This will no doubt be an illegal movie forever. After seeing it at the UC Theater in the summer of '82, I recently found a copy on a bootleg VHS for $1 at a Friends of the Library sale, still burned with the Sundance Channel bug. In today's cinema, much is made of the nostalgia value of the 1980s soundtrack: a famous example being Tears for Fears' "Head Over Heels" during Donnie Darko's opening. You can have your MTV, though, since URGH! A Music War was the soundtrack to my 1980s. Hey, what a surprise, no Duran Duran, no INXS, no Soft Cell covering a Gloria Jones soul classic and convincing a history-impaired generation that they wrote it. And yet it's clear why this film failed.

As a business scheme URGH seems, in 2008 hindsight, a uniquely quick way to burn a fortune. The film documents second-wave punk and New Wave bands playing from LA to London, editing them together without any particular zeitgeisty event like a music festival. So: play it a little under a real kiss-of-death title, and then wait to be deafened by the wails of bands, managers and lawyers zooming in to fight over the non-existant money. The Police were the headliners, opening and closing the film. They wrap up the film, too; you can see drummer Miles Copeland wearing an URGH! T-shirt. Is this perhaps all he was paid for this film? There are mostly cinematic performances here, and we see how much was lost by the fact that the Industry couldn't figure out a way to use their talents in the movies. Here's a key to the best of the show, omitting slurs of forgotten bands who perished long years ago.

When I heard that Mark Mothersbaugh, former DEVO frontman and film and television composer extraordinaire, was coming to the Seattle International Film Festival to teach a Master Class on composing for film, I knew right away that I wanted to score an interview with him. Mothersbaugh was kind enough to sit down with me for almost 40 mintues to chat with me about his days with DEVO, how he transitioned from playing with a band to composing for films, and how life has changed now that he's finally a father.

Cinematical:  I want to start with the obvious topic-- your work with DEVO and how that influenced the work you do today.

Mark Mothersbaugh: Well, DEVO was kind of like – that was the first statement I ever made as an artist, really, that was my first statement ... and in a way I think DEVO influences what I do now because I think of what I do now is permeations on a theme, always. There may be those who say, I don't see a direct link to DEVO, but I maybe – I feel like there's a direct link, even though it's sometimes obscure. I think I'm part of that group of  artists who make their best statements when they're angry young men. I first started writing music with Gerry Casale in 1970, we were art students at Kent State. And our school was closed down because they shot some kids. We were protesting the war in Vietman.