Ride is a fantastic record that doesn’t seem to get much credit, and I live in the land where it was made.  Shamefully, until I moved to back to Michigan this past August I’d never heard of them and the way that I heard of them was from a magazine published in the UK, Mojo.  Mojo gave the record a four star review and the write up was good; garage, overlooked band, Detroit, etc.  There was also a picture of the record’s cover accompanying the review that pretty much guaranteed that I’d look for it.  It’s perfectly psychedelic: two huge hipster faces with lifeless hipster expressions, flanking the jacket; the entire band arranged vertically in the center of it, all wearing black or stripes; their far out logo in the upper left; a brown and orange, early mid 60s to early 70s, color motif; all of this on a hazy blanket of stars.  I know being interested in a record because of its packaging might be a bit careless, but this record is so cool looking and feeling that I’d be happy to own it even if the music sucked, which it most certainly doesn’t.  It’s on Cass records (Cass is a street/area in Detroit for all you non-local readers), which I’ve never heard of, but they totally knocked the ball out of the park on this one.  It’s a gatefold with super heavy boards, it feels like it’s a record made in the 50s, and has great graphics pasted inside along with the lyrics. 

The Go formed in Detroit in 1998.  Jack White was an early member of the band and is featured on their debut Whatcha Doin’, playing lead guitar and singing back up.  I had read somewhere that they kicked Jack White out of the band, which would be one to tell the grandchildren: Yeah, I was in a band back in the day…and we kicked Jack White out of the group…We could have been rich!  I’m pretty sure that he just left the band because he didn’t want to be a sideman.  I have no idea if there is any bad blood as a result of the split, but the Go wasn’t on the White compiled fantastic comp. Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit.  There is footage the Go out there playing live during the JW era on an obscure movie called the Detroit Rock Movie, which also has footage of JW jamming Stop Breakin’ Down in his tiny Detroit apartment.  If any of you out there have a copy of this movie, I’d be happy to receive one; please respond to this post.  Anyway, Whatcha Doin’ was released on Sub Pop and is a great debut record on the noisy side of the garage.  They made a follow up for Sub Pop called Free Electricity that was never released because it was allegedly too heavy, which has to be bull shit…too heavy for Sub Pop?  I found a copy of it on Soulseek and it’s definitely worth finding.  I think there were other reasons Sub Pop shelved it though; one song starts with the lyric, “Big cock angel”.  They were ultimately dropped from Sub Pop and put out a more focused rehashing of 60s garage and 70s glam on Lizard King, called The Go.  The group then waited four years to put out another record, the brilliant Howl on the Haunted On the Haunted Beat You Ride, which AMG has listed as coming out in April of 2007, but I’m pretty sure it was more like late summer and they still haven’t reviewed it.

Howl On the Haunted Beat You Ride represents the Go fully coming into their own.  The music is derivative of 60s psych and 70s glam to be sure, but they certainly make it theirs.  The production on this record is simply amazing and it was produced by Bobby Harlow, their front man, in Detroit.  The album utilizes clean tones, trippy imagery, and classic CSN-like harmonies with great effect (and I really dislike CSN).  The bizarro-poetic title comes from the song Yer Stoned Italian Cowboy, a romp about an irresitible character that “shoots directly from the Id”.  Fucking brilliant!  In my opinion, there’s only one bum track on this record and that’s the lead off song called You Go Bangin’ On, which was released as a single, so I might be missing something.  But don’t listen to the first thirty seconds of this record and file it away.  I bought this record seven months ago and the Go haven’t played around here since to my knowledge, until this past Saturday where they played at Gold: a fund raiser for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

I’d never been to MOCAD, never knew it existed until Justin pointed it out a few weeks ago as we drove past it on our way to the Magic Stick.  Justin and I got there at 9:30, when the doors were open to those who didn’t pay for the super whoopass $75 ticket, and got drinks.  There were about a dozen bands on two stages that would play a short set of covers, two to three songs.  The museum seemed really cool.  It’s a huge warehouse space that is divided into three main galleries: one was the events area, the other gallery contained an exhibit concerning fashion and the third was all life-size, sepia-toned paintings of hip-hop icons, which was impressive.  The acts were full of ups and downs.  The first band butchered the Breeders’ Cannonball.  I saw the Breeders back in the Last Splash era and they butchered it too, so no big deal.  There were some really great acts that did some interesting covers.  The Sisters Lucas did the Go-Gos We Got the Beat and a Devo song Mongoloid, flawlessly.  A three piece punk/rock band called Tyvek did great versions of the Who’s I Can See For Miles and the Supremes’ Keep Me Hangin On.  This guy esQuire, a little white dude with a biker mustache, has a great act performing hip-hop songs.  He did MC Luscious’ Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend, with two female dancers, and another song that I wasn’t familiar with.  He killed the place.  He also had a slightly drunken banter between the songs that was good, but could have been great with about two more pre performance drinks. The Silent Years did Tears For Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World, which is a pretty ambitious undertaking, very well, the Proclaimers song, whatever the name of it is,  and the 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Goin’ On.  It definitely seemed like the era of covers primarily represented was from the perspective of people exactly my age, people who grew up with Tears For Fears, and Cannonball, early 90s rap, back when it was rap.

The Go came on and did their two songs, the first one I know, but have no idea who does it and the second one I had never heard before in my life.  After the second song, there was a brief pause where they were thinking about doing another number and I’m pretty sure I heard one of them mumble, Aaaw fuggit.  So that was it.  Justin and I left feeling a little deflated but the overall experience was worth it.  So I still need to see the Go, I guess. 

Yer Stoned Italian Cowboy:

Smile:

Invisible Friends:

Down A Spiral:

Oh yeah, the word on the street is that they’re recording a new album with Don Was, which will be released in the spring or summer.