In the early 70s when using a Letraset to produce captions for their short film Boogie Boy, DEVO ran out of the letter “g”. When they simply used “i”, lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh reportedly remarked that the odd spelling “looked right.”
Booji Boy was born. The character, a bizarre, adult infant freak, who wears an orange nuclear protection suit and speaks in a distinctive high pitched falsetto, was officially introduced in the 1976 short film The Truth About De-Evolution. The character has since played an important part of DEVO’s visual imagery and performance and was the name of their label.
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Halifax band Booji Boys have obviously had some influence from DEVO and the character. Their sound draws on some of the Akron band’s unique take on punk and new wave as well as 70s punk and power pop. Led by Cody Googoo, who has played in every great punk band to have come out of Halifax in the last few years, the five-piece’s debut album is set to be released on UK label Drunken Sailor.
Listen to the album below and read a chat we had with Cody.
Noisey: The photo on the album cover looks like it was taken after an aggravated burglary at a yard sale.
Cody Googoo: It’s our weird take on the first Creedence Clearwater Revival album cover.
So you are just fellas who love to rock. Do you prefer ‘Rocking the fuck out’ or just ‘rocking that shit’?
Oh yeah. Rockin’ with your buddies is sick especially after working all week. You have your soundtrack to get to you through the week then the weekened hits – BOOM! I’d say I prefer weekend rockers or local rocker or something like that
Boogi Boys references the longtime Devo character Booji. What is the most under appreciated Devo song?
Songs that I really like that people don’t mention that much are “Be Stiff”, “Bottled Up” and “Beautiful World”, although there’s a music video for that so maybe it is appreciated. But anyway it’s a real good feel good song. “Booji Boys Funeral” is a truly bizarre track too.
You have featured in bands such as Fragment, Grump, Negative Rage, Science Project and Alienation. Of those, which is the best? That Alienation LP was pretty sweet.
Thanks! They are all really fun to play in but Grump for sure had been my favourite. They are all bands that Steve and I have played in. Everyone’s forgetting the real rock n rollers of the band Adam, Alex ann Justin. They have played in some sick bands like The Age, Walrus, Bloodhouse, and tons of other groups around the local area.
Booji Boys is fun because now everyone is bringing their own songs to jam so it’s a weird mix. It’s not just basic joe punk all time
A lot of your songs reference people: Donnie, Richard, Marky, Cody. What do you have to do to get a Booji Boys song written about you?
Just have a funny name. The songs are mostly named after people because we couldn’t think of a real name at the time we wrote it. All those names are real people
One review of your music referred to people hanging out at Lion and Bright. I take that is a Halifax reference?
Yeah, that’s the local hot spot where all the real cool Johnny Lumberjacks hang out
Booji Boys self-titled album is available Feb 10 through Drunken Sailor.
