Noise Pollution by Sudden Death

Encouraged, or perhaps deluded by the fairly positive reception of Dead Things Can Rap Too, Devo Spice immediately set off to record new music. He did a lot of writing during his sophomore year at RIT while he was double-majoring in Illustration and Graphic Design, and somehow managed to get a whole bunch of new songs done in just over a year. He recorded with the guys when was came home on breaks and finished up the new album in early 1993.

The album's title, "Noise Pollution," was inspired by Sudden Death member Jeff "Bozhead" Cots who actually got a ticket for noise pollution. At the time Jeff had an excessive car stereo system with vomit-inducing bass and the cop said he heard him coming from two blocks away. The original idea was to use the actual ticket as the cover but that didn't work out, so Devo did this illustration instead.

The cartoon of Devo that is seen on the cover would later be refined and used as a personal logo until many years later when he finally cut his hair short and it no longer looked like him.

This is the only Sudden Death album title is not some form of joke or pun about death.

In 1992, before this album was officially released, Devo Spice helped produce what is believed to be the first internet compilation album. Artists who frequented the alt.rap newsgroup got together and released an album called alt.rap.unsigned.tape. Devo did the cover and submitted "P.M.S." and "Praying to the Porcelain God" to the album.

The track "Hold On (to Your Lunch)" was largely improvised. It was conceived, written, and recorded in about 15 minutes while Devo, Piles, and Tha Perfessor were recording other songs for this album.

This album was released at what was the very first live Sudden Death performance. A teen dance club in Ansonia CT had hired Piles' brother as their DJ and we took this opportunity to have the Noise Pollution release party. Devo, Piles, and Tha Perfessor performed "Show 'Em How It's Done," (the original fast version which was never released), "Praying to the Porcelain God," and "P.M.S." to a group of about 150 very confused teens from Ansonia. Nobody at the show bought any of the tapes.

In 1986 comedy-rapper Devo Spice formed a group called Sudden Death. In 1990, shortly after their first song aired on Dr. Demento, Devo restructured the group and went solo, but kept the group name. He continued recording and performing like this until late 2008 after 8 albums and several #1 hits on Dr. Demento. This is the entire Sudden Death catalog.