A short interview appears on The Boston Globe website.
“But it stuns me that there are people – not people I went to high school with, they’re strangers! – who know intimate things about these songs and have really listened to them. It really blows my mind.”
FairHearing.co.uk music review site
The Independent
The Times
Thanks go to Dirk for his audience review of the Carling Academy gig.
Thanks to Craig
Thanks to craig!
You gotta love an album that starts with the line ‘Monday I was tryin’ ta get my freak on, with a coupla twins from Washington DC’ with absolutely no shame.
This is the new album from the seminal Detroit funk collective – back out of semi-retirement since 1992 – Was (Not Was) also known as Don & David Was and it feels like they were never away.
Andy Snipper – Music News
Weekend Edition Saturday, April 12, 2008 – For almost 30 years, David Weiss and Don Fagenson, along with a rotating cast of musical pranksters, have melded funk and absurdity as the band Was (Not Was).
The group has just released a new album, Boo!, its first new release in more than 15 years. Bandleaders Weiss and Fagenson — a.k.a. David Was and Don Was, respectively — joined Weekend Edition Saturday’s Scott Simon from the studios of NPR West to discuss their unique music.
Links to tracks from Boo! on the site.
Few pop-rock songwriters are prepared to address modern life in all its rancid, dysfunctional glory. Fewer still can frame their lyrics in music that doesn’t rot your teeth. But Don and David Was have done this since the 1980s, and middle age suits them just fine. Boo!, their first album for 16 years, is well up to the standard of classics such as What Up Dog? and Are You Okay? Vocalists Harry Bowens, Sweet Pea Atkinson and Donald Ray Mitchell deliver the skewed tales of It’s a Miracle, From the Head to the Heart and Crazy Water with ferocious soulfulness. David Was adds a dose of his customary obliqueness on Needletooth; Kris Kristofferson intones the hallucinatory words to Green Pills in the Dresser; and Bob Dylan drops by mysteriously to co-write Mr Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More. Plus there is authentic Motown drumming by the legendary James Gadson – all guaranteed to make you feel (weirdly) better than James Brown.
John L Walters – The Guardian
The UK’s Clash magazine waxes lyrical about new Was album.
Daily Star – Album Review.
Robert Spellman gives the new Was album a 4-star review in the UK’s Daily Express newspaper .
Colin Somerville, rock critic for the Scotland on Sunday makes the new Was album “Album of the Week”.
Phil Johnson of the UK’s Independent on Sunday newspaper gives the thumbs up to the new Was album.
Mark Edwards of the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper reviews the new album.
“David and I were looking at the Jungian archetypes, trying to figure out who we were,” he says. “We hit on the archetype of The Fool. He’s not an idiot, but the king always used to put a Fool at the table at a banquet to act as a provocateur. He would say anything to get the conversation going. We don’t mind being that. If it takes sarcasm or humour to get the fire going, we’ll do it. But we’re not a comedy band.”
More at The Independent
Was (Not Was) – Boo [Rykodisc]
It may be little over 25 years since the leftfield Detroit production team of Don (Fagenson) Was and David (Weiss) Was laid down their off kilter mix of rock, funk soul and boogie. But with their new Rykodsic album ‘Boo!’, Was Not Was prove themselves to adapt at imaginatively recycling old wine in new bottles. That is to say that their contrary mix of styles and genres from funky dance floor friendly disco grooves and a potent mix of politically conscious and humorous lyrics are just as unique now as they were at the height of their 80’s commercial success.
Honestly, they didn’t write, they didn’t call, what were we supposed to think? Well, it matters not, as eccentric funky Uncles Was (Not Was) are back after nearly 20 years away from popland. Were they just trying to make us miss them? Who can say, but within minutes of spinning this bad boy and you’ll be nodding and grinning like an idiot.
Zoe Street Howe – BBC
FUNK is back and it’s just as hot as before. Was (Not Was( have been walking the dinosaur for quite a while now, but it’s great to have them back. From the instant hit Semi-Interesting Week to the Temptations sounding It’s A Miracle, this is one nostalgic and welcome treat.
Glenn Meads – Manchester Evening News
It may be little over 25 years since the leftfield Detroit production team of Don (Fagenson) Was and David (Weiss) Was laid down their off kilter mix of rock, funk soul and boogie. But with their new Rykodsic album ‘Boo!’, Was Not Was prove themselves to adapt at imaginatively recycling old wine in new bottles. That is to say that their contrary mix of styles and genres from funky dance floor friendly disco grooves and a potent mix of politically conscious and humorous lyrics are just as unique now as they were at the height of their 80’s commercial success.
Pete Feenstra – Get Ready To Rock
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