An acronym for Masters of the Obvious, this longtime puerile power pop band has ranged from Paul Caporino's solo effort to a duo and a trio to a solo effort to a... And, through all this time, Caporino has been the undisputed master of two-minute '70s AM radio-style pop. So, if Caporino is such a pop genius, why haven't they become more successful? After about twenty full-length releases, they haven't sold a single record at WalMart... Perhaps it's the humorous adolescent lyrical content (approximately half the songs on MOTO's compilation Single File -- including "Dick About It," "It's So Big It's Fluorescent," and "Crystallize My Penis" -- are about Caporino's penis) that's holding them back... "Caporino wanders among the fields of sexual juvenalia and schoolyard scatology with an expert's eye;" said the Chicago Reader's Bill Wyman in 1990, "human genitalia and bodily functions are to him what haystacks were to Monet."
Note that Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot -- picking this release as one of his favorite local releases of 1997, called it "a treasure trove of rare or out-of-print singles reaching back to the '80s by Chicago's premier singles band: 28 pithy blasts of punk brio delivered by wiseguy Paul Caporino and toy-drum icon Beck Dudley." CMJ writer Robin Edgerton included it in her top ten list for the same year.
In addition to Single File, there are two other 1996 LPs, E Pluribus MOTO (Teenage Kicks) and Bolt! (Little Teddy), both released in Germany, and the 1990 This Corpse is a Warning. The new St. John the Bastard (MOC Records) is due out in the Fall of '99. There are also nearly 20 full-length tapes, including 1998's Terramoto, 1997's Ides of Moto, Wall of Phlegm, Gangway for Miracles, 1996's Bandit 65, and Ampeg Stud, Fletcher Henderson (1995), Talk of Moto (1991), Radio Blowjob (1990), 1000 Years of Rock'n'Roll (1989), Neon Bone (1988), Motoerectus (1987), Rock, Roll and Dismember (1986), and 1985's Turn Your Head and Cough.
For more information, visit their website: http://www.motorock.com
Got a correction? Click
Here
