DUSTdevils made some amazing sounds. I first became aware of them from hearing their version of the Fall’s Hip Priest on the radio. A couple of their releases trickled into my collection over the next couple of years. I eventually heard much more about them from Steven Cerio, who provided the cover art for their 1989 Teen Beat 7″ “Is Big Leggy” (named after the Haysi Fantayzee song John Wayne is Big Leggy. Believe it! Confirmed by Michael in the comments. it is available to download) and who plays with DD main guy Michael Duane now in Atlantic Drone. I asked Steven about his relationship with DUSTdevils and he shared this tidbit” I auditioned once for them just before I joined Railroad Jerk. I had a really high fever and played REALLY badly… I remember throwing up on the L train on my way back to Brooklyn. Michael and I still laugh about it.”
Well worth a read is “Struggling Electric and Chemical: A Dustdevils Interview” in WFMU’s Beware of the Blog from a little bit over a week ago. There is a detailed analysis of the DUSTdevils output on Trouser Press. And a short post with lively comments from several people involved at Detailed Twang. DUSTdevils started in the 1980s in Leeds, England. The two founding (and permanent members) were Michael Duane and Jaqi Dulany. They played a loud, yet complex, brand of noise rock. Many other musicians were in the band over the years contributing on bass and drums. In the late ’80s they moved to New York City. On the STRUGGLING ELECTRIC + CHEMICAL album they are joined by Mark Ibold (later of Pavement). That LP is available to get digitally from iTunes or physically from Teen Beat. They also have three tracks available from Free Music Archive, as is embedded below.
