Devo

The 80's produced quite a few "one-hit wonders", some of which deserved better (Gary Numan), some of which more or less WERE just the one moment of brilliance (When In Rome). I'm happy to say that Devo, whose yellow jumpsuits and red hats became one of the more instantly recognizable symbols of the 80's, were the former - in fact, it was the popularity of their hit "Whip It" that ultimately led to the deformation of the band.

Early Devo, however, shows that the band was one of the most creative and innovative of their era - the basement demos are sometimes priceless, and their reinvention of the rock persona was certainly influential - instead of the bold, confident, long-haired rock star, Devo wore glasses, were nervous and fidgety, and did jumping jacks on stage. Despite this, Devo could rock just as hard as the machos, but it was their persona that allowed them to incorporate lots of synthesizers and weird drumbeats into their work. The band was based off the concept of 'de-evolution', in particular the book "In the Beginning Was the End", and after Gerald Casale himself witnessed the Kent State massacre, the band took off.

It's Casale and Mark Motherbaugh who are the two main creative forces - Mark plays keyboards, Gerald plays bass, and both of them sing, but Mark's voice is the more distinctive and common one. They both had brothers named Bob who played guitar, and the drummer was originally a third Motherbaugh, who was replaced with Alan Myers before they got a record contract.

Hardcore Devo, Volume 1 (1974-1977, released 1990) ****
These songs were recorded when the band was unknown and recorded behind a car wash. Having only heard their Greatest Hits CD before, I picked this up from my uncle who gave me copies of both Hardcores - although a few of these tracks would be re-recorded, it was downright shocking to find out just how strange and intriguing this band sounded in their formative years. The drums are obviously played from synth pads, sort of burying themselves in the mix, the vocals are weirdly deadpan, and the guitars are overdriven to the breaking point. The tempos are pretty slow for a young band - this is truly the sound of things falling apart, and you get the impression that these songs could fall apart at any time. This is Devo at their weirdest and most unique. Volume 1 contains 15 tracks, ranging from catchy and energetic ("Uglatto", "I'm a Potato"), to slow and unstable ("Mechanical Man", "Ono"). Without any record company influence the group’s lyrics were free to be as disturbing and freakish as they pleased, and in some cases is downright poetic. Fans really ought to track this stuff down.

Hardcore Devo, Volume 2 (1974-1977, released 1990) ****
More tracks from the vaults, except there's 6 more for a grand total of 21. Devo's weirder side really comes out here ("Chango", "U Got Me Bugged", "Booji Boy's Funeral"), making them seem a little creepy and robotic, giving the album a real unsettling feel. Despite that, the band's twisted sense of humor really comes out as well, and again a number of lines here definitely would not have flown on a major label (“I Need a Chick”). To balance that out, there’s quite a few solid tunes here that should have been re-recorded ("Dogs of Democracy", "I've Been Refused", "Fountain of Filth"), whereas the songs that WERE recorded just seem boring in their demo versions ("Clockout", "Be Stiff"). Like the first volume, this is indispensible to fans, and despite the lo-fi sound and primitive recording techniques, the sound is actually fairly good and suits the material well.

Live - The Mongoloid Years (1976-1977, released 1995) ***1/2
An early and rough document of the band's live show, ranging from an energetic and polished gig that gave them a record deal to one where they open for Sun Ra and manage to piss off pretty much everyone in the crowd by playing a 30-minute version of "Jocko Homo". Luckily for us this has been edited down. It's really funny actually - you can hear the crowd getting more and more agitated, and if you crank your volume in the end you can hear the band almost getting into a fight with some people from the crowd (after they storm the stage and unplug their instruments). Devo are clearly doing it for a laugh – Mothersbaugh sounds downright goofy throughout most of it. I'd love to get some more of this, as apparently Devo in their early form were like this EVERY night, and the punk-filled selections from the polished gig are fantastic - still, outside of that, this is definite "fans only" territory.

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978) *****
This may be the most innovative record of the New Wave movement – many bands from XTC to Oingo Boingo to P-Model borrowed from this, and the more modern Polysics based their entire career on it. It’s closer to the punk movement than their later sound, based mostly on guitar, with much of the material being energetic and fast-paced. Mark Mothersbaugh handles most of the leads here, shrieking and yelping rather than singing, and the rest of the band sounds rather apprehensive. But they harness this nervous energy and deliver what might as well be the flagship for guitar-based New Wave – jerky and precise rhythms, angular guitar lines that seem to cut off a few chords, and a strong message. Yes, it’s about de-evolution, mostly using sex and masturbation as a reference (“Uncontrollable Urge”, “Praying Hands”, “Shrivel-Up”), and the lyrics sometimes can get fairly grotesque (“Sloppy”). But the important thing is that you feel they mean it – Mothersbaugh’s take on “Satisfaction” sounds a hundred times more sincere than Mick Jagger’s did – this is not the voice of a cool and confident rock star, but rather a jumpy and dorky guy who really can’t get laid. But don’t forget the music – they take out the main riff and invert the drumbeat, giving the song a mechanical and wonky feel. There’s plenty of that on this record – some of the songs sound like they’re ready to become unscrewed at any time (“Too Much Paranoias”, “Sloppy”), and there’s a bunch of musical patterns that purposely jerk around (“Space Junk”, “Jocko Homo”). Most importantly, this stuff really does rock, sometimes on an epic scale (the shredding on “Gut Feeling” sounds like it’s bringing down the house and taking the whole world with it), and there’s few New Wave albums that infuse this much energy into already infectious tunes (“Uncontrollable Urge”, “Sloppy”, “Space Junk”), and there’s plenty of downright inspired moments – the frantic chanting on “Jocko Homo” is their defining moment. And I haven’t even mentioned the drumming – Alan Myers plays with a fervor and precision that recalls Stewart Copeland (seriously), and his interlocking rhythms are fascinating – you could spend the entire record just listening to him. This is essential New Wave.

Duty Now For The Future (1979) ***1/2
While Are We Not Men was focused on rock, on the 2nd album Devo decided to get back to their colder and mechanical roots. This means they were focusing more on the synthesizer, which results in a drop in guitar parts, as well as a lack of the energy that made the debut so great. Furthermore, many of these tracks were around since the band’s early days, meaning that a few of them may be included here because they didn’t make the cut the first time around. The good news is that it’s still a solid album that holds up well against similar synthpop efforts, and like most good Devo material, it’ll be stuck in your head for weeks. They can still rock when they have to (“Wiggly World”), and several of the tunes are as catchy as ever (“Strange Pursuit”, “Blockhead”). It does seem however that Devo was more concerned with their identity as this point – there are an awful lot of depressing and harsh lyrical sentiments here, and it seems like they purposely dog some of the selections to give the album maximum sarcasm and irony (“S.I.B.”, “Triumph of the Will”). It does work beautifully in a few instances – musically, “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise” is surprisingly straightforward (and obnoxiously catchy), but lyrically, it’s vaguely yet undeniably dark – what exactly does he mean by “We would once more live together/go out on a lovin’ spree/Just like before the accident/my baby would look at me”? The undeniable high point is “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA”, which encapsulates everything great about the band – it’s as goofy as anything they’ve done, and it’s a blast, as they segue a catchy space-age number into a hard rocking jam session, complete with a blazing guitar solo! If you don’t find that song appealing, this band just isn’t for you. Worth it for that tune alone, and even if it doesn’t reach the heights of its predecessor (or successor), it’s a worthy listen.

Freedom of Choice (1980) ****1/2
The famous album that made them stars thanks to "Whip It", but listening to this album all the way through, it’s hardly the catchiest track here, and it sounds downright gimmicky next to some of the expertly crafted songs here. Indeed, there were three more singles here ("Girl U Want", "Gates of Steel", and the title track), and at least one other track that could have easily been ("Snowball"). The synthesizer is now fully taken over as the lead instrument, but instead of mucking up the mix, they keep things fast and light, making this a terrific synth-pop album. Like Q: Are We Not Men, the hits are probably the highlights, but every song is good in its own right. While they've got their eyes focused on a traditional pop structure and melody ("It's Not Right"), there's always a hint of irony that invades the songs, as the band’s lyrical barbs haven’t exactly lightened up (“I owe you absolutely nothing/I know you positively disagree”). The great thing is that most of the songs here are just too catchy to ignore ("Cold War", "Mr. B's Ballroom"), meaning this album will probably get a lot of spins in a short time. Plus, there's a good amount of innovation if you look - "Girl U Want" is one of a rare breed of pop song with a dissonant melody, while "Planet Earth" and the title track feature an interesting and precise sense of rhythm, and “Gates of Steel” features one of the most effecting robo-synthesizer hooks I’ve ever heard. Fans of synth-pop really ought to check it out, since few did it better than Devo.

Dev-O Live (1980, re-released 1999) ****
A live set capturing Devo at the height of their popularity. This was a 6-track EP that was definitely released as a cash-in after “Whip It” became a huge hit, but Rhino thankfully decided to re-release it in 1999 as an LP-sized album with 16 bonus tracks. The confusing thing is that this includes all the same songs as the original release, so if you listen from the beginning you’re going to hear a lot of the same songs twice. Perhaps Rhino felt that they couldn’t re-release something without including any of the original tracks, but this solution is really wasn’t a good idea. So just start from track 7 and go from there. As for that performance itself - the studio albums were certainly energetic, but this shows the group could pull off the same shtick live. They were jittery and apprehensive, but also professional, with clean guitar riffs and a tight rhythm section (I know I’ve said this before, but Alan Myers really deserves more credit than he’s gotten). The tempos are generally faster and the riffs hit harder, which is great considering how mechanical Devo could sound in the studio. In case you’ve forgotten, it is rock n’ roll. The way they bang out tunes like “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA” is impressive - 7 minute New Wave tunes are not supposed to rock this hard. Mark, Jerry, and even Bob 1 are in fine vocal form throughout, and the track selection is mostly ace - after all, they are drawing from three fantastic albums, and hit most of the important stuff (although “Jocko Homo” is missing, which is disappointing as it was always the centerpiece of their show), including the single “Be Stiff” which never got an American release. I know I’m not really being descriptive considering the high rating, but there’s not much more I can say – there’s not much lost in translation from the studio, and if you have an affinity towards live music this disc is going to get a lot of play.

New Traditionalists (1981) ***1/2
Similar to Freedom of Choice, but with a more sarcastic attitude, worse production, less guitar, more synthesizer, and a couple of filler tracks ("Super Thing", "Enough Said"), all of which contribute to making this album fail to reach the heights of the last one. Nearly gets four stars on the quality of some of the individual songs, but the sound lacks the punch of the prior Devo albums. "Race of Doom" and "Going Under" are two of the most addictive Devo songs ever, and "Love Without Anger" is another great and unforgettable slice of synth-pop. And then there are the singles - "Beautiful World" brings back the guitars for a now classic track covered in irony, and "Through Being Cool" is so dorky it's hard not to love. The original LP had 10 songs, with a bonus 45 featuring their bouncy cover of "Workin' in the Coalmine", which shouldn't be missed. I think all CDs just append it as a bonus track now, closing this album out on a good note. I would say this is the last inspired Devo album - perhaps the record company was trying to refine their sound to fit a more commercial means, and they were starting to win the battle, but there’s enough good songwriting to cover it up. Still, this is not Freedom of Choice - I miss the full-on synth-pop sound, and a lot of these tunes sound purposely dinky and undermixed.

Oh, No! It's Devo (1982) ***
A pretty apt title - it seems their record company really wanted a follow up hit, and while there are a lot of good attempts here ("Big Mess", "That's Good"), the use of the same drumbeat and tempo over and over can make this album kind of one-note. It's danceable and fun, but not very substantial, and doesn't really hold up to repeat listenings. But it’s not the trainwreck it could have been, with plenty of energy and a renewed sense of playfulness (which may be due to acquiring Cars producer Roy Thomas Baker), so there’s a lot of good stuff to be found here - the singles are great, "Speed Racer" is lots of fun, and "I Desire", written by a would-be assassin, is genuinely spooky. It's hard to single out any low points, but it's rather telling that Weird Al's Devo parody "Dare to be Stupid" is pretty much better than anything on here. Perhaps "Big Mess" is one of their best singles, but as a whole the album comes off as being gimmicky, whereas their earlier and more worthwhile material was fun yet pointed. Contains lots of bonus tracks, including silly "Peek-a-Boo" dance remixes, and the B-side "Find Out" which tops much of the album material.

Shout! (1984) **1/2
The downward slide continues, and if you didn’t like the fun and carefree sound of Oh, No, needless to say you won’t like this at all. It sounds like the group was devolving into self-parody, and I suspect this was recorded mostly for contract reasons. They can still churn out catchy synth-pop tunes, but there’s a number of duds (“Puppet Boy”), and without Baker, the band’s sound hits a new low – some of the synths sound like children’s toys, and there’s no power to the mix at all, with the glossy production covering up most of the personality the band may have brought to the table. I’d bet this sounded dated the day it came out. Still, like all Devo albums, there are some addictive tunes here, and I’d say there’s usually at least one good idea in every track. Unfortunately they don’t really know yet how to build around them (“Jurisdiction of Love”, “Don’t Rescue Me” “C’mon”) leaving only a few real keepers – “The 4th Dimension” and “Here To Go” strike me immediately as being the best, with good vocal performances and full arrangements that highlight the good elements rather than bog them down. “Please Please” is another winner, but it’s an odd duck – it’s built around off a bass line that seems copped from the British Invasion, and at times wraps a robotic vocal around it. Perhaps the weirdest is their cover of “Are You Experienced”, which turns the classic Hendrix tune into something of a dance number – it’s not really that great, but it’s at least ambitious, and by default is one of the better tunes. There’s enough strikes against it to rate it lower, and nobody who wasn’t crazy about the band already would ever listen to it, but at the end it’s too fun to be boring, and there’s enough good selections to justify listening to it. Either way, this was the end of the line for the band for a while – Alan Myers quit due to a lack of inspiration within the band (and probably due to the fact that he was slowly being replaced by drum machines for the last 7 years), and Warner dropped them after the album flopped.

E-Z Listening Tape (1986) **
Yeah, it's for real - muzak versions of the band's hits. Actually a little better than I expected, but besides one curiosity run through, there's few tracks you'll want to hear again - the jazzy groove of "That's Good" is nice, and I like the surf-rock "4th Dimension", but most of the other reconstructions are a joke (although this time, the band was in on it). I guess it's worth downloading. They're tunes for the band to play while they set up their live act and not much else.

Total Devo (1988) *
Maybe we shouldn't be blaming the decline of the band's output on the record companies after all – a newly reformed Devo (with Sparks drummer Dave Kendricks) signed to an independent label and created another album, and it’s a disaster. They finally brought back the guitars and gave them nothing to play, and in an attempt to blandify their sound they start adding in awful female vocals and power ballads. This is 12 songs with about two or three hooks between them, including a cover of "Don't Be Cruel" which is so bad it's almost bizarre. Okay, so "Happy Guy" is alright, but that's only because of the guitar riff, which is stolen from a song Gary Numan wrote when he wasn't even in his 20's! ("Bombers", if you're interested) And I guess "Disco Dancer" sticks with you a few minutes after you hear it, as obnoxious as that is, and it’s trying too hard to be single material. Lead-off track “Baby Doll” is even worse in that respect – you can tell they are trying to make the songs scale up a little and give the impression that a lot of work was put in, but production-wise this really isn’t much ahead of Shout. Most of the rest is just soulless AOR rock that Devo have no place in - were they trying to prove their own point of de-evolution? They simply ran out of song material – while all the previous albums showed at least a few signs of creativity and good songwriting, this is just the sound of a band running on empty. Even the lyrics are trite ("Sexi Luv") and overly political ("Some Things Don't Change" sounds like it was written by a 6th grader). Well, lucky you, this is out of print, so you don't have to worry about accidently buying it or nothing, and rightfully so - I wonder what shade of red Casale would turn if you mentioned this one.

Now It Can Be Told - Devo Live at the Palace (1989) ***
Maybe the real reason Total Devo existed was to tour. I guess it's nice to hear some of the 'classics' like "Uncontrollable Urge" and "Gut Feeling" again, and they do switch up their material quite a bit, even doing two songs on an acoustic guitar - if that's not surprising enough, one of them is "Jocko Homo"! The other one is a new track ("It Doesn't Matter To Me"), and it doesn't suck, which is a shock. An interesting performance, but I miss the old energy - new drummer Dave Kendricks just doesn't cut it, as he just can't seem to keep up with the now mid-tempo numbers the band is playing. Okay, so here's the real question - how much of Total Devo do we have to hear? Thankfully only three songs, if you count the closing medley, suggesting even the band knew how awful the album was. At least one of them is "Happy Guy".

Smooth Noodle Maps (1990) **
I guess they had to give it one more try, and while it's miles ahead of Total Devo, there's too many bad ideas here. What's with the goofy sound effects on the otherwise catchy "Jimmy"? The stupid vocals on "Pink Jazz Trancers"? The entire "Dawghaus" track? Even the one good pop song, "Post-Post Modern Man" is just a little too fake for Devo, but it's surprisingly catchy and well-made for a band that hasn't had a good idea since '82. At least there's one good synth-driven tune ("Stuck In a Loop") that recalls the old Devo. Another really tough to find one, and again you shouldn't really bother. Contains a cover of the Grateful Dead's "Morning Dew".

Recombo DNA (2000)
Released by Rhino records, this is a big treat for the real Devo fans - it contains 42 unreleased takes from all throughout the band's career. Most of them are demos of album tracks, so if you liked the Hardcore Devo stuff, the entire first disc should be pretty charming. The main reason to buy this is for the songs that never got released, particularly "Recombo DNA" and the ultra-catchy "Modern Life", and there's some real weird stuff here like the carnival-themed "Bushwhacked" and the Booji-Boy cover of "Gotta Serve Somebody". Lots of focus on the Freedom of Choice album, which is good. Also a lot of focus on the band's later period, which is not so good, as the demos sounded an awful lot like the finished product. Not to worry, as the first disc justifies the purchase of this, showing Devo as raw as can be. Says a lot more about the band than their studio albums ever could.

Pioneers Who Got Scalped (2000)
The anthology. Given the space of 50 tracks, it gets mostly everything you should hear from the band, but there are some weird choices here (no "Gut Feeling", but we do get "Triumph of the Will"?) Kind of fits the same pattern as Recombo DNA - the first disc is awesome since the band was awesome at this point, and the non-album single is great ("It Takes a Worried Man"). Besides three tracks from Oh, No!, disc two concentrates entirely on the bad side of the band, including a lot of really bad unreleased material ("I Wouldn't Do That to You"), the worst of which are covers ("Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini", written for Revenge of the Nerds 2, and... *sigh*... "Head Like a Hole"). Kind of disappointing, but I guess the Devo completionist will want the rare tracks here.

Jihad Jerry and the Evildoers - Mine is Not a Holy War (2006) ***
Not actually a Devo album, but it's close - this is Gerald Casale's side project, featuring every member of Devo but Mark, as well as a couple of fairly generic female vocalists ("The Evildoers", I guess). I'm not entirely sure what he's on about for a lot of this - from the photo stills of him dressed in a turban to the album title to the sweeping 'manifestos' that he was writing, it seems obvious that this would be a politically-bent album, and indeed for the first track it is ("There was a time/when the world was colder"). Ahh, but the answer comes in the end of the song - "is it because the beginning was the end?" - yep, it's another album about de-evolution, and one that offers no answers, basically telling us the world is ending and all we can do is cry about it. But it's set to such a fun little melody that almost resembles a busy kid's-show theme that you begin to wonder if the whole thing is a farce. Instead of expanding on that theme however, the remaining songs are basically about sex, reaching Zappa-like levels of crudeness. Yeah, it's confusing, but it's definitely very Devo, although a lot less subtle than their golden period. Hell, a third of the tracks here ARE rare Devo tunes, including two from Hardcore ("I've Been Refused" and "I Need a Chick"...yep), one Oh, No!-era B-side ("Find Out") and one hard to find early cut ("Beehive"). There's a bluesy bent to some of it, mostly due to the backup vocals which were probably added because Jerry really isn't much of a vocal presence himself - giving him sole vocal duty would be like a B-52's album with only Fred Schneider on it - but there's a lot of synthesizers abound, and the sound is more modern than you'd expect ("I've Been Refused" in particular is given a pounding dance-floor facelift, making it the best track here). The music takes more of a backseat to the lyrics, which are often pretty funny - there's a message somewhere in there, but it's very tongue-in-cheek; it seems like many of the lines are sexual double-entendres (and the rest sexual single-entendres). But it's not hard to figure out the real intentions here - "If The Shoe Fits" is a pretty unsubtle attack on Bush (written before someone tried to throw a shoe at him), but it's really not political - instead the lyrics go something like "Hey/What's Up/You little putz/Man you really suck". Probably the most hilarious moment is Jerry attempting a rap that's intentionally misfire ("All She Wrote"), and it's clear he didn't intend anyone to take this too seriously. So you can imagine the result - a dozen quirky and catchy tunes without much replay value. The plus side is the instrumentation is full, avoiding the dinkiness that plagued some of the later albums, making it a solid update of the 'classic' Devo sound. The downside is that there's almost no imagination to any of this, and the backup vocalists are fairly second-rate. So it's a toss-off, but a toss-off that hits the right notes, and most Devo fans should find it plenty entertaining.

Dev2.0 (2006)
I don't have this and probably never will, but it's too weird not to mention. Basically Disney commissioned Devo to license out their songs to a band made out of 5 kids to release a CD/DVD and perform a few shows. So you get your favorite Devo songs like "Uncontrollable Urge" and "Freedom of Choice" performed by kids, with a few lyrical substitutions to remove all the clever sexual double-entendres and biting sarcasm (plus, with a female lead singer, other substitutions had to be made - case in point, "Boy U Want"). This means that at the end of "Beautiful World", instead of the final line being "It's a beautiful world for you/it's not for me", it's "I guess me too". I've always respected Devo's subversiveness - they do license out their songs for commercials a lot, but they seemed to get the last laugh in the end. "Beautiful World" was taken at face value for a retro-future Target commercial, which missed the entire point of the song and played right into the dystopia the lyrics suggested (the HP commercial that used the Kinks' "Picture Book" did the same thing). And I can personally attest to the fact that Devo's songs are pretty appealing to kids by virtue of being goofy and really catchy, so was this just Devo's way of getting their message out to kids? Or just a way of getting another paycheck? (deserved, by the way, as these guys were practically robbed by Warner) After all, let's not forget "Swiff It" quite yet. You make the call...

Watch Us Work It (2007)
Just a 1-track single that was released by Devo for a Dell advertisement. Unlike the other Devo tunes that have cropped up in the 90's, this one isn't a cover or an old-reworked tune like "Huboon Stomp" was - and this time, Mark is involved too. It's a simple power-pop tune that's one of the more concise things they've done, featuring a pretty old-school riff and a familiar drum shuffle (taken from "The Super Thing", I'm guessing), and everything about it seems like they were aiming for an anthemic single. If nothing else it at least shows that Devo may reform for more than just a reunion tour - a new album was supposedly in the works, but I'll believe it when I see it.