From the vaguely martial beat of their tunes to their name (in Nazi Germany, anyone who couldn’t contribute to the fascist state was labeled a “useless eater” and was in serious jeopardy of being “exterminated”), Useless Eaters are captivating in a rather suspicious way. They sound like Devo in brownshirts, which they’re not, I’m certain; their minimalism (trashy lo-fi punk rock meets cheap synthesizer, they fall in love) has absolutely nothing in common with the uniformly gargantuan inclinations of German fascism, from the gigantic building projects of Hitler-Speer to Onkel Adolf’s adoration of the grandiose sounds of Richard “Crazy Anti-Semite” Wagner (Hitler could whistle his operas from beginning to end, and could recite entire librettos from memory).
So what am I saying? I think I’m saying I like them, but with serious reservations that have everything to do with how much Useless Eaters mimic classic Devo. The band is the creation of one guy, the nomadic Jay Reatard acolyte Seth Sutton, who has worked alternately as a one-man band and with collaborating musicians. He goes it alone on 2011’s Daily Commute, released by Tic Tac Totally Records, and its influences vary from Devo to, well Devo, as well as first-generation New York punk. Sutton lays down cool guitar riffs, electronic drums, and herky-jerky rhythms, and tops them with lyrics which, when you can make them out, make clear that the personal is political and vice versa.
“How U Doing” demonstrates what the band does best, while also making clear just what a debt Useless Eaters owes to the band that wore flower pots on their heads. A cool jerk of a guitar over which Sutton does his best stop-start Mark Mothersbaugh imitation, “How U Doing” is a fevered rocker over which Sutton repeats, “How U doing to me?” He even counts off before delivering a twisted guitar solo, and in general packs a lot into 2:17.
“New World Order” is a really fast one, and the throbbing bass is a hoot, as is the unvarying guitar riff. That is until the end, when the melody (a melody, what a novel idea!) actually makes you want to dance. The diatribe that is “Neon Light” builds to a fractured melody over which Sutton sings, amongst other things, “They want to talk about sports/They want to talk about television,” as well as modern art and culture, the latter of which he spits out with contempt, reminding me of the famous phrase, “When I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver,” which has long been attributed to Nazi air lord Hermann Göring but was actually the creation of Nazi playwright and suck-up Hanns Johst.
“I Get I Get” is New York punk revisited, and comes complete with some snazzy guitar and snarling vocals, while “Space City” is a heavy slab of guitar snarl, with Sutton repeating, “Life is hard here in Space City.” “Look around, it ain’t pretty,” he adds, while on “Fake Fashion Loud Music,” which opens with some galloping drums and a great guitar hook, Useless Eaters once again sound like a hybrid of punk and new wave, with Sutton barking out the title while a guitar goes on and on and on.
“Take Advantage of Me” also opens with drums, and Sutton’s trademark wiry guitar, and overall it’s catchy as Hell, derivative or not. Pity it’s so hard to make out his vocals on the LP; he buries them in the mix, and good luck figuring out what he’s saying. As for the excellent “Drug Store,” it opens with some fuzz and boasts a cool melody, lots of repetitions of “drug store,” and a herky-jerky beat that will, once again, make you nostalgic for de-evolution.
“Daily Commute” almost evokes early U2, before crashing CBGBs with Sutton shouting out the lyrics over a great guitar riff and lots of cymbal bash. The tune is all fuzzed up, and it works, although you once more will discover you can’t make out more than a few sung phrases. On “Vile Nation Part 2” Sutton tells us we’re all living in a vile nation, and while I don’t know if he means vile as in awful or vile as in Kurt Vile, I like his frequent cries of “Let’s go!” (he does the same on “How U Doing.”)
As for LP closer “My State of Mind,” it opens with a tinny guitar and another guitar playing a simple riff, which is as much a change of pace as Sutton’s vocals, which sound thinner on this one. The guitar solo is tortured—lines are stretched out like silly putty—before becoming more melodic as the song fades out. This one is, when all is said and done, the only track on the LP that doesn’t sound derivative, and it only took Sutton, what, 10 previous tracks to finally get it right.
Bottom line: Your affection for Useless Eaters is likely to be in direct proportion to your love for old school Devo, and while I like Devo okay I never listen to them, and I’ll probably never listen to this LP again either. You’d be better off checking out 2011’s Cheap Talk: The Singles, which takes lo-fi to unprecedented levels, and seriously reduces the Devo factor. I even hear some Black Flag on Cheap Talk, along with some truly staggering guitar fuzz that makes the LP a sonic adventure, albeit not for persons of tender sensibilities. Oh well, looks like I reviewed the wrong album. At least I got the band right. Long live Jocko Homo!
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B-
