Devo - Total Devo 2LP / 2CD 30th Anniversary Edition Coming Soon

Futurismo presents DEVO Total Devo Deluxe! Limited 30th Anniversary edition 2xLP and 2xCD available to pre-order very soon!


It may be seen by many as Devo's nadir but I'm kind of interested to hear what the bonuses are.

 

Oh boy, a 2LP reissue of an album that didn't even have one side's worth of good music . Presumably the bonus album is all the remixes? Can't imagine that "demo" versions of those songs would be very interesting to hear.

 

For much of their career Devo acted out the principle of de-evolution by making every album not as good as the one before it. Unfortunately they ruined it with Smooth Noodle Maps, which was an improvement over the previous couple-- That leaves Total Devo as the nadir.

 

The demos on Recombo DNA weren't that much different from the finished versions, but there may be unheard tracks. Yeah I know...tracks that were rejected for Total Devo. But Red Alert and Satan on the reissued version of Recombo DNA were worth hearing.

It's nostalgic for me, Total Devo was the first new album I bought on CD in 1988.

 

I did the restoration/remastering on the unearthed archive material, and tweeked the rest. The album didn't seem as bad as I remembered.

Scott
www.rubellanremasters.com

 

I'm one of the few who disagrees that Total Devo was their worst. I actually like it despite its cold production. I like the songs. To me, Smooth Noodle Maps is indeed their worst studio album. Even that one's finally grown on me somewhat, but it doesn't rank any higher for me than it ever did.

And I have to say that Duty Now is at least as good as the debut, so I'd have to disagree with your assessment of the catalog for that reason as well. (IMO, Duty Now is even better, really!) I guess this isn't the right thread for this line of discussion, though.

So, to bring it back on topic: Even though I like Total Devo, I'm not so blind as to not recognize its standing among most Devo fans. For that reason, I can't imagine why they're bothering to release this, no matter what the bonus material turns out to be.

 

I'd Cry If You Died should of been a single, dammit

 

Back off topic, yes, Duty Now for the Future is the best Devo album.

 

I think it's probably because they are such fans of the band, and the Warner catalog is not available to exploit. I asked Warners about Devo last year and was flat out told it was not an option. But I expect the title will still sell well, despite the general "meh.." towards it. I need to find something myself that will fly off the shelf for more than a couple of weeks.

 

Possibly; it's a tough call. It's remarkable that Eno and the group left already-honed songs like Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA and Wiggly World off the debut.

 

I loved seeing them on the Total Devo tour.

 

It is so odd to me that, of all of their albums, this is the one getting a two-disc deluxe treatment. I know Warner Bros. traditionally hasn't cooperated very much with the band when it comes to reissues, but this is still very strange. Then again, it gets the album back in print, so I guess that's a good thing...even if it is my least favorite Devo album.

The teaser clips were pretty cool, though. Are those instrumental tracks or do they have vocals?

I'm hoping for some copious liner notes, so they can explain tracks like "Blow Up." (I have a theory on that one.)

 

I think it has some great tracks on it - Man Turned Inside Out, The Shadow, Happy Guy, Agitated and the single remix of Disco Dancer is one of the best Devo singles. In the record shop I used work in if I was playing Disco Dancer someone would always ask me who it was because they liked it.

 

Over time, I've come to see "Happy Guy" as the best song on the album. "Some Things Never Change" is great. "Disco Dancer" and "Baby Doll" are okay. Some of the mellower songs have grown on me, too, like "I'd Cry If You Died" and "Plain Truth," even if they don't sound like what you'd expect from Devo. I actually think the band sort of letting their hair down on parts of that album is one of its more interesting aspects.

For me, "Agitated" is a good song with a lousy arrangement (particularly the sampled voices that make it sound like the the Skatt Bros. or something). Similarly, "Man Turned Inside Out" kind of grates on me. "The Shadow" is tremendously overwrought, to my ears.

"Sexi Luv," "Blow Up" and their cover of "Don't Be Cruel" are probably my three least favorite Devo songs of all time.

 

During the time between Oh, No! It's Devo (ONID) and Total Devo, Mark was extremely prolific in his output. I think that there is plenty in the vaults for this period but I daresay that most of it is not very good and most of it is essentially Mark flying solo. By this point in their "career" Mark was the dominant force in the band, working more and more on his own and bringing finished music to the studio with Jerry contributing lyrics and the rest of the members pretty much shut out of the music side of things. Alan left after Shout given his drumming was utterly sidelined on that album, Bob 1 (Mothersbaugh) had literally no guitar to play and Bob 2 (Casale) was more involved in the production/mixing side of things. It was not a happy time for the band. It is ironic that Mark wanted to take the band in a more commercial direction, yet the more control he exerted from Nutra onwards, the less successful they became. I don't think that it's unreasonable to say that Mark became a bit of a dictator with the rest of the group having little input and this lead to a dilution of Devo's sound and ultimately the uniqueness that made them so very different in the first place.

The demos weren't that different from what appeared on the final album and that is essentially because it was self-produced so what Mark served up in the studio was basically what appeared on the album. Total Devo BADLY needed an external producer to pull back some of Mark's excesses and give other members room to contribute to the tracks. It is unbelievable to think that they seemed to learn nothing from the debacle that was Shout, also self-produced.

 

Total Devo is the nadir for me. It wasn't at the time due to my intense dislike of Shout but it didn't take long for me to place Shout above Total Devo in their discography. I actually like Smooth Noodle Maps a hell of a lot more than Total Devo and thought that it offered far more potential commercially than its predecessor but by this stage Enigma was in freefall and grunge appeared from nowhere to obliterate what was left of Devo's career.

 

This is utterly unbelievable!! Warner Bros must still REALLY have Devo in the gun concerning their back catalogue. Both Oh, No! It's Devo and Shout were only ever released by Warner's for their initial release in 1982 and 1984 respectively and have NEVER been re-released by themselves in the USA. Nor has either title seen an official WB CD release in the USA. Infinite Zero managed to license them in the mid-90s and Collectables in the early 2000's for CD release though WB have never reissued them under their own banner. And now they are telling re-issue labels that they are non-touchable. What an act of sheer bastardry. It seems that they are determined for these albums to remain indefinitely out of print out of sheer spite for the numerous run-ins between them and the band during the years they were signed to the label.

Or maybe they are planning their own Devo re-issue campaign? And maybe I will win Powerball ten weeks in a row as well.


So the irony of Futurismo doing Total Devo is that the Enigma era Devo album catalogue (Total Devo, Now It can Be Told and Smooth Noodle Maps), that was purchased by Restless Records in 1992 is now owned by WMG as well!!

 

Allegedly, when they signed to WB and Virgin in 1978, Devo had already mapped out the tracklists for their first three albums from their already extensive back catalogue of tracks. This of course changed fairly quickly with Mark wanting to bring more synth dominated tracks into DNFTF. So tracks that were most likely slated for inclusion on DNFTF such as Soo Bawlz were relegated to B-side status. Jerry has called these new tracks "half baked experiments" or words to that effect, saying that they weren't quite ready for album inclusion as they hadn't been worked through enough. You can really tell the new tracks as they are far more synth driven than the rest of the album. Strange Pursuit (one my favourite DNFTF tracks) could've easily slotted onto FOC though I've always felt that it needed another verse in it and Swelling Itching Brain and Triumph of the Will were probably only ever going to work on DNFTF. Jerry has said that Mark wrote The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprize in about ten minutes.

Given the length of both Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy and Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA I guess that only one of these opuses was going to appear on a single album.

About the only changes I would've made to the first two albums would be dropping Sloppy for Social Fools on Q?A! and Triumph of the Will for Soo Bawlz on DNFTF. This would've necessitated in a changed running order though given Timing X and Soo Bawlz segued into one another in concert so they should've been left that way on the album. Maybe open side two with Strange Pursuit?

"...hasn't cooperated very much with the band..." is a bit of an understatement. Been openly hostile to them or utterly indifferent is probably more to the point. A lot of the time I think that WB deliberately keep the bulk of Devo's catalogue out of print as an act of revenge for all the run-ins they endured with the band between 1978-1985. I am constantly amazed that the labels consistently complain about piracy or lack of money in music yet go out of their way to make vast amounts of their catalogue totally unavailable to the public. Or who knows? Maybe WB, Devo and Futurismo have come to an agreement whereby Futurismo will be able to release those albums that WB don't consider to be commercially viable to release themselves.

Total Devo does have some good ideas and songs struggling to be heard through the cold, sterile production and the lack of any real instruments. I also think that most songs went too long. I guess that that was one of the early attempts to make more use of the available space on a CD. It is no coincidence that Smooth Noodle Maps was deliberately pared back to roughly the length of FOC. As I wrote up thread, Total Devo badly needed an external producer to bring some sensibility to the album. Listen to what external producers brought to Watch Us Work It and Mind Games with Something For Everybody. Those tracks are far superior in their finished state to the original Devo demos. Apart from New Traditionalists, Devo were their own worst enemy when it came to producing their albums.

I pretty much agree on your song critiques above. You can see with Disco Dancer why an external producer was needed. The Ivan Ivan remix is far superior to the album track that sounds weak and insipid by comparison (though conversely, his remix of Baby Doll is not). I actually prefer Plain Truth to Happy Guy. Also, I have never minded Don't Be Cruel but Sexi Luv and Blow Up are just atrocious. What on earth were they thinking?


Both Shout and Total Devo saw Devo (or mainly, Mark) go totally overboard on the use of the Fairlight synthesizer and samplers. And the lack of an external producer meant there was no strong voice in the studio to say no to his excesses. There was also no room for anyone else to lay down other musical parts as the demo tracks brought to the studio were already dense, full of sound and pretty much complete. Hence why the demo versions of the Total Devo tracks are barely different on the studio album recordings. I have posted these links numerous times previously but for those who want a deeper understanding of why Devo went in the direction they did, have a listen to this excellent two part interview with Jerry here and here. Admittedly, they are purely from his perspective and Jerry is well known for being flexible with the truth but they seem to pretty much bear out everything that happened in Devo's trajectory.

 

Pre-orders up on Futurismo's website. Six unreleased tracks including another pre-Baby Doll version. CD version includes three remixes not on the vinyl version though the download code with the vinyl contains the additional tracks. For the downloads, it would be nice to see them offer something of higher quality than the MP3s as on previous releases.



As usual, too many coloured vinyl options. Wish they'd just stick to black vinyl and add additional info/booklets in the package instead.

 

Thanks Spud, in for the compact disc. I don't need another LP of this

 

I saw this today. I anticipated that the majority of the second disc would be remixes from the CD singles. Total Devo is my least favourite Devo album, although I can pick 4 maybe 5 tracks that I like, but I'll be buying this anyway for the unreleased material. I also really like the new cover they've used. I guess some people are happier about this due to the rarity of the album. I take it for granted because I've had the 16 track CD of Total Devo for years. I asked Michael Pilmer about Smooth Noodle Maps (my favourite release from the Enigma deal) and he said "2 Years" so I hope that they will look to re-appraise some of Devos less popular albums. Tragically, as SpudOz mentioned above, it sounds like Warner are happy to own the rights to the past albums and let them gather dust. I'd love to see their pre Total Devo albums get this sort of treatment.

Anyway despite not liking a bulk of the album I'm still excited for this release and will be pre-ordering it very soon. I'll have to persuade myself to ignore the vinyl release, but I must admit they look gorgeous.

So roll on 2020 for Smooth Noodle Maps.

 

I'm probably one of the few fans who actually likes Shout and Oh No. I don't disagree that the debut was a masterpiece, but make no mistake, Duty, FOC and NT are utter classics in my book.

 

always have loved this album despite some of its weaknesses. very excited for this reissue though it does miss out on a few baby doll remixes for completeness sake.

would like a redo of smooth noodle as well that has always been my least favorite but would be nice to reevaluate. I wonder if it is two years cause next year they will do now it can be told? wonder if there are any unreleased bits from that. I have a bootleg from that tour with pity you and beautiful world in addition to what was on it so they could extend it if those were recorded I presume, though it would blow the over and hour of music joke.

 

Oh No It's Devo is the album that introduced me to to the band, back in the mid 90s. Peek A Boo was the song that hooked me and made me a fan. Shout is one of my favourite albums despite its reputation. I wish there had have been a few more music videos off Shout though. I love all of the bands albums but Total is definitely the weakest of the bunch for me.

 

It might have to do with that I read a while back that Devo were fighting to get the rights back to their early catalog, so perhaps until that is resolved (if ever) the albums will be in limbo.