Artist: Devo
Genre(s):
New Age
Rock: Punk-Rock
Discography:
Oh No It's Devo - Freedom of Choice
Year: 1994
Tracks: 25
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
Year: 1990
Tracks: 11
One of new wave's well-nigh innovative and (for a time) successful bands, Devo was likewise perchance one of its nigh misunderstood. Formed in Akron, OH, in 1972 by Kent State fine art students Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo took its name from their conception of "de-evolution" -- the thought that instead of evolving, human beings has actually regressed, as evidenced by the disfunction and ruck brainpower of American society. Their music echoed this survey of guild as strict, repressing, and mechanical, with appropriate touches -- jerking, robotlike rhythms; an fixation with engineering and electronics (the group was among the low gear non-prog rock bands to make the synthesiser a core constituent); frequently unkeyed melodies and chord progressions -- all of which were filtered through the perspectives of geeky misfits. Devo became a cult sensation, helped in parting by their cooccurring vehemence on highly conventionalized visuals, and concisely stone-broke through to the mainstream with the crush individual "Whip It," whose ensuant picture was made a staple fiber by the fledgling MTV meshing. Sometimes resembling a less forbidding version of the Residents, Devo's simple, basic electronic pop sound proved selfsame influential, only it was too slightly limited, and as other bands began expanding on the group's ideas, Devo seemed unable to keep pace. After a serial publication of mostly uninteresting albums, the ring called it quits early in the '90s, and Casale and Mothersbaugh concentrated on other projects.
Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh both attended art school at Kent State University at the outset of the 1970s. With friend Bob Lewis, wHO united an early version of Devo and later became their manager, the theory of de-evolution was developed with the aid of a book entitled The Beginning Was the End: Knowledge Can Be Eaten, which held that man had evolved from mutant, brain-eating apes. The trio altered the theory to fit their opinion of American society as a rigid, dichotomized instrument of repression which ensured that its members behaved like clones, march through living with mechanical, assembly line precision and no tolerance for ambiguity. The unhurt conception was treated as an refine jocularity until Casale witnessed the notorious National Guard killings of educatee protesters at the university; suddenly thither seemed to be a legitimate distributor point to be made. The low gear incarnation of Devo was formed in devout in 1972, with Casale (bass), Mark Mothersbaugh (vocals), and Mark's brothers Bob (lead guitar) and Jim, world Health Organization played homemade electronic drums. Jerry's brother Bob coupled as an additional guitarist, and Jim left the band to be replaced by Alan Myers. The group honed its profound and approach path for several geezerhood (a flow chronicled on Rykodisc's Hardcore compilations of home recordings), releasing a few singles on its possess Booji Boy label and inventing more gonzo concepts: Mothersbaugh spiffed up in a baby-faced mask as Booji Boy (marked "boogie-woogie male child"), a symbol of childish simple regression; there were revenant images of the white potato as a subaltern vegetable without individualism; the band's costumes presented them as identical clones with processed hair; and all sorts of transonic experiments were performed on records, victimisation real and homemade synthesizers as well as toys, distance heaters, toasters, and other objects. Devo's heavy pause came with its score for the unretentive celluloid The Truth About De-Evolution, which north Korean won a pillage at the 1976 Ann Arbor Film Festival; when the film was seen by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, they were impressed sufficiency to procure the mathematical group a contract with Warner Bros.
Recorded under the protection of pioneering producer Brian Eno, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was seen as a call to arms by some and became an resistance strike. Others ground Devo's sound, imaging, and material minacious; Rolling Stone, for exercise, called the group fascists. But such critique lost the full point: Devo dramatized ossification, emotional repression, and dehumanisation in order to attack them, not to pay tribute to them.
Piece 1979's Duty Now for the Future was another solid effort, the band stony-broke through to the mainstream with 1980's Freedom of Choice, which contained the gold-selling single "Flog It" and delineated a peak in their sometimes temperamental songwriting. The tV for "Worst It" became an MTV smash, juxtaposing the band's low-budget futuristic look against a down-home farm setting and hints of S&M. However, Devo's commercial success proved to be transient. 1981's New Traditionalists was darker and more serious, not what the populace treasured from a band widely perceived as a fallal act, and Devo somehow seemed to be running out of new ideas. Problems plagued the band as well: Bob Lewis successfully sued for larceny of rational property after a tape measure of Mothersbaugh was ground acknowledging Lewis' role in creating de-evolution philosophy, and the roger Sessions for 1982's Oh, No! It's Devo were marred by an ill-judged effort to utilisation poetry written by manque Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinckley, Jr. as lyric material.
As the '80s wore on, Devo ground itself relegated to cult status and critical phlegm, non at all helped by the depress timber of albums like 1984's Shout and 1988's Total Devo. With the band's switch toward electronic drums, Alan Myers had asleep in 1986, to be replaced by ex-Sparks and Gleaming Spires drummer David Kendrick. Devo recorded some other album of new material, Smooth Noodle Maps, in 1990, after which its members began to condense on other projects. Mark Mothersbaugh stirred into composition for commercials and soundtracks, writing subject music for MTV's Liquid Television, Nickelodeon's Rugrats, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, and the Jonathan Winters situation comedy Davis Rules. He also played keyboards with the Rolling Stones, programmed synthesizers for Sheena Easton, and american ginseng backup with Debbie Harry. Buoyed by this success, Mothersbaugh open a profitable yield company called Mutato Muzika, which employed his fellow Devo bandmates. Jerry Casale, meanwhile, wHO directed nearly of the band's videos, directed video clips for the Foo Fighters' "I'll Stick Around" and Soundgarden's "Burn out Up the Outside World." No reunions were expected, simply as Devo's fable grew and other bands acknowledged their influence (Nirvana covered "Reversal," while "Missy U Want" has been recorded by Soundgarden, Superchunk, and even Robert Palmer), their minimalistic electro-pop was eventually disposed new vulnerability on six-spot dates of the 1996 Lollapalooza circuit, to enthusiastic fan reply.
The following year, Devo released a CD-ROM biz (The Adventures of the Smart Patrol) and sequent music soundtrack, in increase to playing selected dates on the Lollapalooza circuit. 2000 saw the release of a pair of double-disc Devo anthologies: the number one was the half-hits/half-rarities Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology (on Rhino), patch the mo was the limited edition mail order freeing Recombo DNA (on Rhino's Handmade label), the latter of which was comprised alone of previously unreleased demos. In 2001, the Mothersbaugh and Casale brothers reunited under the nominate the Wipeouters for a one-off surf release, P Twaaang. Expectedly, at that place was no load-bearing go, as the bandmembers returned back to their full-time jobs at Mutato Muzika.
