Some mornings, rather than read through depressing news headlines, I instead grab my morning coffee and go on caffeine fueled journeys down the digital rabbit hole to discover new music, interesting music videos and performances. I thought I’d document a recent trip in blog post form. I created a new category for these posts called Red Pill Diaries.
Buckle Up for Today’s Trip to Finland with Pepe Deluxé
This blog post brings together my love for DEVO, Scandinavian bands and language, bands that are “all in”, and coffee. It’s a deep dive down a rabbit hole culminating with an amazing video by a Finish electronic band called Pepe Deluxé.
So grab your favorite beverage, then read on to take the red pill and ride along on my journey.
Come for the curiosities I find along the way.
Stay for the amazing video which features characters like Anzime (the modern witch of Endor) along with a Korla Pandit impersonator with electrifying dance moves and guitar chops.
It All Starts with “Punkrocker” by the Teddybears
I was going through my old favorites on Spotify and bumped into the song “Punk Rocker” by the Teadybears (feat. Iggy Pop). The song has been on repeat for a few days.
The Teddybears are a Swedish band, who during many phases of their career, performed with Teddy Bear heads on.
You actually probably know a Teddybears song already. Give Teddybears – Cobrastyle (feat. Mad Cobra) a look.
How Did I Originally Find the Teddybears?
Way back in in 2007, I saw an ad featuring DEVO music. The ad was for Dell computers. The song was called “Watch Us Work It” which was produced by the Teddybears.
At the time, DEVO was in a bit of hibernation mode so I was pleasantly surprised to see this, but at the same time was wondering how they came to do the Dell spot.
It ends up, DEVO was joining forces with an ad agency called Mother.
Here is an excerpt with DEVO founding member Gerald Casale on how this all came to be from this interview https://www.meridianmedia.co/interviews/geraldcasaleofdevo.
Sara Crow:
After all this time, you’ve come together to release a new album. But initially you were brought together again to do music for a commercial for Dell, “Watch Us Work It”…
Gerry Casale:
Yes, and the commercial got such a huge response. It was popular with listeners, and more importantly, it was popular with record companies. We gave it to Teddybears, and they produced it.
SC:
This was during your 2006 tour?
GC:
Yeah. I liked Teddybears, and their record had just come out. Paul, the creative director of Mother agency in New York (who hired us to work on the Dell commercial), knows them. He suggested that they do something with the song, and we thought that was fantastic. We loved what they did.
There is actually an entire Wikipedia article dedicated to this song. I’ll include it in the links at the bottom of this post.
Mother Ship
This led me to explore the Mother Ad agency to see if I could find out more about the Paul / Teddybears connection.
The “People” section of their web site lists “Proud Mother of”… with pictures of employees mothers by default.
If you mouse over the person’s name, it rolls over to reveal their profile picture.
Paul’s bio reads as follows:
How his mother would describe him in one sentence: As a child, Paul was patient, kind and absolutely ravenous.
Hailing from Sweden, Paul is one of the founding Partners of Mother New York and its current Creative Chairman. He began his advertising career in Stockholm at Paradiset DDB. Over the past nine years, Paul has been involved in major campaigns for Target, Virgin Mobile, Stella Artois, Tanqueray and Sour Patch Kids, among others.
In his spare time, Paul collects exotic musical instruments, some of which are used to record albums with a mysterious group from Finland called Pepe Deluxe.
Wait what? Pepe Deluxe?
Pepe Deluxé FTW!
Next, I went down the Pepe Deluxé rabbit hole and along the way, I and found their YouTube channel which took me to the bottom of this rabbit hole. A gem of a video called “A Night and Day” featuring characters Anzime, Korla Pandit
The video and song were Written and Directed by Paul Malmström for Mother Productions P&C 2011 Catskills Records. The video features characters Anzime (the modern witch of Endor) and Korla Pandit impersonator with electrifying dance moves and guitar chops. It also features coffee so we’ve come full circle.
Prepare to be mystified. The video REALLy takes off at the 3m14s mark. Seriously, watch till the end.
Thanks for Coming Along
Well that was a hell of a journey if I do say so myself. Thanks for coming along for the ride and making it to the end.
I hope you found these crazy ass “all-in” creative artists interesting and inspiring.
And speaking of coffee, if you enjoyed this journey you can buy me a coffee to help me fuel future journeys and artistic endeavors.
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Till next time,
Mark Mosher
- https://MarkMosherMusic.com
- https://RockyMountainSynth.com
- https://SynthPatrol.com
- https://CarbonDioxideEnsemble.com
Bonus Material
For those hardcore readers who’ve made it this far, here are some bonus videos for your enjoyment.
Teddybears – Punkrocker 2021
Teddybears – Robyn Cobrastyle Live on Late Show with David Letterman
Here is Cobrastyle with Swedish pop star Robyn.
DEVO
“Watch Us Work It” on the kid’s TV show “You Gabba Gabba!” with the late Bob 2.
Links
Pepe Deluxé
- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@pepedeluxeofficial
- IG: https://www.instagram.com/pepedeluxeofficial/
- “A Night and Day” Music Links: Spotify | Bandcamp
- Streaming: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
- FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/PepeDeluxeOfficial/
- Wikipeda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_Deluxé
DEVO
- Artist Website: https://www.clubdevo.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSa3U41qcP0ZD36gdmmbS-g
- IG: https://www.instagram.com/clubdevo
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo
- “Watch Us Work It” Wikipedia Article – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Us_Work_It
Mark Mosher Multimedia 
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