New Devo Bobbleheads Perfect For Spuds Of Any Age

It's a new rock bobblehead, this time for the mighty Devo. The press release is found below.

I'd be remiss in not mentioning the death of Devo drummer Alan Myers over the summer. He played on the first seven Devo releases and left after his role became greatly diminished after Mark Mothersbaugh began using more programming instead of an actual drummer. This despite the fact that Myers was incredibly reliable when it came down to keeping time.

Admittedly, I never really thought that much about Devo's choice in drummers, particularly since Myers was used more as a timekeeper than as a finesse or power percussionist.

That all changed one night when me and a pair of chuckleheads sat down and watched a live video of Devo during the Freedom Of Choice tour. One of the first things we noticed was how much Myers looked like a rat. The second thing we noticed was how friggin' good he was behind the kit.

A new facet to the band emerged: a taught rock and roll band that could be just as aggressive as any punk band (see their early cuts compilation Hardcore for further evidence) while delivering a show that far exceeded most of the arena rock bands that littered America's venues during the same time period.

In the video, goes beyond his normal duties as the "human metronome." He is a flurry of activity, providing the band with extra muscle while hiding his abilities on the majority of Devo's studio output.

There are exceptions of course: the looping and clever patterns he created for Devo's cover of "Satisfaction," the dynamic drumming for "Shrivel Up," and this early video of "Gut Feeling" where Myers is a madman.

Come to think of it, I began to lose interest in Devo right around the same time that his work was pushed farther and farther into the mix.

An incredibly underrated drummer that was a vital part to Devo's most influential moments.

Press:

Use your Freedom Of Choice by pre-ordering this Officially Licensed DEVO Energy Dome Throbblehead figure... DEVO in effigy!

Made by Aggronautix. Features figure dressed in DEVO's Freedom Of Choice tour outfit circa 1980 sporting the band's patented red Energy Dome. It wiggles and jiggles on the head of this 7" tall, polyresin figure, accurately sculpted right down to the 1980's Keytar. Limited to just 2000 numbered units.

Devo Live 1980

It’s strange watching younger folks getting into things you discovered decades ago. At the same time, it’s rewarding to know that at least some of the things you held dear to your heart can be just as inspiring as when you were young.

Such is the case for Devo, a band that was incredibly vital to rock music, yet often overlooked because of their image, or more importantly, how their image was received.

The irony is how Devo can be considered a one trick pony by some while being anything but that in reality. As they amped up their visuals, they left their political bent behind which ended up killing any hint of dangerous or subversive behavior.

Because Devo actually started out a bit dangerous and they carried just as much punk ethos as anyone else, but they were just too damn smart for people to believe them.

There is video evidence of this, and the amazing thing is how well it’s documented just at the point where the band found commercial success. Yes, even at the time Devo scored their biggest hit, “Whip It,” they could still lay down a very aggressive and wildly entertaining show complete with costume changes, weird David Lynchian moments, and tight arrangements that are on par with all of their peers, even the ones that may get a critical nod before them.

Devo Live 1980 catches the Spudboys during the Freedom of Choice tour in 1980 in what appears to be a large club filled with admirers. It’s hard to tell, as the video is obviously not something that was documented for commercial release, more probable is that this was just an in-house closed circuit job.

Not that it matters to you; it’s just that there is very little crowd material, which means that every lens is focused on the band as they hit on just about every single highpoint of their first three albums.

The video image is decent but not professional and the sound quality is cut from a mono source, but none of this takes away from the performance that is top notch. I’m guessing that this was a typical show from that tour, and if that’s the case, these guys were a very impressive band. If you’re a fan of Talking Heads Stop Making Sense film, then you should be able to see how Mark Mothersbaugh’s reach went as far as New York City’s David Byrne. It’s like a noisy run through of that critical darling.

The video features Booji Boy turning into a meaty disaster and the bonus features show Devo’s religious alter egos Dove playing some more spiritual spud material.

Live 1980 is a perfect place to get familiar with how good Devo could be left to their own devices and it’s the perfect place for fans to hold as a proud document of a frequently overlooked live juggernaut.

Not Necessarily The News

Sorry for the delay.

I was went through an intense Bob Dylan phase for the last few weeks, and after determining that “Visions Of Johanna” may be the greatest song ever made, I ended up with the new Duran Duran album.

Talk about a complete 360.

I’m also completely immersed in the Keith Richards book, Life.

Yes, it’s awesome.

Yes, I’ll tell you about it sometime.

But for now, I will tell you about my recent foray into a couple of news stories that I’ve become fascinated with.

You should know something about me first, and that is how I used to be motivated by politics. My family is, at least on my Father’s side, heavily Democratic. I think that it stemmed from my Great Grandfather, a World War I veteran that saw enough frontline horror that he never talked about it that much.

He kept it inside.

He also found favor with Harry Truman’s direction during the Second World War It didn’t hurt that my Great Grandfather hailed from the same state as President Truman, so he was quite familiar with Harry’s state efforts before he called Pennslyvania Avenue his home.

Here's a picture of the long-since-closed movie theatre that is on the Main Street of Hopkins, the small town in Northwest Missouri where my Grandfather lived. I'd like to rent this place with my cousin someday and play a punk rock show there. If one person came, it'd be a success in my mind.

I mention this only because I’ve noticed a tremendous amount of vitriol from the Republican side of the aisle, beginning almost as quickly as Obama was elected. I get “politics,” or at least I thought I did, but to be honest-the dialog seemed to take a nasty tone early on in his presidency.

And then it got worse.

Look, I won’t be the one who says that all of the general nastiness in politics caused the recent tragedy in Arizona. It’s abundantly clear that the shooter was not healthy and he associated some aspects of his mental illness with an innocent target and acted on his faulting wiring.

While the verbal hostilities may not have had any influence on motivating the tragedy, they certainly didn’t prevent it either. So what’s the harm is trying to “E” a little bit.

That’s my friend Ed’s slang for “Take it easy.”

“You’ve got to E, my friend!”

So why do we have to revolt against the notion-just the notion that maybe tone it down a bit because there is a large population of crazy fuckers in this country that are susceptible to triggers that cause them to snap.

Maybe it’s time to be aware of the people who listen to us, and how their instabilities may not understand that we’re not really bringing a gun to a knife fight or that Sarah Palin’s website didn’t really suggest that we shoot a U.S. Representative.

Don’t we bite our tongues around the children and not let the word “Fuck” blurt out?

Then there’s a golden-throated homeless man-a radioman, how ironic-who goes from panhandling to the Today show in a fucking week, and we wonder why he just can’t hang with the notoriety.

Did anyone think to run him through rehab prior to sitting down on Today?

Did at any time someone ponder the obvious: “There’s a reason why he’s homeless?”

Did we really think that a You Tube video would erase his prior demons and turn him into a productive member of society, eternally grateful to the man who pulled up to an intersection to make him dance for his change while recording it for the rest of us.

“Hey look! That bum’s got pipes!”

I’ve become so cynical with America that I absolutely relish going to church to be around people that try to tackle all of this world’s shit even in the face of impossible odds.

Sometimes, all we can do is pray for them to just do the right fucking thing.

Is it any wonder why I listen to the news anymore?

After all, in the same amount of time that it takes me to commute to work in the morning, I could have listened to Devo’s Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

Add your own sniglets to the comment section.

Devo - Something For Everybody

It’s easy to forget that Devo was forged out of the anti-war movement of the late 60’s. Member Gerald Castle actually knew two of the four students killed at Kent State, the University he was attending. From that tragedy, the theory of de-evolution began, and with like-minded progressive artists in relatively small numbers in Ohio, the band Devo was formed.

Considering how subversive the band’s origins are, and with the recent milestone of the 40th anniversary of the Kent State massacre, one would think that there would be some reference to the volatile beginnings of the band.

There isn’t, which is why I’m obligated to reference for Something For Everybody, the first Devo album in two decades. It is indeed, as the title suggests, a plethora of mass consumerism-whether ironic or not-that picks up at the moment where Shout! left off.

If you’ll recall, Shout! was one dismal album, the moment where the band eighty-sixed the guitar entirely and went for the uppity electronica that they evidently want to be remembered for.

Their latest is a pop album, mildly off-center thanks to the name recognition and the occasional glances to their analog keyboard beginnings. Just to date them a bit, “Mind Games” whips out some neat 8-bit blips during the intro, making it irresistibly catchy and kitschy.

“Human Rocket” uses a friggin’ vocoder, but you know what? That’s O.k.! After all, Devo was using similar strategies on “Beautiful World” some thirty years ago.
Something For Everyone is a pleasurable nostalgia trip for fans of Freedom Of Choice or New Traditionalists. If you’re expecting a nostalgia trip that revisits the intentionally provocative vibe of their debut or the divisive mantra of their earlier projects, you’ll be somewhat disappointed.

Because this album could have been more special than just modernist tweaking and idol worship. Something For Everybody could have been the “We told you so!” album of Devo’s career. A bark of provocation that would entice even the most cynical of younger to dig deeper into the catalog and cast credence into what prompted them to make music in the first place.

Instead, it’s content with only reliving only the moments that brought the band their one-hit wonder celebrity, sadly ignoring the real story of their past. While their interpretation is a great summer paperback, Something For Everybody could have been Devo’s great, late-career novel.

This review originally appeared in Glorious Noise.

Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo

I don’t think I’ve ever fully acknowledged the importance of Saturday Night Live in exposing new artists to me. Allow me to do it now: Peter Tosh, Talking Heads, The B-52’s, Kate Bush, and Devo all entered and warped my little mind because my parents were lackadaisical enough to let me stay up late on Saturday night.
It took a few years to appreciate Devo. Actually, it was a friend in ’79 that made the first move towards Devolution. I think we were subconsciously competing against one another in who could get the best new thing first and he actually won out on a few occasions. I don’t even think he liked some of the shit all that much, it was just the idea that he could get a few cool albums before me that was satisfaction enough.
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was one of those albums that he, we’ll call him Tim because that’s his name, got through Columbia house. One of the other albums was by Kansas, so there you go.
I remember giving him a bunch of shit about Q/A, partly out of jealously and partly because I had no idea of what Devo was about. All I knew was that they had a guy with a golf hat on the cover, some character named Booji Boy on the record sleeve (along with some pretty cool Devo merchandise items you could buy), and a strange declaration of “actual size” typed across the golf dude’s forehead.
The music, specifically their cover of “Satisfaction,” was a little too much for my Cars-loving head to take at that age. So I berated Tim for getting such a juvenile and cartoonish album.
But the joke was on me, even if Tim didn’t fully appreciate what he had inadvertently discovered.
Which was a kick ass, quirky and unique rock album that defied a proper definition, so some lame-brain called it “new wave.” It was “new” because nobody at that point had the good sense to associate the athletic kids with pinheads (or “homos” for that matter), wrote songs about mongoloids that work among us, or people getting clobbered by falling satellites.
And nobody had an answer for the music either, with its strange time signatures, guitar/synth combinations fueled by nervous energy, all corralled by incredible hooks, Q/A is one of those albums that only later proved to be the classic album it was.
I understand it now, fully appreciate it, and listen to it quite regularly; when I start the album as I leave my driveway in the morning, it ends perfectly when I pull the car into the parking lot at work (but only because I have to forward past “Satisfaction” as it skips because of a scratch on the disc).
After I put away my unfounded dismissals, I allowed myself to become a spud. By high school, we sang “Mongoloid” on our way to speech contests, and by college Devo had become because fully realized heroes (thanks in large part to the Ryko released Hardcore, which featured an early look on Devo’s punky origins).
Perfectly produced by Brian Eno, Q/A’s brilliance lies in how it took these punk origins and honed them into something fairly complex. Their imagery, as humorous as it may be, only serves as a distraction to how brilliant this album really is and something that they’d never be able to come close to again.