Run Hit Wonders

:confused2: It's real...I guess...

Well DEVO I can cope with , the Akron fellas are okay. The rest of them however ? Maybe some kinda armed force recruitment officer will be in attendance offering Parris Island as a realistic alternative to the likes of Kajagooseagullfluck and Genpub in concert/wigs .

I thought yanks didn't do irony / hi ronny ?

From The Oregonian:

Run it! Run it good! Rock around the blocks with Devo and Run Hit Wonder Friday, July 30, 2004 ED CONDRAN What on Earth is the Nike Run Hit Wonder exactly?

Sure, it's a 5K and a 10K race that will snake through downtown Portland Sunday morning, with 10,000 runners hitting the pavement.

But it's also a music event, featuring a number of one-hit wonders -- hence the title -- playing their "hits" along the course while runners vie for the top spot. Included in the lineup is Portland's own Tommy Tutone, along with Devo, A Flock of Seagulls, Tone Loc, General Public, Dramarama and The Run Hit Wonders, a cover band created for the race.

Even the bands playing Run Hit Wonder aren't sure what to make of it.

"This is a funny thing," A Flock of Seagulls leader Mike Score said while calling from Cocoa Beach, Fla. "In Los Angeles we started setting up on the stage at 7 a.m., and we're playing by 8:30 a.m. It's a bit jarring playing at an early hour, since we're all used to performing late at night. It's one thing to play in the morning, but what are all of these people running for? The only thing I can run for at that hour of the morning is a donut. The running part of this event is certainly strange."

Tommy Heath, 56, who fronts Tommy Tutone, agrees. "It's bizarre," Heath said while calling from his Portland home. "I've had people run away from my show before, but this is totally different. It was totally shocking to me (at the initial Run Hit Wonder show in April in Los Angeles). But what the heck, it's about having fun. It's different."

The show is so different that Tommy Tutone decided to play its lone hit, the quasi-creepy stalker anthem "867-5309/Jenny," twice in L.A. "People still love the song," Heath said. "Maybe after this I can go out on a stalker tour with that guy (Rockwell) who did "Somebody's Watching Me."

Kidding aside, Heath says he enjoys performing in the great outdoors in front of myriad healthy music fans.

"It's fun," Heath said. "You don't know exactly what people will do. Some come out and just watch us. There are those who run but spend some time in front of us and dance. Some others just run by and wave. It's a fun environment. The people who participate in this aren't your typical marathoner."

Out of all of the musicians on the bill, perhaps Devo is the band fans would least expect to be part of a corporate bill. Devo seems as if it would be just a bit too cynical and quirky to participate in the Run Hit Wonder. But that's obviously not so, according to bassist-vocalist Jerry Casale. "It's a beautiful thing to be performing in front of thousands of runners dressed exactly alike (each participant will sport a Nike Dri-FIT running short with a preprinted race number) dancing to "Freedom of Choice," Casale said, tongue firmly implanted in cheek. "They have blood pumping through their system. They're excited. It's a cool thing."

Well, Devo is treated a bit differently from the other acts because it will headline the event. "They don't pass our stage since we're the runner's reward for finishing the race," vocalist-keyboardist Mark Mothersbaugh said.

Don't be surprised if the amusing but monochromatic Devo, which plays in Pioneer Courthouse Square, pulls a Linda Ronstadt and praises Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," attacks President Bush or makes light of the Run Hit Wonder itself. Mothersbaugh is open enough to note that he's not crazy about the event's moniker.

"I'm not thrilled by that name," Mothersbaugh said. "Considering one of the most highly touted ad agencies, Wieden+Kennedy, couldn't come up with something better than that shows you the level of creativity these days. It's just stupid."

Of course, Mothersbaugh has an alternative moniker for the Run Hit Wonder. "How about Hot to Trot?"

Run Hit, er, one hit doesn't actually do justice to all of the acts participating. "Devo has been called a no-hit wonder," Casale said. "We don't care." "Whip It" and an offbeat cover of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" charted for Devo. Tone Loc experienced some success courtesy of "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina." Even though the tracks share many similarities, they count as two songs.

A Flock of Seagulls barely qualifies for the event, if one were to get technical. "I Ran," which was packed with irresistible minor key melodies, peaked at No. 8 on the singles chart in 1982, is the band's biggest smash. However, the group crafted a couple of dated synth-driven hits such as "Space Age Love Song" and "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)."

"We had a good run," Score said. "I don't have any regrets. We still sound the same."

It would be curious if the band still looks the same a generation after its heyday. Does Score, a former hairstylist, still sport a wild, out-of-control blond pompadour that spills over his forehead?

"We haven't done hairdos in 16 years," Score said. "It was a phase. I was totally in the whole fashion scene from 1982 to 1986. It was great for a band to have a strong image. That was how I lived until a certain point. You don't want to look like a 50-year-old trying to look like a 16-year-old. If I was even going to try that I would need to be thinner and have more hair. I might not look like a kid, but I feel like one. I'm doing the same things a kid would do."

Indeed. Score, 51, is obsessed with video games ("I played Wolfenstein three days straight," Score admitted). He's not working on anything but tunes. "I've written about 200 new songs," Score said. "I haven't recorded them yet since I'm so busy writing. Once I get writer's block, I'll record them. Maybe there are some hits in there and we won't fit in for this tour next time."

Gotta love technology. 15 minutes ago I was watching Devo in Pioneer Square; now I'm at my building and online.

So last night after work I decided to bite the bullet and get up early enough to see some ""one hit wonders." A local paper published the locations where the various bands would be playing, but Nike wouldn't announce which bands at which stage unti the race began.

Sod that.

So I set out on foot to see what luck would bring me. The plan-- start near my apartment, and work my way towards Pio Square, where Devo would be playing post-race. Hopefully, I would get lucky and find my quarry at the first stop.

Well, sort of. The first stage I came to was on NW 23rd, better known as NW Trendythird. Tommy Tutone, but they hadn't started playing yet. Really, I would only stay for Jenny, but thanks to that song's infectious hooks, I can hear it anytime I want, day or night, for the rest of my life. Even on a desert island, with no electricity.

So I moved on. Surely the next stage would be the band I wanted to see...The setting looked right-- post-industrial wasteland-- but no. Instead, it was Dramarama. Time to move on. Maybe the next stage?

Yeah, if I wanted to see Tone Loc. Sounded good, but I was after other quarry. Come on, they were running out of stages! It couldn't possibly be the last, furthest stage, could it? Maybe the next stage.

Nope. That would be General Public. By this time, it occurred to me that I was walking prolly the same distance as the runners. I thought the idea was for me to see the bands without entering a race. At least I knew my way around town, and was able to take several shortcuts to get to the next stage...which turned out to be some oser outfit called the "Rub Hit Wonders." Fortunately, the losers were already packing up to go home. But that meant the band I wanted to see (in addition to headliner Devo) was also done, right? Oh well, at least I could see Devo. But there was still 45 minutes before Devo were to come on, and the runners were still pouring into Pio Square. Hmmm...

I decided to play a hunch, and headed over to the last stage. As I approached through the deserted streets, I heard the last strains of Wishing echoing off the surrounding buildings. I turned a corner just in time to be greeted by the strains of electronic seagulls emanating from Mike Score's keyboards. I found them! A Flock of Seagulls. Or at least some Heavy Metal types fronted by a fat guy in a trainer top with a pony tail trailing out from under his cap.

So they played I Ran, which turned out to be their finale. Good enough. I headed back to Pio Square, and saw I had 15 minutes before Devo came on. This was bad, I had committed to deliver some documents to an attorney at 10 AM. How could I do that and see Devo? I decided to get there a little early, and see if he was in.

Stroke of luck-- he was there, I turned the documents over, and headed back to Pio Square. As I was approaching, I heard Girl U Want booming off the streets...Devo was on!

So they played a free concert in Pioneer Square, going through a lot of their great material-- Whip It, Satisfaction, Mongoloid, Are We Not Men? and a lot of other songs I haven't heard in 20 or more years. A great, great band, in great form. I loved them almost 30 years ago [!], and watching them today, I realized I still do.

One last word from The Portland Tribune:

Devo dives into political fray Run Hit Wonder fest gives Jerry Casale a chance to sound off By ERIC BARTELS Issue date: Fri, Jul 30, 2004 The Tribune

Devo’s ideological underpinnings may have been easy to misjudge back in the day, embedded as its members were in a comic milieu of matching jumpsuits, terraced headgear and deadpan detachment. As new wavers pogoed to quirky fare like a robotic cover of the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Devo seemed mostly to be joking with its cautionary messages about the postindustrial world. Not so, says bassist Jerry Casale. “We said, ‘Freedom of choice is what you got, freedom from choice is what you want.’ It’s become exponentially more true.” Devo, which rarely performs in public, headlines Nike’s Run Hit Wonder, in which 10,000 5K and 10K race participants will pass stations manned by ’80s bands generally viewed as being of the flash-in-the-pan variety. On hand at the Sunday event will be Tone Loc (“Wild Thing”), General Public (“Tenderness”) and Tommy Tutone (“Jenny 867-5309”). Those bands, along with Flock of Seagulls, Dramarama and something called the Run Hit Wonders, will play at six west-side locations: Southwest Naito Parkway at Salmon Street, Southwest Alder Street and Park Avenue, Northwest Glisan Street and Ninth Avenue, Northwest Kearney Street and 19th Avenue, Northwest Raleigh Street and 23rd Avenue, and Northwest Wilson Street and 18th Avenue. Nike will announce who plays where on Sunday morning. Registration for the run, which begins at 8:15 a.m., is closed. Technically, Devo was a one-hit wonder. The band’s only single on the Billboard charts was “Whip It,” which reached No. 14 in October 1980. But Casale, 57, says Devo offered an important warning about political apathy. He says shapers of our culture offer citizens a stupefying array of consumer choices while encouraging them to think about little else. “There’s no need for a new message,” he says. “Nobody heard it the first time.” Casale, who writes a column that is sharply critical of the United States’ lifestyle on the band’s Web site, says the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, provided an opportunity for conservatives to advance an agenda on a populace unprepared to question its propriety. “We’ve got a spoon-fed manipulation of fear by mass media that makes Joe McCarthy look like kindergarten,” he says. “The world is being held hostage by fundamentalist Christians, fundamentalist Jews and fundamentalist Muslims. “People live in fear every day, and you know what happens when you live in fear. You’ve got somebody saying, ‘I’ll make you safe. Just give up your rights.’ People are so stupid they bought it. “Devo has always been anti-stupidity,” Casale says. “You’ve got people that don’t even know how to process information, that don’t even know how to evaluate the truth of what’s being said. “Being informed is looked upon as being suspect. It’s cool not to know anything.” Casale and frontman Mark Mothersbaugh formed Devo while attending Kent State University in Ohio. “I thought the worst thing I would ever see was my fellow students being killed by National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970,” he says. “I’ve come to see something far worse. This is a nightmare, and I can’t even believe I’m living in it. ” Members of Devo continue to band together in a Los Angeles production complex called Mutato Muzika. Casale directs television commercials and music videos, one of his more notable efforts being a series of ads he describes as “low comedy about a beer drinker named Dick,” he says. Casale says Devo shows, which only happen about once a year, are as much of a treat for the band as its followers. “I love performing,” he says. “I love Devo. I’m always up for it.” Despite a chaotic show in New York’s Central Park last weekend, Casale says the band has enjoyed the opportunity to fraternize with its contemporaries on the Run Hit Wonder’s four-city tour. “It’s nice to see people like General Public and Tone Loc,” he says. The Punk Group, a local band devoted to ’80s-style rock, is expecting members of Devo to join it on stage at Dante’s, a downtown club, on Sunday night.

One last thought on today's gig...This was the "First Annual Run Hit Wonder." Maybe next year they'll have a different headliner... maybe, oh, I don't know, New Order?