the dead bodies

"The Dead Bodies are by far one of the best bands in Detroit..." - Real Detroit Weekly - Real Detroit Weekly

"equal parts David Lynch and the Shins" - SPIN.com - SPIN.com

"I highly doubt The Dead Bodies are like anything you're listening to right now. For me, this is very refreshing." - 5 Acts
- 5 Acts

"Electronic-ized self-described acid rock from a Shelby Township quartet that's named "anger, anxiety and depression" as the three main emotions of rock 'n' roll." - MetroTimes - MetroTimes

"Dead Bodies? It's getting ridiculous to watch this band be that good. It's not even niche good, because it appears they've written songs in so many different styles and appear to just pull them out of their ass whenever they feel like it." - FiveThreeDialTone.com - FiveThreeDialTone.com

"CCCCXX is an interesting, innovative album of pop songs that you wouldn't expect from a band called The Dead Bodies. I've done a lot of myspace listenin' over the past couple weeks, but this album has excited me the most and I can't wait to see the show." - www.post-rockist.com
- www.post-rockist.com

"...a voluptuous seven song mini-masterpiece." - Beatnick Vending Machine
- Beatnick Vending Machine

"This ep is really good." - Waxing Philablogical
- Waxing Philablogical

http://www.realdetroitweekly.com/article_4344.shtml

The word “cock” comes up countless times when I join The Dead Bodies at The Emory in Ferndale for anything but an interview. I walk into the Woodward hotspot to find the Bodies at the bar, having their noon “good morning” beer with cigarettes as we shuffle over to a cozy booth.

Cock Cock Cock Cock Xanadu Xanadu is the name of the free EP they released this February, which, as of press time, is still available for legal download on their Web site [sexydeadbodies.com]. And so far, the seven-song collection has been their most popular release to date … perhaps because it’s at no charge.

“There’s more downloads of this free album in a week than we sold of the record that was released by Quite Scientific,” says singer/guitarist Jonathan Weier. “It says something about giving shit away for free. I wanna make money selling people iPhones with my music, that’s a better business model, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

CCCCXX mixes psychedelia and pop. With a blonde mop of bedhead and Prada eyewear, Weier’s vocals hop-scotch through genres, from glam-rock to baroque to new wave to eventually a rainbow-y burst of chalk that obliterates borders (Spin called them “equal parts David Lynch and The Shins”), as keyboardist Jason Croff layers quirky synthesizers while drummer Adam Cox and bassist Nick Childers deliver tight, bouncy rhythms. After the flamenco-fueled opener, “Total Destruction,” one quickly gets immersed in the band’s musical A.D.D. with “I Love The Way,” an “instrumental” that sounds more befitting of a National Geographic special on tree people than the appetizer to their live show. Adding a porno sample of a woman moaning “Mmm … I love the way your big dick feels when you come in me,” makes it even stranger. They opened their recent Rock City performance at the Garden Bowl with it, and to the band’s laughing admittance, it just makes everyone feel uncomfortable.

“That song was recorded in, like, 2003, after I bought this ambient CD from a store in Seattle of these Greek parades with these really obnoxious instruments playing, that kinda sound like oboes,” Weier says. “I went home to mine and Adam’s apartment at 10:30 in the morning and just started blasting this horrible music.”

“I wake up to this fucking sound, like sheep with bells on, just this really weird music,” Cox says. “I’m like, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ It seemed like he lost his mind and he’s like, ‘Dude, you gotta hear this shit! It’s the best thing ever’.”

Everyone shares a laugh, and as I ask questions about other songs, there’s a similar wacky back-story to every track and title, from Dianna Ross quotes to the craziness of Craig’s List. The Shelby Township-based band is as skillful as they are eccentric and have been labeled by a mutual friend as “fucking crazy.” I ask them if they think that’s true.

“If by crazy you mean gay,” Cox snaps. “Everyone’s crazy in their own way, but crazy is so relative,” Croff chimes.“If by crazy you mean known to have a good time, we’re definitely known to have a good time,” Childers says. “We get drunk and throw knives around sometimes — that’s fun. But by no means is our live show crazy.”

Lately, the Bodies have been playing out often, including some of the more memorable parties and festivals (Rock City, Zombie Dance Party, RDW Birthday Bash and the upcoming Comerica Cityfest). And every time their name is splattered on a show flyer, fans of the local music scene offer their highest praise and throw out phrases like “most underrated band.”

“We’re definitely the most underrated band in Shelby,” Croff jokes.

“I guess there’s a lot of things working against a lot of people liking us,” Weier says. “We're getting better billings now that there are better bands coming out and some of the more electronic-laced stuff like Deastro.”

“I think that sometimes the underrated-ness might actually be a fault of our own,” Childers explains. “We’re not good promoters, and we do take lulls sometimes to figure out exactly what we wanna do for our next recording or whatever. And taking a decent amount of breaks, I think that basically leads to us not being on the scene as much as someone that’s out there doing it constantly.”

But a Google search of Dead Bodies does bring up their Myspace Web site on the first page of results — so they must be doing something right. “A lot of Iraq stuff comes up,” Weier jokes about Googling their name. I reply that including “Detroit” into the search brings up Kwame Kilpatrick.

“I made two sets of retainers for Kwame Kilpatrick,” Childers blurts. “His orthodontist is in Southfield. That’s my occupation. I made Kwame’s giant, giant retainers. If you try to punch Kwame Kilpatrick, he can bite your fucking fist off, that’s how big his mouth is. He’s a hippo.”

Amidst a cloud of cigarette smoke, everyone bursts out in laughter. There hasn’t been much traditional interviewing going on, but I’ve learned that if The Dead Bodies were a rap group, they would be Bone Thugs. Croff says they like to shoot guns in their spare time. They have some 80 (or 8,000) unreleased songs. Known for their exceptional recording quality, Weier and Cox, who together started the band in high school, said that they prefer to produce themselves instead of involving outside producers and engineers because it retains spur of the moment songwriting and an “anything goes” environment. And that, allegedly, the Weier’s family’s penchant for TGI Fridays gives the band the luxury of free hotel rooms while on tour. Otherwise, they park the van in rest stops. And, as a tribute, the next album might be called Lot Lizards. I asked if they ever scored some oral from one. “Blowjobs? All the time,” Childers jokes. “We try to keep it to queers, they're more predominant at rest stops. Typically what you do is you buy a particular eagle statue because all these rest stops have a lot of different bullshit, the chicks realize what you’re doing and they follow you out and you pay them to suck you and then they return the statue and the police don’t realize what you’re doing.”

The conversations kept steering back to cocks. “Where are the questions about how many broads we cock in a week?” Childers asks. “I got a story about Adam Cox cocking a broad.” | RDW
- Real Detroit Weekly (Full Article)