David Kendrick

David Kendrick

David Kendrick was the fourth drummer for DEVO, replacing Alan Myers.

Pre-DEVO

David Kendrick had "a very loud drum set in my bedroom" as a youth and "was in bands outside of school".ref Dave was in an artistic family that encouraged his musical interest.

After being in several bands in the 70's Kendrick moved from the midwest to L.A. He formed "The Continental Miniatures" with Erick Ramon, Kevin McCarthy, Richard Bytner and Mattew Walker. They had a charting single (entered Billboard 1978-5-13 & reached #90) with a cover of Dusty Springfield's 1964 song "Stay Awhile." After interference in follow-up song selection they broke up.

David joined Leslie Bohem's Los Angeles new wave band Bates Motel with Bob Haag and Alan Slater (after Bob Beland and the drummer left). Kendrick and Bohem were recruited to join the band Sparks and performed with them from 1981 through 1985, recording three albums.

While they were members of Sparks, Kendrick and Bohem formed the side project Gleaming Spires with members of the Sparks backing band and had a hit with the single Are You Ready for the Sex Girls? from their 1981 album Songs of the Spires. Gleaming Spires broke up in 1985, around the same time as the dissolution of that Sparks line-up.

With DEVO

David Kendrick joined DEVO in 1987, and recorded songs with the band for the film Slaughterhouse Rock. He performed on the albums Total DEVO and Smooth Noodle Maps, as well as playing live with the band at all their shows from 1988 to 1991 and occasionally thereafter (Josh Freese became the main live drummer for DEVO in 1996.)

David has also played on DEVO recordings made after 1990. alt.fan.devo post 2005-08-18 07:25:42 UTC

Following the 1991 breakup of DEVO, David Kendrick worked briefly for Mutato Muzika. Everybody but Jerry worked for Mutato, too. When DEVO reformed David continued to contribute his drumming to the band.

David appears with DEVO in the 1996 CD-ROM game Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol.

David was brought in on occasion to perform live when Freese was unavailable, including the 2002 event with Daniel Lanois,07/27/02. the 2003 tour of Japan and the 2004 Run Hit Wonder performances.

Post-DEVO

David worked with singer Andy Prieboy in the rock musical "White Trash Wins Lotto," about "music in the Reagan years," and with Stan Ridgway 1 in a 2006 Wall of Voodoo performance. (They all played together on Ridgway's release Shine (Red Bead Follows Blue) 2.)

David is a founding member of and the songwriter for the studio band Empire of Fun.

David appeared at the 2005 DEVOtional, answered questions during a Q & A session, and performed "Happy Guy" with Spudboys during the DEV-O-ke set.

David was a special guest at the 2015 DEVOtional, which broke attendance records. David spoke, signed autographs and played drums with some DEVOtees at a 7 p.m. performance.

David was a special guest at the 2017 DEVOtional which again broke attendance records. David spoke to fans, signed autographs and performed "DEVO Has Feelings Too" with Malcom Tent, "Are You Ready For the Sex Girls?" with Lt. Dance, "Spin the Wheel" with the Spudboys and "Beautiful World" with Jerry on bass and vocals.

David also attended the Devo 5k in Akron with Jerry.

"My long running studio project is The Empire of Fun, which records many so called “concept projects.” I also work with Andy Prieboy and make long running punk rock hoedown music with Glen Meadmore, plus many many oddities that come my way. I still love live performance." - David Kendrick

David joined the "protest band" Revolushn and wrote lyrics for their second album "Further." He performs as "Dekay."

In 2016, David joined the indie group Bastille, replacing main drummer Chris "Woody" Wood who quit the band earlier that year. He played on a majority of the tracks on the band's 2016 album "Wild World" (including "Two Evils" and "Fake It") as well as their covers of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" and R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World". In August 2017, David, along with the other members of Bastille, made a cameo appearance in the Season 7 finale of Game of Thrones.

David would later appear with Bastille on their 2018 collaboration with Marshmello, "Happier", which eventually reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it David's most commercially successful song to date. David has continued to contribute his drumming to Bastille, appearing on their mixtape "Other People's Heartache (Pt. 4)", also released in 2018, as well as their third studio album "Doom Days", released in 2019.

Equipment

Drums, Percussion

• Gear has included drums by Ludwig and Pearl, and cymbals by Zildjian and Paiste.

Dave uses size 5B drum sticks.

• See: "David on His Gear With Sparks"

Discography

select discography

Sparks

Whomp That Sucker

Angst In My Pants

Outer Space

Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat

Profile: The Ultimate Sparks Collection (compilation)

Heaven Collection (compilation)

The Hell Collection (compilation)

New Music for Amnesiacs: The Ultimate Collection (compilation)

Gleaming Spires

Songs Of The Spires Is the first reissue of the Futurismo label.

Life Out On The Lawn 12"

Walk On Well Lighted Streets

Funk For Children / Party EP

Welcoming A New Ice Age

The Future Looks Brightest - Rarities and Orphans Volume 1 (Posh Boy Records compilation)

Trivia:

• Dave wrote the album track "All Night Party," which is on the "Revenge of the Nerds" soundtrack album.
• Dave wrote the album track "Are You Ready for the Sex Girls?," which is also on the "Revenge of the Nerds" soundtrack album and is included in compilations such as "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80's, Vol. 3," "Strip Jointz Rocks: Rock N' Roll for Sexy Dancers," and is on both "Rodney on the ROQ, Vol. 2," and "The Best of Rodney on the ROQ," featuring KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. Jeff Olner of The Nuns is sometimes listed as co-writer of this track.

DEVO

Total DEVO

Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace 12/9/88   (live)

smoothnoodlemaps

Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology   (compilation)

Recombo DNA   (compilation)

Bastille

Wild World

Lesser of 2 Evils

Fake It

Send Them Off!

Glory

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing / It's The End Of The World

I Know You (with Craig David)

Happier (with Marshmello)

Other People’s Heartache (Pt. 4)

Doom Days

Quarter Past Midnight

Doom Days

Joy

Those Nights

Another Place (with Alessia Cara)

Can't Fight This Feeling (with the London Contemporary Orchestra)

Goosebumps EP

What You Gonna Do??? (with Graham Coxon)

Survivin'

Goosebumps (with Kenny Beats)

Distorted Light Beam

Trivia

• Because Woody left Bastille mid-way shortly before the Wild World tour began, on certain promotional pictures for the tour, a picture of David's head replaced that of Woody.

the empire of fun

The Blue Head

Classics of Enduring Elegance

It looks like Today Outside

PRIMARILY, The Empire Of Fun Box Set   (compilation)

Jeepers!

Crime, Memory and Loss

CANdYPIE 2000

"I'm sorry Mr. Kendrick, there's a skull inside your head"

Trivia:

• The Empire of Fun has been a studio band, however they contributed the presentation “From the Mouths of Musicians” to Lit Crawl L.A. in 2015. They included some beat poetry. pic

• Catasonic Studios lists The Empire of Fun as a client.

Videography

select videography

Gleaming Spires

How To Get Girls Through Hypnotism

Are You Ready For The Sex Girls?

A Christian Girl's Problem

Funk For Children

DEVO

The Complete Truth About De-Evolution

Disco Dancer

Post Post-Modern Man

Post Post-Modern Man (Rocky Schenck remix)

Live In The Land Of The Rising Sun

- Live performance plus appearance in bonus features, including:

"David Kendrick Speaks"

Cyberography

DEVO

Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol. CD-ROM Game. Credits - Cast.

References

• David Kendrick Info on archived DEVO Message Board

External Links

David Kendrick Artist - Discography -- Discogs

David Kendrick Person - Overview -- MusicBrainz

David Kendrick Credits -- AllMusic

David Kendrick Filmography -- IMDb