I don’t know why there are no DEVO threads on this board, but I just fixed that little problem.
Here is my current favorite DEVO performance . . . .
I was known as “Devo Dave” back in third grade (think the name stuck through 4th too). Amazing band!
Devo are all types of awesome.
I’m surprised Ben & Jerry’s haven’t named an ice cream after them.
That’s how awesome they are.
Even their “bad” albums of the late 80’s are awesome.
Devo… I’m surprised Ben & Jerry’s haven’t named an ice cream after them.
Fucking brilliant! Devo already sounds like a flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. What would be in it?
Late,
grmpysmrf
The ice cream would be called PEEKABOO, and would be chock full of random candy. Like, whatever happened to be next to the coked up mix man at the time. You don’t even know what’s gonna be in there until you start diggin’ in, then it’s like “PEEK A BOO! Here’s some Tic Tacs! HA HA HA HA!!! PEEK A BOO! Here’s some Hot Tamales! HA HA HA HA!!!”
You don’t know what you’re gonna get. You just know that it’s gonna be totally awesome.
Ahhhh Devo…a great American treasure…I could talk for days about how awesome this band is…and I agree even their late 80s “bad” albums are still good…but man,those first 3 are just sonic gold…incredible band…
The guy who designed those red tiered plastic hats for them teaches art classes at a community college here. Or at least he did a few years back, he was one of my artist friend’s mentor. Ron Lazordy I think his name was. Probably spelling it wrong.
One of my favorites as well. I saw them a couple years back, one of the best shows I’ve ever been to.
There is an energy to DEVO that is just unmatchable. And unlike MANY other bands to follow, their “schtick” never seemed forced or contrived. There was a consistency that is hard to explain. They had this weird geeky pseudo-scientist alien creature lifeform robot theme that was all over the place and at times incoherent and inexplicable, but it all seemed to gel.
I also always liked that they never seemed to get trapped by the cliche thematic materials of other bands. You don’t find political protest in DEVO songs, and you don’t find some emo ponderings of broken hearts and love and loss. They seemed to operate on another level that was both above and below all that crap. Their songs weren’t focused love and aspiration. it was more like a shaken up beaker filled with all the hot sweaty firing neurons of an amped up teenage nerd bomb. It was pure hormones.
They were like the geeky kids didn’t fit in with the rest of the herd and who scored a billion on the SAT’s, and were also building a giant robot and/or death ray in their garage. They didn’t care that they were geeks because they were still a billion times cooler and more badass than everyone that TRIED to be cool.
They were total anti-heros before the whole idea of anti-hero itself became commoditized and cliche. They are the original Revenge of the Nerds and the archetypal Napolean Dynamite and Ghostbusters on crack but they are so far completely beyond everything that it’s ridiculous.
All these hipster doucheheads nowadays try to play off some “we’re geeks!” image and it falls totally flat. No, asshole, you’re not a geek, you’re just a stupid hipster sheep who thinks you’re going to somehow absorb someone else’s street cred by wearing high gym socks and playing a theremin on stage . . . . GO DIE.
DEVO can never really be categorized or explained, but their stage performances and their musical creativity and energy is just a complete explosion of awesome.
BOOJI-BOY!!!
Because:
[urlhttp://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=W2M9jaulods&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DW2M9jaulods
This was what started my love for DEVO . . . seeing them on a short-lived sit-com called SQUARE PEGS. I’d probably only heard “Whip It” before this. I was either 9 or 10, and just remember thinking how badass they were.
Can we all simply agree not to mention Dev2.0 in this thread?
^
I can agree to this.
I’m playing some records tomorrow evening at a bar and have Devo’s Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! LP ready to rock.
The only other “legendary” band that can come close to Devo’s brand of Sonic Playfulness is the Butthole Surfers.
The two have a lot more in common than you’d think…
The only other “legendary” band that can come close to Devo’s brand of Sonic Playfulness is the Butthole Surfers.
The two have a lot more in common than you’d think…
Butthole who? Marilyn Manson sold more records.
Marilyn Manson is a genius!!
Lookout void, mentioning Marilyn Manson in a Devo thread is a quick way to get into an online knife fight.
Sold more records? Is that how we measure genius these days? What does that say about the “band” that has to finance its videos and albums with Kickstarter donations then? Just curious.