Weekend self-care open thread: OH NO, IT'S DEVO!!!
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| DEVO, circa 1980. l-r, Bob Casale, Alan Meyers, Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh, and Gerald Casale. |
Happy weekend, peoples! It is I, your favorite Canadian crustacean taking over the self-care duties from LL! And for this weekend, I present to you an influential act of the 1980s. DEVO!
Formed in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, DEVO consisted of two sets of brothers, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, and Gerald and Bob Casale, as well as drummer Alan Meyers. Mark and Gerald had first met as students at Kent State, and had witnessed the Vietnam War, campus protests, and the tragic Kent State shootings of May 1970. They started writing songs and making music as a way to communicate their feelings about society back in the early 70s. With Mark and Gerald's brothers - the two Bobs - and Meyers, they formed a band that would fuse both music and art, and would call themselves DEVO - short for devolution.
Signed by Warner Bros. in 1978, DEVO's act was a combination of musical styles and visual presentation that included kitsch science fiction, deadpan surrealist humor, and satirical social commentary. Their music mixed rock with electronics, which was starting to become a thing in rock and roll well into the 70s. By the new decade, DEVO was at the forefront of New Wave music, and hit it big in 1980 with their album, Freedom of Choice, which contained their only Top 40 hit, Whip It.
DEVO was also at the forefront of the music videos, which came in just before MTV started up! Earlier videos, like Jocko Homo, looked crude and primitive by today's standards. But later videos like Whip It and Freedom Of Choice would help build the band's popularity, and establish themselves as trendsetters in that genre.
In 1984, DEVO released their sixth album, Shout, which contained a cover of Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced? that they managed to edit the lyrics at the end, which the band received harsh criticism for being 'disrespectful.' As a result, Warner Bros. bought out the rest of their contract, and the band disabled after that.
DEVO would reform later on in the decade, but they couldn't recapture the magic of the late 70s early 80s. They broke up again in 1991, and reformed again, five years later. By then, they were just a shadow of their younger, more influential selves.
Despite selling about 2 million records in their career and not getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on three attempts, DEVO's reputation in the music industry has been very positive. Both Freedom Of Choice and the earlier Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! were included in music publications' Best Of lists, like Rolling Stone. And their music videos were hailed for their creativity that inspired other music acts to do likewise.
Here is but a sample of the work DEVO put out over their career:
To quote Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo: "Don't take life too seriously, it ain't nohow permanent."