Clockwise from top left: Naoko Takamoto, Jeremy Page, Godforbid.
"At times [the music] seems out of control; moving frantic, saying things you shouldn't. But [it] wears it well, and knows how to get away with it in public."
— Godforbid
According to That Other Wiki, That Handsome Devil is "an American rock band hailing from Brooklyn, New York by way of Boston, Massachusetts". According to Orange Alert
, it's "a wonderful mix of Tom Waits, Gogol Bordello, and G. Love (if he decided to grow a pair and stop singing about basketball and lemonade)". According to Notable Music Co., it's "everybody’s favorite psychedelic-rockabilly-jazz-R&B-blues-surf band". According to frontman Godforbid, the band is simply "fringe pop". But one thing's for sure: whatever That Handsome Devil is, it's always a little bit deranged and a little bit alcohol-soaked, and its fans love the band for it.
Members:
- Godforbid, frontman, lead vocalist, and lead songwriter
- Jeremy Page, guitar, bass, keyboard, banjo, pedal steel, glockenspiel, percussion, accordion, synthesizer, kazoo, background vocals, and songwriter
- Naoko Takamoto, back-up vocals
- Andy Bauer, drums, percussion, accordion, guitar, and background vocals
- Evan Sanders, keyboard, trumpet, and trombone
- Jeremy Siegel, bass and background vocals
- Sam Merrick, drums
- Deflon Sallahr, live show hype man
- Abigail Sweetwater, personal assistant
Associated Acts
- Alaskan Fishermen, a hip-hop and rap group that includes Godforbid and Page
- American Style Cardboard
- Kendra Morris
Discography:
- That Handsome Devil EP (2006)
- A City Dressed in Dynamite (2008)
- Enlightenment's For Suckers EP (2009)
- The Heart Goes to Heaven, The Head Goes to Hell (2011) (Abbreviated THGtH)
- The Jungle Book Free Cover Album (Download here) (2012)
- Drugs & Guns For Everyone (2014)
- History Is A Suicide Note EP (2017)
- Your Parents Are Sellouts (2021)
- "Dating Tips" (2004)
- "Steady and Slow" (2007)
- "Hey White Boy" (2007)
- "Lucky Me" (2008)
- "Mr. Grinch" (2008)
- "Chicken Claw" (2009)
- "Marilyn Loves Heroin" (2009)
- "Disco City" (2009)
The band has been featured in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band game series as well as on the TV series Weeds and Reaper. It tours across the United States mideast in a month-long bar crawl every August.
That Handsome Devil contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Godforbid and many of the personae he takes on.
- Fauxlosophic Narration: Earlier interviews with Godforbid (here's an example). See "Heel Realization" below.
- Heel Realization: Godforbid, very recently.Godforbid: I had pure intentions, but then I became increasingly aware of how to manipulate the moment or people around me. [...] It was a horrifying thing. I woke up from it like a blacked out night, "Ah! I've been a douchebag all these years!"
- Manipulative Bastard
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Godforbid. As summarized by the man himself:Godforbid: I can't call myself high fructose corn syrup because Coca-Cola's the name that sells. They're not ready to hear high fructose yet.
- Shrouded in Myth: Godforbid. To quote a fan:Anthony: Godforbid himself had earned a reputation made up of one part Jesus and three parts Jesse James.
- The origins of the band as well. Prevailing fan theory is that they met in the back of a cop car, but Godforbid nixed that pretty quickly, observing that police don't often put strangers together upon arrest.
- Intro to "Elephant Bones" in Guitar Hero II:"Dizzy from the fumes, white knuckled, holding the wheel hostage. A dirty old Cadillac barrels towards hell, with a brick on the gas pedal. That Handsome Devil".
The music provides examples of:
- Cluster F-Bomb: "Inside You".
- Evil Sounds Deep: Godforbid's voice has been described as "a lot like that talking plant from Little Shop of Horrors".
- Genre Roulette: Although almost all of the songs have blended influences, the sheer breadth of styles involved inevitably results in some weird transitions. A good example is the jump from "Charlie's Inferno" to "U + I in Suicide" on The Heart Goes to Heaven.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Charlie's Inferno" is a sprightly, elevator-music-esque tune about a man who is blocked from entering heaven and sent to Ironic Hell
- Mood Whiplash: "Party's Dead," the last song on THGtH. It's somber and notably lacking in black comedy.
- Rerouted from Heaven: Charlie from "Charlie's Inferno" lives a seemingly virtuous life and is surprised when by the end of it, he gets sent to Hell instead. As it's gradually revealed, he only did so for superficial reasons and was a showy braggart about it, thinking it would be an easy ticket to Heaven, with the sheer lack of fulfillment or appreciation for such a life being what ironically damns him to Hell.
- Rock Opera: THD's re-imagining of The Jungle Book, in which a man is kicked out of his home and betrayed by false friends, tries to find religion only to become disillusioned with it, joins the military, joins the anarchists opposing the military, becomes a solitary homeless scavenger, and ultimately decides to rejoin humanity.
- Sanity Slippage: "Viva Discordia".
- Stairway to Heaven: Charlie rides a golden escalator to heaven in "Charlie's Inferno".
- Suicide as Comedy: "U + I in Suicide".
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: "Charlie's Inferno" follows the story of a man named Charlie who lives a seemingly virtuous life of decent gestures (being environmentally conscious, sending small gifts to his wife, waking to do the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, etc.), but with the very specific intent on being deemed "virtuous" so when he dies, he gets an easy trip to Heaven, something that he can lord over his friends and family, even as they mourn his death. He's naturally confused when he's just-as-naturally rejected from Heaven and dumped into Hell instead. He proceeds to spend his eternity questioning why he's not being rewarded for his good deeds, never once questioning why said deeds are "good", and that lack of self-awareness is what damns him as being more of a sinner than he could ever realize.
