Devo

About Devo

O-hi-o's favorite sons Devo have always been half performance art project, have new wave hit makers. The synthesizer-based combo made a reputation for themselves with anti-commercialist lyrics, jittery and discordant guitar riffs and offbeat time signatures. Their science fiction fetish live gigs added to their growing underground reputation. At the height of their 80's popularity, DEVO would perform deadpan shows dressed in matching yellow radiation suits and bizarre hats. The band's name comes from an art student joke between bassist Gerard Cassale and lead guitarist Bob Lewis. As a prank, they released a series of pamphlets and art projects dedicated to their theory of on the "Devoltuion" of mankind. But the joke turned serious when the Ohio national guard shot four students protesting Nixon's invasion of Cambodia on the Kent State campus. Cassale was close friends with two of the murdered students and the earliest Devo recordings are marked with a brittle, dark humor inspired but the event. They joined up with synth-geeks the Mothersbaugh brothers-Mark, Jim and Bob-and the group began performing their confrontational music at art festivals and in underground clubs. They developed their reputation as weird punks with glasses and, in 1976, they caught the attention of David Bowie and Iggy Pop at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Bowie championed the band and got them signed to Warner Bros. Records. Their 1978 debut, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! got the band mainstream attention with a stiff, synth-based cover of The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" and also included two of the band's signature tunes, "Jocko Homo" and "Mongoloid." Devo's biggest mainstream success came on 1980's Freedom of Choice with their robo-sexual single "Whip It" and the song's accompanying, S&M-meets-Americana MTV video.