Datarock 'Red' album

The red tracksuits return to North America in 2009 with new shows, new moves and a brand new album. Norwegian rockers DATAROCK will release their long-awaited and highly anticipated sophomore album RED later this year. However, those lucky ones at SXSW will get an early taste of RED when Datarock headlines both Emo's Annex Stage on March 19 (Windish Showcase) and The Iheartcomix & Jelly NYC present The Texas Nightclub on March 21.

Additionally, the first single "Give It Up" will be released digitally on April 7. In an early blog to fans, Datarock frontman Fredrik Saroea gave some inside information about the making of RED: "We've dug ourselves into the data about the rock of the late seventies & early eighties: the art, the music, the films, the subversive & popular culture, the new theory, the new technology and all that new equipment. The years between '76 and '83 are in all ways the peak of cultural evolution. The zenith, the rise and the fall." The band decreed that all of the equipment used on RED had to be made before 1983. They also called up a new trinity of inspiration. Fela Kuti, Afrika Bambaataa and Kraftwerk were to replace Talking Heads, Devo and Happy Mondays. A bit of West End, a hint of the Caribbean, a dash of West Africa - and whole lot of pulsating post modernity - give RED a spicy new flavor.

Of course, neither scorpions nor rock bands can escape their natures, and during the making of RED, Datarock found their original muses were along for the ride: Gerald Cassale of Devo joined the creative process; the band found themselves sharing stages with the Mondays; and you'll hear quite a bit of evidence that Datarock's admiration for the Talking Heads (see the track "True Stories") remains intact.

Datarock Red album
It's a brand new year, and even though you're all either in the red, seeing red, on red alert or being caught red handed DATAROCK's got good news for each and everyone of you: the difficult second album is finally finished and it's the best thing to happen mankind since the C64. The red letter day isn't till June, but they'll be letting you in on a few red hot secrets long before.

DATAROCK's "RED" is no less than a masterpiece based on the good old principle of artistic theft ("amateurs borrow, professionals steal"), and of course again they've dug theirselves into the data about the rock of the late seventies & early eighties: the art, the music, the films, the subversive & popular culture, the new theory, the new technology and all that new equipment. As we all agree there's never been a more exiting period of time within the world's collective cultural history. The years between '76 and '83 are in all ways the peak of cultural evolution. The zenith, the rise and the fall.

When starting to produce they decided to try and create a brand new trinity of inspiration. Fela Kuti, Afrika Bambaataa & Kraftwerk were to replace Talking Heads, DEVO and Happy Mondays, and all the equipment to go on the album had to be made before 1983. Of course, as Sophocles taught them long ago, one simply can't escape the natural course of events, so yet again that original trinity was right back in place. Gerald Cassale of DEVO even ended up helping out creatively in the process, by coincidence they ended up on the same stage as the Mondays on a number of occasions, and Talking Heads, well, they all know DATAROCK's pretty much just some kind of tribute band anyways. No point in hiding the evident right, so one of the tracks is nothing but a tribute where they list some of DATAROCK's favorite Talking Heads tunes. The title's "True Stories" as in David Byrne's motion picture from 1986, and the video is all about paying homage to their classic concert movie "Stop Making Sense" from 1984.

They've essentially been working with the same guys and studios back home as they did on "DATAROCK DATAROCK", but this time they added a few stays with the Reverend over at Wendyhouse in London - some call it a house, they call it a home. For whatever reason this added a tiny bit of a new flavor, and though they're not quite sure where it all came from, somehow DATAROCK ended up doing something new. They got a little bit of West End, a hint of the Caribbean, a dash of West Africa and a whole lot of pulsating postmodernity. Was it the Commonwealth rushing trough our veins? Was it just hanging out in that multicultural metropolis? Let's have a look at what happened lyrically.

The Pretender
I'm a North Korean
I'm a South American
I'm a European
I am a Samaritan
I am a Believer
Praying for a Better World
I am an Achiever
I'm a Boy and I'm a Girl

I am a Pretender
At one with my Avatar
Real Sweat 'n Tender

I'm a South Korean
I'm a North American
I am a Norwegian
I am a Civilian
I am a Believer
Praying for a Better World
I am an Achiever
I'm a Boy and I'm a Girl

I am a Pretender
At one with my Avatar
Real Sweat n' Tender
Know what you're looking for?
Blond, Tall 'n Slender
Adventure's my Center Core
Never Surrender

Replied my Email
"Aint no Such Zone"
She'd Written 'pon It
Address Unknown
Return to Sender
Put in Her Hand
It's Second Life and
I'll Understand
I'm The Pretender
Virtually Giving Into My Feeling and Never Giving Up

I'm a Son Zion
I'm a Presbyterian
Used to be a Mayan
Now am a Republican
I am a Believer
Prying for a Better World
I Am an Achiever
I'm a Boy and I'm a Girl

I'm the Pretender
At one with my Avatar
Real Sweat 'n 'Tender
Know what You're Looking For?
Blond, Tall 'n Slender
Adventure's my Center Core
Never Surrender

Back In The Seventies

I'd wanna go to the Blues Parties
The Caribbean
I'd wanna Dance to Nothern Soul
Back in the Seventies
Be into Two Tone and Post Punk
New Wave and No Wave
I'd Wanna Live on Lower East Side
Back in the Seventies

Cause all the Best of the Early Eighties
At least up to '83
Was an Extension of Seventies
Postmodernity

I'd be a Fan of Fela Kuti
And a Feminist
And I'd be Dancing at the Disco
Back in the Seventies
Be into YMO and DEVO
Cultural Relativist
I'd be Engaged in the Computer Age
Back in the Seventies

How Sick It Would've Been
To be There
In the Middle of the Past
And the Future
You'd Know It Couldn't Last...

As the Story Goes Now
And Everybody Knows
Even History'll Show How
Everything Revolves
Around Peaks like Those

How to Outgrow Being a Moron?
Stuck in the Eighties
Do as D A T A R O C K
Take a Look at the Seventies

Give It Up

She Shot You Down Like an Animal
Give it Up
Wanna Live Your Life Like a Romeo?

Hush, Don't You Cry
Live and Let Die
Spread Out Your Wings and Fly

Try to Keep Your Feet on the Patio
Give it Up
Wanna Show Perrineau Your Maccitio

Hush, Don't You Cry
Live and Let Die
Spread Out Your Wings and Fly

Cause the Strong Shall Thrive
While the Week Will All Perish
Only Those Fit Survive

You Gotto Live by the Game
You Gotto Live by the Rule
You Gotto Know Your Means and Your Moves
You Gotto Hold up Your Guard
You Gotto Hit Quick And Hard
You Gotto Know When to Hold or Fold Your Cards

We'll Hook You Up With an Enema
Give it Up
And Don't Stop Till You Get Enough

But rest assured. This is just a tiny fraction of the overwhelming load of data they're rockin' out in 'red'.

Datarock biography
Many moons ago, atop one of seven mountains surrounding a picturesque Norwegian countryside, two scruffy-faced individuals-Fredrik Saroea and the man known simply as Ket-Ill-made a pact to alter the face of contemporary music as we know it by single-handedly transforming themselves into what they called the peak of pop evolution.

A big undertaking, but somebody had to do it.

Already home to indie-pop luminaries like the Kings of Convenience, Röyksopp, Annie, Ralph Myerz, and Even Johansen of Magnet, Bergen's southwest coast would be a fertile proving ground for their exploits, but far be it from Fredrik and Ket-Ill to sit back and let the buzz come to them.* DIY punk rockers by nature, but heavily influenced by the distinctive style and stage presence of groups like Talking Heads and Devo, the boys decided to ditch the thrash guitars in favor of the simple yet versatile Casio MT-64 keyboard and a Roland Groovebox. Toss in matching red track suits, a penchant for Transformers and John Hughes flicks, and two pairs of vintage Porsche wraparound sunglasses and you've got a little something called DATAROCK.

“In Norwegian, you would call a computer a 'data machine,'” Saroea explains. “So in the beginning, Datarock was making fun of all the rock people that thought electronic music was simply computer-generated music. But in English, 'data' means information, which is even more appropriate because Datarock is essentially the product of 30 years of the information society. But for some reason, we're constantly going back to the years between 1977 and 1982.”

In December of 2000, Fredrik and Ket-Ill made their debut performance at Annie's monthly club night, “Pop Till You Drop,” setting off a high-energy disco inferno fuelled by sparse electro-rock rhythms and infectious pop guitar hooks. Their low-fi live shows soon became the stuff of legend, attracting guest performers from all corners of the Bergen scene, from Amulet drummer Jonas Thire and avant-jazz saxophonist Kjetil Møster to members of Purified in Blood and Norwegian Black Metal band Enslaved. Sophisticated multimedia shows soon followed, along with regular accompaniment by a traditional men's choir.** Then there was the gig with a modern theatre group that performed aerobics on stage. Not to be confused with the show that featured a full high school marching band. That one was different.

After releasing a split 10-inch on local label Tellé Records, Fredrik and Ket-Ill decided it was time to up the ante. In 2002, the pair recorded a handful of new songs, burned them onto 400 hand-painted, three-inch CD's, and distributed them through ten different countries. In 2003, they found themselves playing the main stage at Barcelona's Sónar Festival.

With the release of the “Computer Camp Love” EP later that year, Fredrick and Ket-Ill finally hit their stride. A stomping call-and-response, the track pays homage to Revenge of the Nerds, Grease's famous “Summer Nights,” and the archetypal Commodore 64, all in the span of 180 seconds.*** It's this hyper jubilant, rapid fire reminiscing of 80's entertainment culture that would come to define Datarock's sound and vision.

“Someone once said that Datarock is taking the piss at everyone,” says Saroea, whose videos are equally in tune with the band's retro aesthetic. “But I don't think he meant it as negative. I think Datarock is having fun with a lot of different concepts of humankind.”†

In a brilliant show of foresight-and possibly a bit of obsessive compulsivity-Fredrik and Ket-Ill did what any young aspiring professionals would do upon recognizing the rapid growth of their empire-they formed a label on which to release their material. This label, in yet another display of innovation, was dubbed Young Aspiring Professionals. Datarock has since played over 300 shows in 16 different countries, including 15,000+ at the Good Vibrations Festival in Sydney and 10,000+ screaming maniacs at the Meredith Music Festival near Melbourne.

Their first full-length CD, Datarock Datarock (Nettwerk Music Group; June 12, 2007), takes the feel-good vibe of “Computer Camp Love,” turns it up to 11, and blasts a power chord of throwback nostalgia that'll knock you straight out of your Reebok Pumps. Love letters to Laurie Anderson (“Laurie”) and references to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (“Princess”) are just the tip of the iceberg. The album's infectious first single, “Fa Fa Fa,” pairs up dance-rock drums with funk-strummed guitars and a chorus that'll have you jonesing for the nearest copy of Talking Heads' 77. “Ugly Primadonna,” meanwhile, is pure four/four Groovebox robotics and space age Casiotone melodies.†† On “I Will Always Remember You” (featuring Annie), Fredrik does his best Wayne Newton, verbally undressing you with his velvety pipes over a bed of freeze-dried strings before formally “sexing you down” on “Sex Me Up.” But more so than any other track on the album, the opening “Bulldozer” perhaps best encapsulates the band's true modus operandi. Whereas Kraftwerk glorified the Trans-Europe Express and the Tour de France, Datarock prefer to sing the praises of a more proletarian method of transportation: the BMX. Which, according to the Fredrik and Ket-Ill, “is better than sex.”

By the time you read this, Datarock will have put the finishing touches on their newest song; a little ditty entitled “Molly.††† Which begs the question: Can one become the peak of pop evolution by cleverly and respectfully mining the vaults of our most beloved generation? If you happen to be two scruffy-faced, young aspiring professionals from the seaside town of Bergen, then the answer is yes.

press quotes
"We just want to make people do the dirty! The dirty dancing!"
-DATAROCK

"Doubting Datarock is the future of indie dance? You're taking the piss, right?"
-James Jam, new bands editor, NME

"...the urge to cheer them from the sideline remains strong."
-Sharon O'connel, Uncut

"Datarock may be treading the disco-ball lined path already well worn by Devo, but damned if they don't drop a couple of catchy fucking tunes in the process"
-Music Week

"Finally, a band to fall madly in love with"
-The Fly Magazine

"There's never a bottom line with bands like this, but the bottom line with Datarock is the songs shoot for instant pleasure and accidentally end up being much more than that. (7.8)"
-Nick Sylvester, Pitchfork

"Note to all festival booking agents and...sod it...all other booking agents for that matter - stick Datarock to a stage and just send us a cheque for telling you to do so"
-Caz McBain, Loud & Quiet

"It makes for quite a party"
-John Robinson, Q Magazine

"Norwegian duo Fredrik Saroea and Ketil Mosnes are lively digital dance-rock bunnies who know how to have fun without becoming a laughing stock."
-Daily Mirror (UK)

"Their record kills me like all good 'playing with genre stereotypes' records do--funny but not Weird Al about it, whimsical but not trivial, all the result of band leaders Fredrik having killer vox and Ketil laying down unquestionably funky low-end."
-The Village Voice

"I suppose it only makes sense that all the coolest electro-pop has been coming from our Nordic neighbours in Scandinavia."
-Montreal Mirror

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Tracklisting

Datarock - Red