I got to The Funhouse early, 8:45ish, and Paul Caporino, the lead singer of M.O.T.O. (an acronym for Masters Of The Obvious) was standing in front of the jukebox selecting songs. He played T-Rex, AC/DC, Iggy and the Stooges and others.
There were so many questions I wanted to ask him, but suddenly my mind went blank, I was in the same room as M.O.T.O. and in 3 short hours, one of my most influential bands was going to take the stage!!
Last time M.O.T.O. played Seattle was 2004. That night, my roommate Joe returned from that show with a cd titled "Kill Moto". Immediately, the songs, "I Hate My Fucking Job", "I Am A Bomb", and "Choking On Your Insides" were staples on our kitchen radio.
I scoured record stores for more songs, and never thought M.O.T.O would ever return to Seattle. But on that Thursday in 2010, at The Funhouse, M.O.T.O. returned...
Amazing! Even though M.O.T.O. was in the middle of a tour across The United States and Japan, they still powered out crazy energetic songs like "Primeval", "Deliver Deliver Deliver", " Katamaran", and to the crowd's pleasure, "I Hate My Fucking Job". Imagine The Ramones fronted by Dr. Seuss - writing simple yet philosophic punk songs.
Before witnessing the long awaited live set from M.O.T.O., Paul Caporino, sat down and chatted with me. One of my first questions was, "What's the job behind the song 'I Hate My Fucking Job'?" His response was something like it's-about-a-job-I-hated... end of story.
Paul spent a lot of time in Chicago and New Orleans, and that salty, don't fuck with me, old school punk rock invades his being. I had more questions to ask, but Paul just rattled off stories and philosophies, and waxed poetic over an M.O.T.O. old poster still hanging in The Funhouse green room. (I hope to create a YouTube video of our interview someday.)
One of the best things about M.O.T.O. is Paul's lyrics. I wanted to know the stories behind songs like, "We Are The Rats", "All Night Vivarin Jag," "Blast of Silence". But then we started talking about food (Paul's fav = sushi) movies (He loves the classics AMC style) and guitars (Ampeg Stud, Epiphone, Crestawood)
In late 2010, M.O.T.O. is expecting to release another full length. Paul told me the name of their next album, and I wrote it down in my notes, but I think I wrote it down wrong, so I'm not gonna guess. Paul did say M.O.T.O.'s next album will be on Criminal IQ record label.
Including full lengths, 45's, bootlegs, homemade tapes and cdr's, the actual catalog of M.O.T.O. is unknown. Many releases are short run pressings. But some quality full length releases are "Kill Moto" and "Raw Power" can be found on Criminal IQ. Also M.O.T.O.'s "Single File" is an awesome compilation of early M.O.T.O. from 1985-mid 90's.
http://www.criminaliq.com/
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