#442 - DEVO - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO (1978)

MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:

Released on August 28th, 1978 and produced by Brian Eno, this is the debut album by Akron, Ohio new wave, post-punk, art rock, band Devo.

Devo consisted of two sets of brothers; vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist Mark Mothersbaugh (Mothersbaw) and his brother Bob (aka Bob 1) on lead guitar and vocals; and vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist Gerald Casale (Jerald Casali) and his brother Bob (aka Bob 2) on rhythm guitar, keyboards, and vocals; and Alan Meyer on drums.

The band evolved from a jokey concept that musicians Gerald Casale and his friend Bob Lewis came up with while they were art students at Kent State University in Ohio in the late ‘60s.

According to their idea of “De-evolution” humankind had stopped evolving forward and had started to regress due to various dysfunctions and herd mentality.

Around 1970 they met fellow musician and Kent State art student Mark Mothersbaugh who brought more of a sense of humor when he joined them in their art project that mixed the lofty ideas of art and literature like the European avant-garde Dada Movement with the most crass expressions of pop-culture like fast food mascots.

However on May 4th, 1970 their whimsical vision of De-evolution became deadly serious when, during a mass protest on the Kent State campus against the U.S. bombing of Cambodia, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students.

Nine students were injured and four were killed including Gerald Casale’s friends Jeffrey Miller and Allison Krause, who Casale was standing next to when she was shot.

He described that event as the day he cut his hair and stopped being a hippie and it became the catalyst for Devo’s musical debut in 1973.

Although originally formed as the “Sextet Devo” with a fluid roster of players before slimming down to five and then four members Devo played their theatrical and often confrontational performances at art festivals and gigs around Ohio until 1976 when they added drummer Alan Meyer to become the quintet that recorded this record.

It was also 1976 when the band had two of their songs, a cover of Johnny Rivers’ hit, “Secret Agent Man” and their original, “Jocko Homo”, featured in the short film, “The Truth About De-Evolution”, directed by Chuck Statler.

In 1977 the film won a prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival which brought Devo to the attention of David Bowie and Iggy Pop who then championed for them to get a recording contract.

After the band put out a couple independent singles Bowie had announced that he would be producing their debut record in Japan in 1978 but due to a scheduling conflict he got his friend and producer Brian Eno to fill in.

Eno was so confident that the unsigned band would be successful that he flew them to Cologne, Germany, put them up, and covered their recording costs.

The band often struggled for power with Eno over their visions for the songs.

Still Bowie came by to help when he could and remixed most of the record.

Eventually Devo were signed to Warner Brothers Records and this debut was released.

Besides asking the question: “Are we not men?” it also dealt with understanding urges, feelings, dissatisfaction, praying, and paranoia. It was quirky, cold, punky, fresh, nostalgic, and both funny: “ha ha” and funny: peculiar.

A couple months later in October of 1978 the band got national exposure when they played on Saturday Night Live.

While many focused on the iconic, yellow, plastic, jumpsuits they wore rather than their quirky, angular, and very original take on rock and roll it still helped their debut go to number 78 on the Billboard chart and began their substantial career.

Devo has continued for many more albums and videos and several line up changes to this day.

Sadly former-drummer Alan Meyer passed away in 2013 followed by guitarist Bob (Bob 2) Casale in 2014.