woke up this morning with this bands songs spirally through my head. It's amazing how fresh and honestly timeless this music sounds to me today. Pretty impressive. hahaha too funny Peek-A-Boo: Devo - Peek-A-Boo! ยป
Love early Devo. The Dev-O Live EP is a classic, and Youtube video of their early gigs shows that they (like most first-wave "new wave" bands) were a killer live band before they ever became famous.
As most people I always knew Devo existed (i remember audio taping Are we not men off the TV during Don Kirshner around the late 70s)but I really got into them in the 90s and still like em a lot.It's funny what most people think of when you mention Devo ,not knowing how dark a lot of their material is at least lyrically.
yeah it's really interesting checking this out today. I hear things from them that carried over into so many bands intentionally or not. they really were a legit band with a lot of very smart (music and lyrics) artistry!
as a for instance this song...honestly if you listen to the full thing...could easily be (reworked) into a Rush song (at least musically) from say Signals, Grace Under Pressure, or Power Windows...or maybe even Hold Your Fire.
I like how DEVO always completely switched up their look for each album / tour. My favorite album of theirs has always been Duty Now For the Future, with "Wiggly World" being my favorite song of theirs.
The Rhino 2-cd set "Pioneers who got Scalped" is a nice overview of their music. They were more than a band since their act had more artistry (like the motion cover on the CD set and their outfits that they wore on TV appearances). I would say they were much like Alice Cooper. No, not their music or even their intended audience, but the way they did more than just sing. It would be nice if we could have someone or a group that had that kind of humor in their performance these days.
Probably my favourite Devo song. Just insanely catchy and even nearly 35 years later it has a timeless like quality to it. As I've mentioned various times over the years, Devo is massively underrated for both their art (I use that term as they were much more than a music group) and the influence that they've had on music in general. They were a fully self-contained multi-media package before the term ever really existed. Their music, films (they hate the term music video) and look made them unique. They refused to compromise on their ideals even when it was to the detriment of their own career. Their run-ins with their label are the archetypal example of what not to do to succeed in the music industry. De-evolution indeed. The entrenched music press of the day such as Rolling Stone absolutely despised Devo as they represented everything that was the total antithesis of how the establishment believed a rock group should look and behave. Yet despite it all, Devo succeeded in leaving an indelible mark on music and a legacy that far exceeds a lot of acts that had far more success than they ever did. We're All Devo!!
Everything you said. I love DEVO. I'm glad to be in the liners of Hardcore Live, thank goodness for PledgeMusic! Duty Now For The Future , spuds!!! Edit: History...
I've seen Devo 6 times . One of the those times was like seeing them 4 times since they came out as Dove for a set, then Booji Boy did a whole set, Then actual Devo came on first as total Duty Now then they disappeared for a bit and rose up out of the floor in the yellow radiation suits and did all the Q&A Devo stuff. This was new years eve 1980. What a way to leave the 70's behind!
One of my favorites. Saw the SNL performance as a teenager, sitting on the beanbag chair in our living room and under the influence of psychedelics. Life changed. Was at the show in Boston in 1981 where they recorded the bonus tracks for the live release shown below. They played some of their "movies" before coming on stage, and played much of the concert walking in place on treadmills between Roman pillars (New Traditionalists tour).
Are you talking about the night when they played "The Truth about De-Evolution" on SNL? I was too young to be taking psychedelics, but it was truly a WHAT! THE! ****! WAS! THAT!?!? moment. I didn't see that short film again for 20+ years.
