Bronze Age Babies: Discuss: Devo

Friday, April 3, 2015

Discuss: Devo

Karen: Are we not men?

17 comments:

J.A. Morris said...: You must be reading my mind, I've been listening to Devo & searching for them on youtube all week and been in a state of general Devolution.

Mark Mothersbaugh is a genius, Devo was hilarious and also made some brilliant social commentary. Most importantly, they were a damn good rock band. They were also ahead of their time, if youtube was around in 1978-82, Devo would've had lots of fun with it every week.

I recently stumbled on this 1979 clip of Devo on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, worth watching if you're a fan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqSta1K6B24; April 3, 2015 at 6:38 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: To answer your question, Karen: no, we are BAB! Take that, ya bunch of wannabes from Akron!
Actually, just kidding. My older brother, more of a hard rock fan at the, had two Devo albums in his collectio, "Freedom of Choice" and "New Traditionalists," which I listened to quite a bit and which blew my little preteen mind. Like J.A. said, they were funny and satirical, engaged in some pretty sharp social commentary, and were also outstanding musicians.

Even so, whenever Devo comes up, I'm reminded of what many consider the best Devo song ever, Weird Al Yankovic's "Dare to be Stupid".; April 3, 2015 at 7:09 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: Gah! So many typos: "...at the TIME", "...in his collectioN" ...; April 3, 2015 at 7:13 AM
dbutler16 said...: Aren't Devo comic fans? I think there is a comic reference in at least one of their songs. Anyway, I like Devo...except for "I Can't Get no Satisfaction". Worst. cover. ever.; April 3, 2015 at 7:15 AM
J.A. Morris said...: Since Edo brought it up, here's a video where Mark Mothersbaugh expresses his feelings about 'Dare To Be Stupid':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehyOUZd0Qc0&playnext=1&list=PLA94881E5A14E7688&index=3; April 3, 2015 at 8:23 AM
david_b said...: I liked them alot, I had a 'cool friend' hook me into them in high school, circa 1978.. He made two tapes for me to fully-absorb, musically.

It was pretty much Beatles and MOR music up until then.

He also got me into early Police, general ska music and other sounds.

My favs are 'Working in a Coalmine', 'Through Being Cool' and 'Mr B's Ballroom'.

Thanks J.A. for the Kirshner clip.

Mark Mothersbaugh IS a genius, and kudo's for them staying relatively out of the commercially-hip MTV scene, and not selling out.; April 3, 2015 at 8:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Quote from Futurama: "No, play the other one." :-D; April 3, 2015 at 8:30 AM
Anonymous said...: Devo was great but as a friend of mine once asked, 'why are they wearing flowerpots on their heads?'.

- Mike 'devolving all the time' from Trinidad & Tobago.; April 3, 2015 at 9:36 AM
Karen said...: Last weekend, I was in Burbank at Monsterpalooza again, and my friend and I turned on the TV in the hotel room and a show was on called Ridiculousness, which basically had clips of people injuring themselves. But the interesting thing was the theme music was Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge," which got stuck in my head all weekend and thus became the genesis of this post.

Although I was never a huge Devo fan, I always appreciated that they were out there -I mean way out there -willing to try things and yet cleaving close to rock roots. Damn fine musicians with something to say -"Freedom to choice" certainly has a message. And DButler, I love their version of Satisfaction! Simply because it is about as far as you could get from the original. They didn't mimic anyone, but were always themselves.; April 3, 2015 at 9:47 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: J.A. thanks for the link. That's actually quite funny.; April 3, 2015 at 9:53 AM
Edo Bosnar said...: Oh, and Mike from T&T, re: flowerpots on their heads. Somewhere in there, there's a joke about the roots of their hair and potting soil, but I just can't figure out how to make it work...; April 3, 2015 at 9:54 AM
Anonymous said...: I was never heavy into Devo back in the day, but I liked some of their stuff (Through Being Cool and Girl U want are probably my favourites). I thought their new album (Something for Everybody) from a few years ago was pretty good; they adapted their lyrics and message for the online age, but it still had that "Devo" sound to it.

Mike Wilson; April 3, 2015 at 1:30 PM
BK said...: Devo was a Chris Claremont character, wasn't he?

Seriously, I think the band has stated they owe a lot to a concept from a Golden Age Wonder Woman comic --the origin of WW villain Giganta was that a gorilla was hyper-evolved into a beautiful woman. The same device devolved WW and her crew into cavemen.

I recall a similar devolution happening in the early part of the run of the Wolfman-Perez New Teen Titans.; April 3, 2015 at 5:20 PM
The Prowler said...: I can see the element of Glam that we talked about in an earlier post present in Devo. Beyond their musicianship, you had guys who made a commitment to a look that became as much a part of the band as their sound. They weren't the only band to foster a look but they did take that extra step to uniformness that instantly made Devo Devo, a band that was recognizable on sight as well as by sound. And it worked in a really cool way. And now it seems classic and not dated. Who would have seen that coming!?!

(Say you don't know me or recognize my face
Say you don't care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night

Marconi plays the mambo, listen to the radio
Don't you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll); April 3, 2015 at 9:14 PM
medellin 7 said...: Whatever you think of Devo,these guys were really educated when it came to music. Besides the few commercial hits they had,some of thier lesser known pieces were done in some really eccentric compositions and time signatures. Seriously, they were right up there technically with Yes,Rush,ELO and early Queen. Interesting to listen to and not as appreciated as they shouldve been. As Karen said earlier, damn fine musicians.; April 3, 2015 at 10:08 PM
Humanbelly said...: Although I never fell under their musical spell much at all (well, except their COAL MINE and SATISFACTION covers, and the more mainstream WHIP-IT), I am completely impressed with, yes, their musicianship but also with their tight, clean, and extremely demanding showmanship in that Uncontrollable Urge video. All of the robotic movement (which is surprisingly taxing) coupled with explosive hops, shifts and jumps--- man, as you Scots, Eires, and Brits would put it, doing that kind of routine leaves a peformer totally knackered!!!

HB; April 4, 2015 at 6:08 AM
Anonymous said...: I never really liked their stuff, except the ultra-catchy Whip It. An interesting DEVO side-note (well, interesting to me) is their involvement with Neil Young's hard-to-find Human Highway film. Apparently, they co-wrote "Hey Hey, My My" with Neil.

starfoxxx; April 4, 2015 at 11:57 AM