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DEVO (Symphony Hall, June 22)
06-06-2007
Source: Warner Bros
"Are we not men?" they asked. To which the frankly puzzled late 70s punters answered, "Er, we're not sure." We knew they were Devo though, and they were darlings of the briefly supersonic scene from Akron, Ohio. Remember that? Paul Samuels does.
Now here's the question. Were Devo a silly group? Apart from the Flowerpot hats, the jerky songs and jerkier dancing, the yellow chemical suits and half baked theories about unbaked potatoes and evolution going backwards?
Well there's certainly a lot to love about the first album but they also encompass social history and change, from their arty beginnings and the Kent State university shootings through to Punk and the MTV generation. Phew! Pass me a flowerpot hat and let's get started.
Bassist Gerald Casales, Mark Mothersbaugh and original guitarist Bob Lewis were at Kent State University Ohio and had used the devolution concept or the idea of humans evolving into primitive forms as the basis for art exhibitions.
The theory really took root with them with the killings at Kent State Universityin 1970 as 4 students were shot dead by The National Guard.
Casales told The Vermont Review that "I was a white hippie boy and then I saw exit wounds from M1 rifles out of the backs of two people I knew. Two of the four people who were killed, Jeffrey Miller and Allison Krause, were my friends… Until then I was a hippie. I thought that the world is essentially good. If people were evil, there was justice and that the law mattered. All of those silly naïve things. I saw the depths of the horrors and lies and the evil.
"In the paper that evening, the Akron Beacon Journal, said that students were running around armed and that officers had been hurt. So deputy sheriffs went out and deputized citizens. They drove around with shotguns and there was martial law for ten days. 7 PM curfew. It was open season for students. We lived in fear."
Like Malcolm Mclarenhanging Punk Rockup on the coat hooks of situationism and the Paris riots, Devo had a theoryto back up their world view. In the same way that half the fun of Art is pulling the wings and legs off the theory behind it, then great tunes can sound better with something to think about...even if that something boils down to the 5 Devo oaths
Be like your ancestors or be different. It doesn't matter.
Lay a million eggs or give birth to one.
Wear gaudy colours or avoid display. It's all the same.
The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live.
We Must Repeat.
Not forgetting Casales idea of the potato "It's the self. And it's the all-seeing potato, it's got eyes everywhere, even in the back of it's head"
Never could see how it all tied in with Kent State though. Neil Young wrote "Ohio", Buffalo Springfield released "For What It's Worth". Devo went to the greengrocers.
Devo spent the next few years playing often confrontational gigs. Their film "The Truth About Devolution" won a prize at the 1975 Ann Arbor festival. They put out2 singles Mongoloid and their deconstruction of The Stone's Satisfaction on their own Booji Boy label in 76 and 77.
By the time they hit Britain though it was on the back of the New Wave in 1978 with a Brian Enoproduced album, released on a bewildering selection of coloured vinyls. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo. Call and response vocals, theories, dressing up and a band who could career jerkily round the stage and yet all step up to the mic simultaneously just like the Clash.
They looked brilliant and of course they didn't sound like anyone else.
The album stands up really well today. "Uncontrollable Urge" has got a fabulous yelping "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah"opening line. Well I think that says a lot and I also really like the call and responsechorus, "He's got an uncontrollable urge/ "I've got an uncontrollable urge".
The guitars alternate between crisp riffing and a bendy spring string sound. If anything it's like a bastardised "Twist and Shout".
But not quite as big a bastard as "Satisfaction". The backing track pops, scratches and scurries like a little Captain Beefheart hamster all twitchy nose and whiskers. It's absolutely unrecognisable as a Stones backing track. The vocals yelp the familiar Jagger consumer blues lyrics. Marvellous
"Mongoloid"has electronic drum thwackery, synthesizer sighs and the guitar sounds thick but distant. Normally you hear an electric guitar and you want to know that the air around the speaker is actually moving. Noise and movement. But then you would expect oddities on an Eno production.
"Gut Feeling" speeds up as it moves from "House Of The Rising Sun" sound to a Stranglers style keyboard whirl segueing straight into the jerkiness of "Slap Your Mammy."
The first album has a great mix of unfamiliar sounds teased out of conventional; instruments. I remember breathlessly asking an older mate who'd just been to see them in 1978 what instruments they used, as in my head these sounds could only have been made using strange futuristic instruments. I was a bit disappointed when he said "Just normal ones" Probably not even star shaped guitars either.
On subsequent albums they fully embraced electronics. The 3rd album "Freedom Of Choice" released in 1980 had the big hit "Whip It"which became an MTV staple but I'd lost interest after the first album really. They did manage to continue without me though.
Bizarrely "Oh No It's Devo" was produced by Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker, but the game was pretty much up by 1984's "Shout" album. Day jobs beckoned
Mark Mothersbaugh, started a music production company Mutato Muzika , for commercials, films and TV soundtracks including the Rugrats and The Royal Tenenbaums. Gerald Casales makes commercials and music videos and has worked with The Foo Fighters amongst others.
The last proper Devo album was "Smooth Noodle Maps" in 1990, but there have been one off tours and side projects such as Jihad Jerry And The Evildoers and also The Wipeouters. And of course…. Devo 2.0 which was the Disney backed creation of a Devo covers band of child musicians and actors, with the videos directed by Devo and the lyrics cleaned up. Ouch! And if you really want to know what that sounds like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnot_03IAbQ
A safer bet is Devo's version of Satisfaction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvcuaJy9OwI&mode=related&search
Anyone else looking forward to seeing Devo? Leave a comment on the TV, Music, Movies section of our Meesage Board. |
