“In this past information has been suppressed, but now it can be told. Every man, woman and mutant, on this planet shall know the truth about de-evolution”. The segment from General Boy played by Robert Mothersbaugh (father of Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh) speaks volume. The kind of attitude that Devo had with their stage presence, influences, theory, and their views of human nature in what they sang about.
The new documentary, released on Netflix and directed by Chris Smith (Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, Fyre, and American Movie), details a band who have been around for 52 years that formed in the aftermath of the Kent State shootings which occurred back on May 4th in 1970, were a band that pushed the envelope and were way ahead of their time.
Whether it was their surrealism, humour, dadaism, post-punk, new wave, or their usage of the synthesizers, they didn’t play the corporate rule book. They gave the corporate rule book the giant middle finger and threw it into the fire. They are not men, they are Devo!
But it’s more than just their 1980 hit single ‘Whip It’, the fellow Akron-based maestros made albums that were in your face, giving you the full detail on what was happening in the modern world, the expressionism, and their sense of questions of the confrontations to explore. They grew up in the States, they saw the chaos, and it inflicted in them. And sometimes, the message wasn’t gotten to the public.
They were way ahead of their time, and ahead of the ball game when they formed. I first became aware of Devo, thanks to the soundtrack to the 1981 adult-animated cult-classic Heavy Metal, based on the adult illustrated fantasy magazine which featured bands such as Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, and Grand Funk Railroad. It proved to me that animation wasn’t just for kids, and giving Mickey Mouse, the big giant middle finger and saying Fuck You to Disney.
Hearing Devo’s ‘Working in the Coal Mine’, was like a breath of fresh air. Here I was, 11 years old, listening to the soundtrack again and again, it was the quirkiness, the surrealism, and their take of the Lee Dorsey classic was in your face. I didn’t know what Punk was at the time, but after buying Devo’s Greatest Hits in 1996, then Oh No!, It’s Devo in 1997, I knew this was the music that speaking to me.
And now, writing this review and watching the documentary, it made me have clear identity of what Devo was trying to get the word out on how fucked up the world really was. After the incident that occurred at Kent State, Mark and Gerald felt like they were fugitives in this dystopian world as people started saying that the students should have been killed.
Gerald became angry, pissed, and determined on the concept behind “De-Evolution”. They took nods to the literary movement and art movement from art history, expressions of pop culture, the surreal dadaism between the first and second world war in Europe. As someone mentions in the documentary, “The beginnings of Dada were not the beginnings of art, but of disgust”. And of course, the work of Andy Warhol and the experimental avant-proto-punk rock group, The Velvet Underground.
With nods from Oscar Kiss Maerth’s The Beginning Was The End, who showed theories about De-evolution, which described how man came from cannibalistic apes, biting brains from other apes, insanity, and growing faster. And films such as the 1960 film Inherit the Wind starring Spencer Tracy, clips from Night of the Living Dead, and the 1932 cult classic Island of Lost Souls featuring Bela Lugosi and Charles Laughton.
This is where the ingredients of Devo were beginning. There’s rare footage of their first performance in 1973 at Kent State where they do a ‘Headache solo’, you can tell audiences were annoyed and walked out from the same loop on the keyboards. Devo wanted to push that envelope with performance art.
When you listen to the Hardcore-era of Devo from ’74 to ’77, you can tell the direction of what they wanted to do and how they were going to do it which was way out there, and I can tell there’s some tips of the energy dome hats to the krautrock genre in what they were doing. There are the surviving members from Bob Mothersbaugh, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Gerald Casale being interviewed and archival clips from the late Bob Casale, manager Elliot Roberts (co-founder of Asylum Records with David Geffen), and brief moments from Alan Myers who was the heart and soul of Devo before departing after the Shout album was unleashed in 1984.
It was also great seeing the footage of the band performing at Max’s Kansas City in ’77 after being introduced by the chameleon maestro, David Bowie, who along with Iggy Pop and Brian Eno were champions of Devo. But also, rare footage of the band playing at the Crypt that same year, right between Firestone and Goodrich, were heckled by bar patrons, telling bar owners that they were a cover band doing Bad Company songs, but doing their own songs. Not to mention behind the scenes footage of the music videos they were doing.
The balls on them after someone telling them to fuck off, Mark says “Here’s some more hippie music.” Devo had the balls to keep going. The thing with Devo, was simple, they were never a punk band. According to Gerald in the doc, “We didn’t like being called punk simply because it wasn’t just nihilism, which we thought were simple-minded and silly to look at, but that’s what Devo was making fun of. That’s what the irony was about”.
As he told Tony Wilson on the TV show So It Goes, “We’re the fluid in the punk enema bag”. Then, going from their appearance on SNL which was hosted by the late Fred Willard, their first five albums, turning the table on the interviewers, signing with Warner Bros. Records, recording the first album in Germany at Conny Plank’s Studio in Cologne, you get the idea.
Mark is still composing music for TV, video games and films from Rugrats, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Mitchells vs The Machines, and Ratchet & Clank: Drift Apart. Gerald would direct music videos ranging from Rush, Soundgarden, and Foo Fighters, and owns his own wine brand called 50 by 50, and Bob (Mark’s brother) has worked on scores for TV alongside Rugrats with his brother, but also The Wild Thornberrys, All Grown Up!, Harvey Beaks, and Beat Bugs.
While Devo are on their farewell tour which is called the “Cosmic De-Evolution tour” which includes 11 dates in the States that begins in late September of this year and sharing a bill with The B-52s, the documentary I wish it could’ve been a little bit longer, but it is almost a perfect introduction to the band’s music if you’re very new to the sound and wonders of Devo’s music.
The Smart Patrol’s legacy will live on and inspire the next generation of musicians to hopefully follow in their footsteps. Say it once, “ARE WE NOT MEN? WE ARE DEVO!” Perfect, now we’re rolling.
