M.O.T.O. at the Dreamland Theater June 9

This guy that I know is putting together a show at the Dreamland Theater next Thursday night, and, as it involves a band that I feel as though I should probably know, I thought that I’d pass it along. The band is M.O.T.O. (Masters Of The Obvious), and, according to what I’m told, they’ve been around in one form or another, playing punk rock, for the past 30 years. It occurred to me to pretend as though I knew who in the hell they were, but then I realized that would likely call for more effort on my part than I was willing to give. So, I asked this guy that I know to give me a brief writeup that I could share… Here’s what he responded with:

Have you ever not known that you had always wanted to hear something for your entire life until you heard it? I submit for your consideration the first track on M.O.T.O. (AKA Masters of the Obvious)’s CD compilation of their 7″ singles, “Single File”.

“Nice ‘n’ pasty. Fast ‘n’ bulbous. Nobody can eat just one…I love you even though you crystallized my penis.”

A tossed off Beefheart reference? Crystallized penises? I was hooked!

I went on to buy all 16 of Paul Caporino’s home recorded 4-track tapes (dating from 1985 on), a bunch of the singles (even though I already had them on CD) and M.O.T.O.’s 3 full-length CD releases of the 2000s: Kill M.O.T.O.!, Raw Power (yes, pretty ballsy to name your record that), and No Way Street (the latest).

So I’m pretty in the bag for this band and its leader/songwriter. But you don’t have to be totally in the bag to come out to Dreamland next week and have a super excellent good time with his rock & roll.

It’s fun. It’s funny. You can dance to it. And singing about penises is truly a universal language.

And here, for those of you who are still unconvinced, is a blurb from the Tokyo No Records website:

“Frontman Paul Caporino formed M.O.T.O in New Orleans back in 1981. Over the course of the 30 years that followed, the band has featured an ongoing rotation of backing members, ranged from two to four piece outfits, and relocated from New Orleans to Chicago to Rhode Island and back to New Orleans. Throughout it all, Paul’s adolescent sensibilities have remained intact as have his simplistic yet suspiciously moving lyrics.

M.O.T.O. have toured the world over and have played alongside bands like Buzzcocks, Flaming Lips, Superchunk, Smashing Pumpkins, Galaxie 500, The Jesus Lizard, Zero Boys, The Germs, Naked Raygun… Their records have been distributed on various labels worldwide and the band was recognized by the legendary John Peel.”

And, as we all know, the great John Peel only recognizes the very, very best…

This is slightly off topic, but I wonder if there’s some protocol for when two musical geniuses that have been acknowledged by Peel meet. I should look into that.

Here, speaking of Peel, is a little audio. Listen, and be amazed.

As for M.O.T.O., the show will be at the Dreamland Theater in downtown Ypsilanti on June 9th. Doors open at 9:00, and tickets are $7. The show is open to all ages.

And here’s another blurb. This one comes from Bill Wyman at the Chicago Reader:

“Caporino wanders among the fields of sexual juvenilia and schoolyard scatology with an expert’s eye; human genitalia and bodily functions are to him what haystacks were to Monet.”

Thanks to Mike Shecket for assisting with this post, and arranging for M.O.T.O. to visit out little midwestern paradise.

Here’s the band in action: