Click
here for a press kit in .pdf format |
PRESS
Collected good, bad, and odd |
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This
is one of my favorite pieces of press, mainly because it is the first time
anyone I wasn't dating referred to me as attractive, publicly. |
One
man's arrested development makes for another man's freakazoid moog-pop.
The Skinny
It's any given night of the week and you're sitting on your couch, frozen
in permanent pointing-the-remote-at-the-TV position. Then you think: "I'd
really like to see some weird, yet strangely attractive man reenact childhood
bedroom fantasies on-stage. It would be preferable if he's wearing something
really odd, like scuba gear, and making what can loosely be defined as
music all by himself." No problem. Jody Hughes is your man. The former
member of punk-rock outfit Catbox, Hughes is a kooky one-man outfit that
defies categorization. Just go to hear his covers of Motley Crue's "Home
Sweet Home" and Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing."
The Crowd
Those
who think that Kraftwerk was too mainstream. Melanie Haupt
From Citysearch.com
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From
SPACE CITY ROCK:
I have no idea, really,
how to begin to describe this album. Local pop weirdo Jody Hughes has
managed to assimilate all the Kraftwerkian sensibilities of the '70s,
mix them all up with almost Crystal Method-like electronic noise, embellished
it with some Peter Frampton touches (think "vocoder"), and create
something totally bizarre. I can't claim that it's something new, mind
you, mostly because Hughes seems to revel in the retro-ness of the whole
thing, both in the music and the artwork. "Superman" is almost
a tongue-in-cheek sendup of Laurie Anderson's 1982 opus "O Superman"...except
that I think Hughes is completely serious, and that takes it from silly
to just plain terrifying.
And y'know, I'm loving this. The overamped, almost crunchy synths, the
robotic voice, the just-this-side-of-"lost it" lyrics, the pop
culture references -- after the first bewildered listen, I've come to
realize that this is fucking genius. The album builds steadily to its
beautiful peak, the freaky fairy tale of "Walrus," which sounds
like it could be Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard with a serious Darth
Vader fixation. Just slightly less incredible is "Coca Cola (Daisy),"
which transposes children's rhymes and an old folk song with gloomy electronic
noodling and distorted vocals. The non-vocal tracks shine, as well, particularly
"Torpedo Boat Destroyer" and "Nexuance" (the track
that veers closest to Underworld of everything on here, by the way), even
though several of them ("Truck," "Car," etc.) don't
last long enough to make an impression.
To top it all off, about halfway through Hughes decides to have fun with
other people's songs, as well: "Black Abba" turns Ozzy Osbourne-era
Sabbath into Gary Numan; "Home Sweet Home" is a hopeful, steadily-quickening
technological reworking of, yes, the Mötley Crüe "classic";
and "Dirty Boots" and "Kool Thing" are both Sonic
Youth songs, redone to fit Hughes' twisted vision and seeming almost better
for the transformation, if you can believe it (note, by the way, that
I'm not a dedicated SY-head, so diehards, your mileage may vary). Final
word: it's the sound of apocalypse, circa 1984. (Justin Hart) |
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This
is from a really smart and appropriately cynical article about an award
that I received from Souza Tequila. |
Getting
Sauza-ed
On June 30, Jody Hughes
won a Sauza "Stay Pure" Award in the "Performing Arts"
category. Jody is a tall, gawky guy with hair that looks as though he
dyed it with black shoe polish. His performances involve dressing in tight
costumes and flailing around with a microphone. Before the awards ceremony
at DiverseWorks, organizers issued a press release in which Jody explained
his work:
"Basically, I am a make-believe rock star. There are rules to movement
on stage, dress, talk, manner for being a rock star. I use those. The
only difference between me and other rock stars is, I am a real person."
From The
Houston Press |
These
two articles were written by Craig D. Lindsey, who makes me sound cooler
than I am. I finally met Craig a few days before I moved to LA. He gave
me some chocolates and toilet seat covers that I took to be a comment about
LA. |
From
another article
from The Houston Press
This past year Jody
Hughes lived out the American dream -- well, the American dream for white
boys approaching 30, weaned on sci-fi movies and video games and now working
in computer graphics, that is. After serving tours of duty with such groups
as defunct punk-rockers Catbox, Hughes broke out and became his own one-man
synth-rock outfit.
with quirky covers of Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home" and Sonic
Youth's "Kool Thing." But with all this techno skullduggery,
one question remains: Is Jody Hughes really a novice living out his geek-rock
dreams or an avant-garde artist just too damn hip for the room? Listen
to his work and see if you get it or not. -- C.D.L. |
An
excerpt from a review
of the first Jody Hughes CD In
his own blisteringly ironic fashion, Hughes revisits the avant-garde posturing
that helped create new wave back in the day. Using relatively obsolete
equipment, such as analog synthesizers, Hughes composes experimental,
utterly minimalist works that die-hard Kraftwerk fans would love. He revamps
tunes from such unlikely sources as Black Sabbath, Motley Crue and Sonic
Youth and turns them into tongue-in-cheek techno flukes, the kind of pop
culture-saturated stuff teens of the '80s used to play on their Casios.
He even finds a place to mix in the theme from The Rockford Files. (Cont.)
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From
a Houston
Press article 01/13/2000 Art
Rocker -- But Not Like Genesis
Heidi Klum is a supermodel. She poses in lingerie for Victoria's Secret,
in bathing suits for Sports Illustrated and in minimal clothing anyplace
else T-and-A like hers is welcome. She, in the belief of local art rocker
Jody Hughes, is just the right kinda gal to appreciate his music. "I
read in People magazine that she really liked Moby," says Hughes,
referring to the one-man-sample-band. "My new year's resolution has
been to think of myself more as a professional. So I'm going to send my
CD to all my favorite celebrities." Which includes, among others,
sending his work to Heidi Klum.
The CD Hughes mentions, his first, is almost finished. It's called Jody
Hughes (self-released) and should be out later this month. The 16-track
record is an attempt to capture Hughes's off-the-page sonic collage work,
which is especially amazing live. Not just because Hughes, a relatively
normal-looking character, goes through various costume changes on stage,
nor because he bounces all over whatever club he happens to be playing,
but because he manages to deliver a symphony's worth of electronic and
sampled rock music all by himself.
"I see myself as a random person," he says. "But when I
jump around on stage, I'd like to think people think, 'I can do that.'
"Like the guy who performs in front of the mirror by himself,"
Hughes continues, "I do that on stage. I think people should be encouraged
to do that."
As for People, Hughes doesn't want to just read it, he eventually wants
to be in it: "I think celebrities have the ability to change the
world. I mean, you gotta wonder what R.E.M.'s impact was on high school
vegetarianism." |