I’m off on another expedition, this time to LA for a somewhat eclectic trip. Curiously, there’s no one new this time out. They are all artists I’ve interviewed before. I wonder if that says something about the state of Echoes music in LA. Running backwards, on Sunday, I’ll be talking to Fritz Heede. He put out a great electro-world fusion CD called Illuminated Manuscripts two years ago, which was the soundtrack to a very entrancing DVD by video artist John Banks.
His new album, Ritual Path, is also a DVD score. On Saturday I head down to San Diego to record a living room concert with the Album Leaf. They, actually, he, Jimmy Lavalle, has a great new CD called Into the Blue Again. He records most of the music on his CDs himself, but when he plays live, he has a full band . Why don’t more people do that? It was great when we recorded him two years ago and I’m really looking forward to this session.
On Friday, I have two interviews. One is with BT, who we interviewed on the phone about two years ago about his amazing soundtrack to Monster. His new album, This Binary Universe is already a favorite for this year, with Enoesque melancholy and simple melodies evolved through an electro-orchestral instrumental pallette. I’m hoping to get some materiel actually in BT’s studio for you.
I start the trip with Mark Mothersbaugh. The aged among you might remember him as the frontman for Devo. He’s reinvented himself as a TV and film composer over the last years with scores to Big Love, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and about 50 other titles to his credit.
![Devo - Greatest Hits [Warner Brothers]](https://echoes.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/B000002LNG.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
I interviewed Mark and Devo back in 1987 for our documentary series, Totally Wired, but we never used it for some reason. I think I may have been the first person to play Devo on the radio and I know I was the first to play them in Philadelphia when I put on their first single “Jocko Homo/Mongoloid.” Devo is often regarded as a novelty, but they asked a lot of real questions about consumerism and our relationship to technology.