I have touched upon my relationship with the band Devo before, and I guess it is time to further explore this a bit more.
My initial introduction to the band was a library copy of the 1981 LP New Traditionalists. Sure I had heard “Whip It” on the radio, but it wasn’t until the summer of 1982 that I heard a full album and was struck with just how different the sound was. I was still in the throws of my “classic rock” phase, and would be for quite some time, but that album stayed with me. Literally. I wound up paying the replacement fee rather than return it.
The album’s lead track was a declaration, and one I identified with. Be yourself. Here it is, “Through Being Cool”
Along with the music there was a visual component to the band. This was a group that truly embraced the medium of the short form music video as well as the long form. There would be a few VHS tapes released that would string together some of the various shorts together with a theme, usually railing against corporate overlords, conformity, or just getting the girl.
It wasn’t until the late 80s that I truly got into the band. After a brief hiatus the band returned with 1988’s Total Devo, By this time I had become a fan of the band, acquiring a couple of albums, but this was the one that cemented it for me. Heck, I even have a tattoo taken from this album cover.
The follow-up, 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps included the song that would inspire this blog’s title.
It wasn’t until 1996 that I would get to see the band. After another hiatus, one that was much longer with only sporadic output the band sort of returned in force with a CD-ROM project and soundtrack, Adventures Of The Smart Patrol as well as having new recordings on the soundtracks to SuperCop and The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie – the latter of which includes one of the best and underrated songs in the whole of the DEVO catalog – “Are You Ready?”
The Lollapalooza lineup in 1996 I saw included Devo, The Ramones, Rancid, and several others. We left before the headliners (Metallica) came on. We were there to see Devo and The Ramones. It was a fantastic, if short, set, and I had begun hunting for all the appearances the band had accrued on various soundtracks and whatnot.
Another period of dormancy followed.
Of course this was followed by another period of output a few years later, including a full tour, which is when I got to see the band again. Then after a long time a new, full, proper album was released. Something For Everybody is easily one of the best Devo albums, and I say this not because I’m a fan, but because it really is a great cohesive batch of songs. The sort of follow-up, a collection of demos and rejects, Something Else For Everybody, clearly isn’t up to the same level, despite being enjoyable. I have probably listened to Something For Everybody more over the last couple of years than I have New Traditionalists over the last 20. Here is “Please Baby Please” from Something For Everybody.
And after some setbacks the band is set to tour, perhaps for the last time. It will be my third time seeing Devo, and in a capacity I am very excited about. Instead of revisiting just the old hits, the band will be revisiting their roots with pre-record deal versions of their songs as well as some numbers that never made it to wide circulation. But that is a blog post for the second part, next week.