Here I 've been strutting about, fronting as the world's biggest DEVO fan, all the while completely unaware that they released their first studio album in 19 years all the way back in June!
I reiterate: I SUCK!
But it's not too late to redeem myself! As penance for my laxity as a loyal Spud, I'm gonna take you, my dear friends and readers on an audiovisual journey spanning nearly 4 decades--the history of Akron, Ohio's prophets of De-Evolution: Mark Mothersbaugh, Jerry Casale, Bob Mothersbaugh, Bob Casale, and (currently) Josh Freese. And since this is gonna take up a buttload of space, I'm gonna take a page from Colleen's playbook and put everything after a jump--here we go: Hold your breath, kids!
Many of you who have made SOHB a regular digital destination are familiar with my adoration for this band, and I've been asked on quite a few occassions to explain exactly what DEVO is/means.
Well, I'm not gonna do that--why? Because I'm certain that my words couldn't do them justice--I'd rather let them speak for themselves:
Let's start with two interviews. The first is from a British program in 1978--it's short, and Jerry Casale(DEVO bassist and unofficial spokesman)seems rather combative. Still, it's a good place to start:
The next is from 1981 and mostly deals with the controversy surrounding DEVO's most famous video: "Whip It"(which I'm not posting here, I'm sorry--but it's overplayed and I've got some much better selctions) which was considered at the time sexist. Notice how much Jerry's demeanor changed in 3 years:
That should do for a start. Now, on to the fun part: The Videos!
DEVO were one of the pioneers of the music video medium--a number of their most famous clips were made years before MTV existed. Here's a segment from an award-winning short film the band made at Kent State, it's the group's take on Secret Agent Man.
The film in question also contains DEVO's musical mission statement: Jocko Homo. However, since Warner Bros., who owns the rights to most of DEVO's music, are evil dickbags--none of the clips of this tune on Youtube have sound, so I couldn't use them. Fucking Warners.
And Warners has apparently seen fit to fuck me yet again, for while youtube boasts many a video from DEVO's most successful album, 1980's Freedom of Choice, they're all licensed Warner property and have had their embed codes disabled. When you have a chance, visit Youtube and take a look at these marvelous videos.
So instead, I give you Time Out For Fun off of 1982's Oh No, It's DEVO! By this time DEVO had crated an integrated look and sound designed to make the experiences of the record buyer, concert goer, and video viewer as identical as possible. DEVO would later make two more videos using this same motif:
By the release of the album Shout! in 1984, record sales were down and DEVO were dropped from Warner Bros. They were out of commission for four years until being picked up by Enigma. They released two albums for this label: Total DEVO in '88, and Smooth Noodle Maps in 1990. These records were incompetently promoted and poorly received, and in 1991, DEVO left Enigma and would not produce another studio album for 19 years.
This clip isn't a video--just the song and a background graphic. It's Some Things Never Change off of Total DEVO, which some of you may recognize from the soundtrack to the game Neuromancer(based on the book of the same name by cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson) It's also my favorite of DEVO's songs.
As mentioned at the start of the article, in June DEVO released their first album in almost 20 years: It's called Something For Everyone, and was made with the assistance and feedback of fans. Since then DEVO has peformed on Jimmy Kimmel, George Lopez, Regis and Kelly, and--most impressively of all: FUTURAMA! They guest star as a sewer mutant band who play a song for the Mutant Rights rally(Beautiful World, specifically) I can't embed the video, but here's the link: http://www.clubdevo.com/video/devo-performs-beautiful-world-on-futurama/
I leave you with their newest video, Fresh. It's one of the coolest things they've ever done, and utterly infectious, I hope you enjoy it(better watch it while you can, I've no idea how long it'll be before Warners calls in their digital Gestapo and pulls the video):
