Sunday, October 23, 2016

I'll Take You Under My Wing


How many different ways are there to say, "I love this frigging band." I say it a lot, but I totally mean it every single time I say it. Depeche Mode are so cool. Urgh. They're urgh-cool. And I love this frigging band. As I said before, their early synthpop material was my gateway and I love it a lot. But every era is brilliant and so extremely danceable. Even, I apprehensively admit, the grungy stuff. And when I say danceable, I mean that Dave Gahan might be my most favorite dancing frontman ever. Because what IS that, even???

I'm really proud of this one. This piece is a triumph for me because it's the first time I've really executed a work in this linework-preserving style with total conviction. I pulled my color palette from the cover of Black Celebration, which features yet another of my knockout favorites, "Question of Time."

Here are some preparatory sketches of Dave and Martin Gore:



How remarkable is this band for having not one, but TWO outrageously beautiful vocals?! When I first saw what they looked like, I remember being really amused that such a big voice came out of cute little Dave. And then there's that amazing sort of effortless vibrato that both Dave and Martin do. I'd certainly put the both of them up there on the list of mind-bending singers with Kate Bush. That's voice-coach-level complicated. And lemme tell ya, between the impossible singing and the arm-dancing, you will never see anything with more idiotic abandon than me singing along with a Depeche Mode song. Also, upcoming album!!!! Anway. Bless these black-clad heroes. (P.S. Hear ye, hear ye: Fletch is my hair idol. Bless also his ginger locks.)

"It's just a question of time.
It should be better.
It's just a question of time.
It should be better with you."





And make sure that he's hungry...


Whereas I find about 99.9% of eighties pop music irresistible in some way or another, I'm far less generous toward the sixties and seventies because of folky singer-songwriter types. Not dislike, necessarily. Mostly boredom. But I make automatic exceptions for weirdos. And who's weirder than old Neil? Well, okay plenty of others. But I'm especially keen on his particular brand of weirdness. Like his questionable singing voice-- like George Harrison, only shriller. And his experimental early eighties albums over which his record company sued him (because they weren't Neil Young enough). And-- though I've still not yet seen it and it's apparently a huge disaster-- his film Human Highway, which features one of my favorite DEVO songs/videos ("Worried Man").

So anyway here's another very quick, very loose drawing. This time of Neil Young, who can do whatever the hell he wants!



The Landscape is Changing


A quick, very loosely referenced Depeche Mode. I know Depeche have moved on to bigger, better, more sultry, more intense things since; but I have a special affection for their third album, Construction Time Again. I was infatuated with "Everything Counts" when I first heard it, and it remains one of my absolute DM favorites to this day. Along with other supremely tasty tracks like "Shake the Disease." Anything in which the band are knocking on sheets of metal and banging pipes together, really.

"'Cause I don't care if you're going nowhere.
Just take good care of the world."