BCB 130: Devo

[toomanyhatz]

In my region (and pig bodine would attest to this were he here), "Devo" was a term of derision that jocks and bullies would use to taunt anyone looking vaguely punk-y.

"Hey Devo," they'd sneer.

I'd like to think the guys in the band would have been proud on some level to have become instant cultural shorthand, even if it was in the service of abuse.

This rings true for me, by the way, though I'm a couple years older than you and went to school when 'punk' and 'new wave' were an interest for very few people (which didn't include me - then).

The amazing thing was, you were either 'punk' or 'devo' (they were different things where I was) or 'stoner' or a commercial music listener. You couldn't be more than one. There were also a few of us (it was honestly only about 5 people in the whole school) that loved 60s music.

Tell that to a kid now, who has any music at their fingertips, and they won't get it at all.

[sloopjohnc]

In retrospect I admire them (and there's something to be said for grabbing full control of the marketing part from the beginning - they were exploiters, not the exploited) but still don't know enough about them to really comment on the music.

It's also kinda ironic that Mothersbaugh became really successful at cartoon music like The Rugrats.

[C]

I recall hearing their first album, at the time, for the first time and was completely blown away

I bought the album (on coloured vinyl I recall) and got a ticket to go and see them live (on that tour)

The first 15 minutes was a film of them playing they then came on stage and played the exact 15 minute intro - I thought that was very 'cool'.....

I haven't got enough Devo albums and rectified that tonight

Incidentally, one of the prog goons posted this on the recent Neil Young Prog Synch Listen - it's bloody awesomely robust!!

Please watch it if you haven't seen it - brilliant!











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[naughty boy]

The first 15 minutes was a film of them playing they then came on stage and played the exact 15 minute intro - I thought that was very 'cool'.....

That does indeed sound very cool. I'd love to have seen it.

[bobzilla77]

I got to see their "Hardcore" show earlier this year which was great fun, the entire setlist taken from those two releases of their pre-WB recordings. The only songs known to most of the audience were the few they had recorded in that era that made it to the first two LPs. It was so cool to see them do these old forgotten numbers like Social Fools and Soo Bawls that had been a big part of my appreciation for them. One thing people forget, they were once really horny and nasty! Cf: Golden Energy, Fountain Of Filth, Pink Pussycat and Penetration In The Centerfold.

I saw them a few times on the Something For Everyone tour and enjoyed that new stuff more than I expected to. That said, it really is a case where they consciously decide, let's make a Devo album that people will like, that imitates the things people like about us. This was different from any other LP of their career, each one seemed like a step away from the debut and toward something else. It's the first time they repeat themselves. But it is their best album since at least Oh No! so worth hearing once.

In fact, if we take their titular concept seriously, the albums really do start at a peak and begin to de-evolve from there. (Maybe Freedom Of Choice is an evolution from guitar rock to synth rock, at least a step into the future.) When I heard 1988's Total Devo I was convinced that was the intent - they are totally de-evolved and they now sound like their new wave imitators. I thought, that's some serious artistic commitment to the concept!

[B]

I got to see their "Hardcore" show earlier this year which was great fun, the entire setlist taken from those two releases of their pre-WB recordings. The only songs known to most of the audience were the few they had recorded in that era that made it to the first two LPs. It was so cool to see them do these old forgotten numbers like Social Fools and Soo Bawls that had been a big part of my appreciation for them. One thing people forget, they were once really horny and nasty! Cf: Golden Energy, Fountain Of Filth, Pink Pussycat and Penetration In The Centerfold.

Ah I didn't know about those shows until someone I ran into mentioned they went. I've had no interest seeing Devo recently but if I knew about that I think I would have went

[Phenomenal Cat]

My friend Scott has a four-year old daughter who listens to Devo daily. She saw them on Yo Gabba Gabba, but she refers to them as "Mark". Daddy Scott is a Sabbath fan.

"Margot, do you like the 'Sweet Leaf'?"

"Daddy, this music is too electric. Put on some Mark"

[Jeff K]

I don't like bands with gimmicks. I'm skeptical of bands that grew out of art projects and I especially detest artists who use a lot of lowbrow humor in their work and try to pass it off as satire. Since DEVO efficiently managed to check off all my pet peeves, I was primed and ready to hate them before even hearing a note of music. Then I heard their cover of Satisfaction.



Utterly ridiculous but it was something that stuck with you the first time you heard it. A robotic- quasi reggae dismantling of a rock and roll classic. I especially loved the 'baby, baby, baby' part on the middle of the song that went on for a full ten seconds. I don't know how serious he was but Mick Jagger once stated that Devo's version of Satisfaction was better than the Stones. I can't imagine Keith saying the same thing.

I remember seeing that on Saturday Night Live when it was broadcast. I was a big Stones fan and I can't overstate what game-changer their cover was. I had no idea you could do that - cover what we now call a classic rock song without the the proper reverence and make it mesmerizingly good. I was just thunderstruck.

If my memory serves me correctly, Devo appeared on SNL one week after the Stones were on the show promoting Some Girls.

[bobzilla77]

In between making our first two albums, two of the guys in Claw Hammer had a talk with the head of our record label, who had just noticed the Pussy Galore Exile On Main Street limited cassette selling for $50 in Goldmine. "You guys should do that! And then, we'll hoard all the copies! So eventually we can sell all 500 of them for $50 and make $25,000!" Yes, great idea, we said! So what album will you do - Between The Buttons? Beggar's Banquet?

No, said our guitarist, we would do Devo's first album in its entirety.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life, no fuckin' way." said the record label head.



Two months later we were in the studio. Bob & Mark Mothersbaugh gave their blessing and came to watch us perform it live. Mark wrote the liner notes.

It has yet to reach collector prices of $50 a copy, and we don't still have all 500 copies. So much for that.

But some of our band got to meet Devo and later, we all got to do sessions for Mark's soundtrack operation, Mutato Muzika, when he needed a rockin' TV theme song. He called us back later to do a surf-punk themed Mello Yello commercial.

This led to me doing one session playing drums with Devo in 1996 when their drummer Josh Freese was on tour and they needed a couple of numbers for the Supercop soundtrack in a hurry - the title song for the movie, and a cover of NIN's "Head Like A Hole". Someone at Interscope heard this coming out of an office, and thought it was music for a Nine Inch Nails Saturday morning cartoon, like the Beatles and the Jackson 5.



I'm pleased to note that the song appears, with a credit to me, on their compilation Pioneers Who Got Scalped. I'm an actual footnote in Devo history, one of my highest professional accomplishments.

[pcqgod]

This thread reminds me: I need to get that 'Hardcore' compilation.

[Guy E]

I almost got to see Devo in 1979. The only reason I didn't was that we already had tickets to see Kiss the following night Two concerts in two nights was too much for my mom to take.

I saw DEVO a couple of times; once at Max's Kansas City and the following year out at the Showplace in Dover, NJ. I had their first couple of singles and bought the debut album, but never went further.

I guess I viewed them in the same light as Jeff K and thought they were pretty cool regardless. The shows were a buzz.

[pig bodine]

It has yet to reach collector prices of $50 a copy, and we don't still have all 500 copies. So much for that.

I've got one of them.

[B]

I saw DEVO a couple of times; once at Max's Kansas City

[/quote]



This one? Wow

[Phenomenal Cat]

My last band (circa 2009) doin' some Devo:

[bobzilla77]

That's hot!

[The Modernist]

Given the slight kickings that UK post-punk bands are receiving on other threads, it's probably time someone broke the tidy consensus that's formed on this thread to say that Devo aren't much cop at all and shouldn't be anywhere near the 130.

[naughty boy]

Given the slight kickings that UK post-punk bands are receiving on other threads, it's probably time someone broke the tidy consensus that's formed on this thread to say that Devo aren't much cop at all and shouldn't be anywhere near the 130.

I guess you could say I outgrew them.

i don't really think of them as canon

I've never really been a fan

Troublemaker G!

[The Modernist]

Well they're nowhere near as good as The Bunnymen or The Fall!

[naughty boy]

Of course not!

[Penk!]

I like Devo but they are a fairly minor concern. There are a few moments of greatness but it's pretty simple stuff; all the conceptual art side of it is interesting but again, as a curiosity rather than being anything particularly powerful or meaningful. Maybe it worked better at the time.

'Uncontrollable Urge' is a great song.