“We did it on purposeas an experiment,” Gerald Casale explains in a recent phone interview. “It’ssomething we had never done. We were always hermetically sealed, like littlealiens that dropped down, dropped our load, took off and went home. We thought,‘What is the thing that we haven’t tried?’ It’s like playing ball, actuallyinvolving the outside world on purpose because at this point, 30 years down theline, everybody feels like they know what Devo is, or has their own idea ofwhat Devo is … So we opened it up to the outside world.”
That fans wouldunderstand Devo to the point where the group would give them that kind of inputon a record is ironic, given the band’s history.
When Devo released its1978 debut, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We AreDevo!, the band confounded most of the rock world.
Devo’s music wasspastic and synthesizer-based, and the album boasted quirky lyrics and songtitles like “Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy)” and “Jocko Homo,” not to mention aparticularly offbeat cover of The Rolling Stones’ classic “(I Can’t Get No)Satisfaction.”
And then there were thegroup’s futuristic, radiation uniforms.
It was as if the verydefinition of rock ’n’ roll was under attack from this group from Akron, Ohio,which included Casale (bass/synthesizers), Mark Mothersbaugh (vocals/keyboards),Mark’s brother Bob Mothersbaugh (guitar/keyboards), Gerald’s brother Bob Casale(guitar) and Alan Myers (drums).
Gerald Casale, during a2009 press conference at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas,vividly remembered the initial reaction to Devo.
“We got people upset,”he says. “We were like a lightning rod for hostilities back then, but on anumber of different levelsthat was the interesting thing. Rolling Stone, I remember, they wrote us off as, ‘They don’t evenhave a guitar on every single song. How can they be a rock band?’ Or, ‘Theyused a drum machine on one of their songs. How could you even do that?’ Andthey called us ‘fascists.’ They called us ‘clowns’ in another. Mark and I went,‘Fascist clowns?’ It was a whole idea for another record, Oh No! It’s Devo.”
A few years later, Devodidn’t seem so dangerous. The group’s third album, Freedom of Choice, cracked the mainstream when the single “WhipIt,” with the help of heavy MTV play of its quirky video, became a hit.
But while some merelysaw comic relief and pure entertainment in Devo’s songs and videosrememberthose familiar red flower-pot helmets?the group’s music and lyrics were neverso lighthearted in their intent or their message.
“We had a very dark vision,”Casale says succinctly. “We definitely saw the world crumbling. There wasn’tmuch optimism.”
Today Casale says muchof Devo’s bleak vision has become reality. That, he said, makes 2010 a goodtime for the full-fledged return of Devo, which last released a new record in1990.
It’s against thisbackdrop that Devo returns with Somethingfor Everybody, where, once again using synthesizers as the primaryinstruments, the group turns out inventively entertaining songs with angular,hooky melodies in the tradition of Devo’s catchier, less spastic albums like Freedom of Choice and 1981’s New Traditionalists.
“I think things havedevolved so far that Devo is relevant now in another way,” Casale says. “Nowall we are is in step with the world that we all live in. I’ve often said Devois like the house band on the Titanic,playing familiar tunes that make us feel better as we all go down together.”
Devo closes Summerfest with a 10 p.m. show at the Miller Lite Oasis onSunday, July 4.
