Tuesday, October 18, 2011

(today's zomby) AND ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK... SLOWLY!


Relax, gentle reader. Our (disturbingly off-model) zombie friend is not really planning to cook and eat beloved American television personality Nancy Grace. He is merely speculating on when she'll be voted off Dancing With the Stars. (Zomby's been a staunch J.R. supporter all season.)

But speaking of dancing, why not get down and boogie to the chilly Eurotrash stylings of Telex? Here, direct to you from 1979, the puckish Belgian synth pop trio performs its slowed-down deconstruction of rock's unofficial national anthem, "Rock Around the Clock." Even more than other high-concept bands of the era, Telex seemed to delight in deliberately baffling and annoying its audience. Note how lead singer Michel Moers remains seated during the entire performance and even stops to casually take a drink of water and read a newspaper mid-song, while bandmates Marc Moulin and Dan Lacksman remain practically motionless throughout the performance. It's almost as if they're... living impaired! The band's aloof, too-cool-to-try attitude ticked off a lot of people at the time, and their clips (like this one) continue to inspire venomous YouTube comments today!



Update: Telex remained active (if "active" is the right word for what they did) from 1978 to 1986, when the group members simply wanted to move on to other projects. Apart from a brief flurry of activity in 2005 and 2006, the group has largely been dormant for the last quarter-century. Marc Moulin's death in 2008 seems to have precluded any further reunions. But, hey, there's still a very worthy discography to explore.

And the band's official website is pretty neat, too.