Devo
B-Stiff

Bob Casale – rhythm guitar, additional keyboards, occasional backing vocals
Gerald V. Casale – bass guitar, keyboards, vocals
Bob Mothersbaugh – lead guitar, vocals
Jim Mothersbaugh – electronic drums
Mark Mothersbaugh – keyboards, guitar, and lead vocals
Alan Myers – drums

01. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction 2:52
02. Jocko Homo 3:18
03. Be Stiff 2:31
04. Mongoloid 3:31
05. Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Getting) 2:15
06. Social Fools 2:49

Last week I wrote about some of the Ranchero singers that were being killed for having the wrong allegiances. Well, sometime between 2006 and 2008 I met a DJ team, male and female, that hosted a show first on one station, and then moved to another. They were not too popular and their show was dropped. I talked to them briefly to try and formulate a one-paragraph bio. The thing that stuck in my head was having them telling me that they were asked to leave Mexico because they would mention the Juárez murders on a daily basis. Here is where I was stumped. I didn’t know where Juárez was, and I didn’t know about any murders. They told me a bit, and then suggested I search it out on the web. So, pieces of this story I got from them, and pieces are from Wikipeida, and other websites.

The female homicides in Ciudad Juárez are called, in Spanish, the feminicidios (“femicides”) or las muertas de Juárez (“The dead women of Juárez”). Los Feminicidios involves the violent deaths of hundreds of women since 1993 in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a border city across the Rio Grande from of El Paso, Texas. Authorities estimate the homicide toll to be about 400 (According to Amnesty International as of February 2005), but many local residents believe that the true count of Los Feminicidios stands at an estimated 5,000. Most of the cases remained unsolved as of present time.

According to the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:

“The victims of these crimes have preponderantly been young women, between 12 and 22 years of age. Many were students, and most were maquiladora workers. A number were relative newcomers to Ciudad Juarez who had migrated from other areas of Mexico. The victims were generally reported missing by their families, with their bodies found days or months later abandoned in vacant lots, outlying areas or in the desert. In most of these cases there were signs of sexual violence, abuse, torture or in some cases mutilation.”

In November 2005 BBC News reported Mexico’s human rights ombudsman José Luis Soberanes as saying that 28 women had been murdered at that point in 2005.

A group of mothers, families, and friends of the victims, called Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C. (“Civil Association for the Return Home of Our Daughters”) was formed to raise awareness about the situation and put pressure on the Mexican government to pay attention to these cases, some of which have gone unsolved for 13 years. Members of the group, including co-founder Norma Andrade, demand that proper investigations be carried out.

Another family organization, Voces sin Eco (“voices without echo”) was founded in 1998. They painted pink crosses on black telephone poles to draw attention to the tragedy.

In 2000, El Paso post-hardcore band At the Drive-In released a music video for their song “Invalid Litter Dept.” that details the deaths. The video features several photos of newspaper clippings and articles about the murders.

In 2001, filmmaker Lourdes Portillo released one of the first documentaries dedicated to the victims of the murders, Señorita Extraviada.

An informal group, which the press named Las Mujeres de Negro (“the women in black”), originated in November 2001 in the city of Chihuahua, following the discovery of eight corpses together. They attended the protest, which interrupted the celebration of the Mexican Revolution, wearing black tunics (as a sign of mourning) and pink hats. Since then, they have marched across the desert from Chihuahua to Juárez, and planted crosses (sometimes with plastic limbs attached).

In 2002, Mexican journalist, Sergio González Rodríguez published Huesos en el Desierto, (“Bones in the Desert”) one of the most comprehensive research’s on these murders and its social, and political causes on book form. Rodríguez claims that during the course of his research for the book, which discovered links between organized crime, local entrepreneurs, and local, and federal authorities, he suffered death threats, and was kidnapped, and tortured.

In 2003, journalist Max Blumenthal won the Online News Association independent feature award for his investigative article in Salon.com, “Day of the Dead”, which examined the murders and the connection between them and the policies of the corporations with factories in the border city.

In 2004, Mexican norteño group Los Tigres del Norte released a song called “Las Mujeres de Juárez” (The Women of Juárez) on their Pacto de Sangre album. Juárez Mayor Héctor Murguía denounced the song, saying that it painted a false picture about the “real face of Juárez.”

In 2004, Greek documentary team Exandas, released a production titled “Juárez, City of the Dead, women” featuring interviews with several relatives, maquiladora workers and owners and showcasing police corruption, evidence tampering practices, and collaboration with one of the Mexican drug cartels, whose members emerge as the most likely culprits.

In 2004, American musician Bugs Salcido released a concept album titled “The Juarez Murders” featuring David Lowery, David Immerglück, Martin Pradler, Jeff Trott, & Alan Weatherhead. Proceeds from sales of the album and from his live concerts have gone to aid the families of the victims and the rape crisis center in Juarez. “ . . .I do hope that ultimately, people are left with a feeling of hope after hearing this music,” says Salcido.

On May 30, 2005, President Vicente Fox told reporters that the majority of the Juárez killings had been resolved, and the perpetrators placed behind bars. He went on to criticize the media for “rehashing” the same 300 or 400 murders, and said matters needed to be seen in their “proper dimension”. If these murders happened in Washington DC, would the President be able to brush aside the matter with a statement like “rehashing” the same 300 or 400 murders?

In 2006, Diana Washington Valdez published The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women, an investigative book in English about the Juárez women’s murders, drug cartels and government corruption in Mexico. The eBook version was titled Harvest of Women: Safari in Mexico.

In 2006, Los Angeles filmmaker Lorena Mendez produced Border Echoes, a documentary about the Juárez women’s murders based on nearly 10 years of investigation. She collaborated with Diana Washington Valdez for the film. Azul Luna co-produced.

In the Juarez newspaper Norte, for the date of January 4, 2010, a special report/section was included “Informe Anual Operativo Conjunto Chihuahua ” by the government, with a subsection at page 2 on “Murders of Women” from 10-2004 through 11-2008, during which period there were 53 victims, with 36 cases resolved with convictions or detention, or arrest. Most of these murders were by persons connected to the victim. This represents the results of enhanced investigation and prosecution since the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Juarez is suffering from other murders. The same newspaper (Norte), on the same date, reports 2660 murders during 2009, mostly drug war related. Then, on page 3, for January 5, 2010, reports already 37 murders for the first four days alone of 2010. Murders are now so common in Juarez that “Fourteen People Assassinated” rates only page 3 coverage.

Only a handful of arrests can be verified. The most prominent suspects in the Juarez serial case were arrested, following the discovery of body clusters in the areas noted in parentheses.
1995 – Abdul Latif Sharif was arrested, charged, and convicted of the 1995 murder of Elizabeth Castro Garcia (Lote Bravo).
1996 – Several members of Los Rebeldes, a Juarez street gang, were arrested (Lote Bravo).
1999 – Los Choferes, bus drivers on routes between the maquiladoras, and residential districts, were arrested (Lomas de Poleo).
2001 – García Uribe and González Meza were arrested for the murder of eight victims found in a cotton field near the Association of Maquila Workers in East Juarez (Cotton Field).

Despite past, and current unsolved murders as of August 2006, the federal government dropped its investigation, concluding that no federal laws had been violated.

On to the review . . .

My late Uncle Rick first introduced me to this EP back in 1978. Rick always had the most off the wall record collection. Some of it I would scratch my head over, other stuff like this Devo vinyl I would run out and buy. Now the Residents Eskimo album I’m still out to lunch on.

This was originally import only, and it’s great. I had never heard anything like them. I still love this EP. A few years later, as a fullblown “punk rocker” I started to dislike them, like many other kids, as Devo was screamed at me from every other car that drove by. And among other punks you were a poser for listening to them. All my Devo albums were stashed away.

The standout cuts are: Satisfaction, and Be Stiff.

If you can find it, buy it.

Rating: ***** Five out of five stars.

Currently:
Reading: Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Listening: Everybody Out! – Everybody Out!
Watching: King Kong directed by Peter Jackson

Free & legal download of the week: Bad Religion – Heroes & Martyrs