A: We are Devo!
Ok, this time, I want the thread to be what the original thread was intended to be: A discussion of the 1980s pop/new wave band Devo!
Do we have any Devo fans on the boards? Does anyone still listen to them? Anyone seen them in concert, or do have any real Devo fans that have their very own radiation domes?
I’ve been listening to them a lot the past few months, after forgetting about them for awhile, and they really are a good band IMO.
Well, for $35+, they can buy an authentic one of their very own.
I’m always a little disconcerted when I notice so much of the music in Nickelodean shows like Rugrats, Rocket Power and others is written by Mark Mothersbaugh. Hey! That’s the guy who wrote Whip It!
I only know their hits. Upon hearing “Whip It” and “Satisfaction” recently for the first time in years, I noticed how kick-ass the bass-playing is.
I looked up Devo on allmusic.com to see who the bassist was. What I found is that two guys are credited as guitarists, but neither as bass.
Did Mark Mothersbaugh and the other guy just switch off on bass now and then? Or did they usually use a synth-generated bass part in their songs?
Anecdote: Some friends and I came in 2nd place in an Air Band contest in college doing Satisfaction. (a bunch of black guys came in first doing Jungle Love by The Time).
The first album was seminal, the second a hoot, but by the time Whip It came along, I’d moved on.
I always lioked this one:
We’re the Smart Patrol
Suburban robots who monitor reality
Common Stock, we work around the clock
We put the poles in the holes!
Devo fan here. From their Greatest Hits album (even though I usually avoid them), my favorite song is Girl U Want.
I recently tracked down a copy of Devo: The Men Who Make Music. It is highly recommended viewing for all mutants. There are two other things I need to track down: the PC game Adventures of the Smart Patrol, and a compilation of their music videos. Little help here?
I love Devo! The first album is one of my all time faves. Indie rockers Clawhammer covered the whole album (Q.Are We Not Men A. We Are NOT Devo) 8 or 10 years ago. Its out of print now, i believe, but it’s a must have if you ever see it used.
I have two copies of the first record, an American black vinyl copy and a Canadian version on yellow wax. The Canadian Lp sounds 50 times better than the American. It’s like the difference between something recorded on a crappy 99 cent cassette vs. something recorded on DAT. Weird.
I saw “The Truth About De-Evolution” on Don Kirchners <sp?> Rock Concert when I was a kid, probably around 10 or 11, and It must have left a big impression on me because I never forgot it. I searched for over 20 years to find a bootleg copy, and finally found one a year or so ago. I was so happy, then I found out it’s now available on DVD. Grrrr…
Devo has a recent Lp, P’Twaaang going by the name The Wipeouters It’s mostly a collection of De-evolved instrumental surf tunes but one song, “Twist ‘n’ Launch” is classic Devo. The album is worth buying for that song alone. Devo F-ing rules. Just pretend the bad albums like Total Devo never existed.
I liked Devo. It was a hoot for people like myself who lived in SE PA, as PENNDOT could not keep up with the vandalism on road signs along the 202 expressway from Valley Forge. All of the signs for Devon would have the ‘N’ oversprayed with green paint.
Are We Not Men? Exit Here!
I was around when Devo began taking off but never saw them live. It’s a pity, because they hit L.A. quite often back them. I do have the independently released 45 of “Are We Not Men?” which is played at a faster tempo than the album version. No way to play the 45 anymore, though.
Devo will always have a place in my heart as the first non-arena rock show I ever saw (the Freedom of Choice tour 1980)… it really changed my life. I stopped listening to Styx and Foreigner and started listening to Devo and The Ramones. Thank f*cking gawd.
Coincidentally, I just saw a film interview with Mark Arm (Mudhoney)… he saw the same tour and it had a very similar effect on him.
Some of us still have turntables. 
Bordelond
The bass player for DEVO was Jerry Cazale. I believe he cowrote “Girl U Want” and “Mongoloid” among others.
Cisco
Thanks for starting this thread.
Devo brings me back to the days of 1980 - my last attempt to try to catch the license number of fleeting fame. I’m still a guitar palyer, but at the time I was 29 and thought I’d better give the music biz one more try. I played guitar with a few other folks in Boston and we played mostly punk, new wave, and predominantly Devo. Yeah we played “Mongoloid” (fun song to play), “Gut Feeling”, “Uncontrollable Urge” and the Devo rendition of “Secret Agent Man”. Well I’m a lot older now but I still like to put on some Devo music and play along. “Secret Agent Man” was a great cover of the Johnny Rivers’ classic.
I never saw Devo live but that never bothered me. I still like their music.
My first encounter with them was their SNL appearance where, during the instrumental bridge, they stripped out of their jumpsuits and into shorts. That show, like the first time I saw Monty Python on PBS, was one of those moments in my life I had hopped onto a wave of something that spoke to me, in a way that I still can’t explain.
Or maybe they just had a really really catchy sound.
Or maybe they expressed an attitude that I felt at the time; that I can’t make sense of what’s really going on (who’s in charge, how things get gone and who’s pulling my strings), so they had the only rational response, which was to get bizarre and flail about and find your own way, and if you found it, that’s cool.
Worked for me.
Weird Al’s parody of Devo (“Dare to be Stupid”) I’ve always considered the best song Devo never wrote. I’m especially fond of this verse, which became a philosophy of life for awhile:
You can be a coffee achiever,
Or you can sit around the house and watch “Leave It to Beaver”
The future’s up to you
So what you gonna do?
Dare to be stupid.
Pretty powerful medicine for an alienated teen. All right, so I was 22 at the time. I was still alienated, okay?
Apparently, Devo still tours. There’s hope for us yet!
Long-time DEVO fan here. And I get to make you all jealous, as I was at the September concert in Chicago. It was excellent.
http://www.devo-obsesso.com/obsesso/images/latest_news/chicago_riviera_04/br_crowd.jpg
I’m not in this picture (or maybe I am, but way up in the balcony and too small to see), but my best friend (in the headscarf and glasses on the left) and college roommate (screaming bald guy under the leather studded bracelet) are.
For those who do not yet have the live recording from the last full tour, Now It Can Be Told… do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go directly to the record store and purchase it.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=80303&skuId=1886098&type=product
I was at the show here in the Twin Cities a couple of days before this was recorded, and it was one of the best I have been to. The sheer energy of the band in concert is remarkable. They have a great time performing and it shows.
I picked up an Energy Dome at the show as well. Terrible hat, but a cool thing to have.
BTW, the bassist is Gerald “Jerry” Casale. His brother Bob “Bob 2” Casale is in the band as well, playing keyboards. Mark Mothersbaugh’s brother Bob is “Bob 1” and is the lead guitarist.
Ah, Devo! Probably my favorite band when I was in high school. I loved their videos.
Anyone remember their appearance on “Square Pegs”?
Aside from “SNL,” anyone remember their appearances on “Fridays”? I sorta remember one appearance (maybe around 1981, maybe after New Traditionalists was released) where I think each member of the band was on a treadmill. I think Mothersbaugh was doing some weird harmony, singing about seeing Jesus, and then went into the song … I wanna say it was … “Through Being Cool” though it could have been “Jerking Back and Forth.” Anyone else remember this or corroborate? I think even Chubby Checker may have also guested on the episode.
I’m not a BIG fan, but I wanted to come in here, too, as I do like them! **bordelond ** is correct, their bass is cool.
Their first album is fucking brilliant. Every album after is incrementally less brilliant. But a true original, and pioneers of mutant video as well.
I’m a Devo-tee myself, and I’m going straight to Hell for that pun.
I love their parody of Satisfaction, and I think Secret Agent Man is hilarious:
Of course I love Girl You Want and Jerkin’ Back ‘N’ Forth, but I find Mongoloid to be the most relevant to this world and every other:
Apply that to whoever you will. The song’s crossed my mind many times in recent years.
I also saw the SNL and had a big wtf moment. I missed them just a few months later at the UCDavis coffee house (held about 60 people) in 1978, about 6 months before I attended.
I did see them in SF IIRC 1980, when they recorded the live King Biscuit Flour Hour Devo. It was a kick ass show.
I have a couple of devo mp3 songs