Devo returns with corporate satire (at the Winter Olympics)

CNN ^ | February 17, 2010 | Alan Duke

[a fool in paradise]

...Thirty-five years after the group's first album -- and two decades since its last -- Devo is back with new music and a look to replace their iconic energy dome hats.

Devo will have a world stage for the debut when it performs Monday night, February 22, at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia...

"When you think about 1980, if somebody would have showed you in a crystal ball 2010, you would have thought it was a bad joke," Casale said. "De-evolution happened and now everybody agrees. They don't think we're crazy. They know that it was true."

Devo began after Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh met as art students at Kent State University. The group wrote its first music in May 1970...

...corporate America appears to be the primary target of its social satire.

"We're playing ball with corporate society," Casale said.

The band has re-signed with Warner Brothers Records and hired an ad agency to help shape its image, he said...

Instead of being an art band targeting a niche following, Devo is now using focus groups to choose which songs to include on its next CD and what clothes to wear onstage, he said.

"We want to know what you think," Casale said. "Just like CNN says 'What do you think?' We want to know."

"There's color studies going on, different costumes being shown to people, different mixes of songs, and we're letting people kind of direct us toward a final product," he said.

The goal is for Devo to "penetrate every nook and cranny of our technologically advanced pop culture in the coming year," a recent news release said. "With an arsenal of new songs, videos, fashions, apps, toys, games, live performances and more, we will reach out to create something for everybody..."

[a fool in paradise]

Gex-X PING

[a fool in paradise]

corporate rock and roll ping

[a fool in paradise]

...hired an ad agency to help shape its image...

Instead of being an art band targeting a niche following, Devo is now using focus groups to choose which songs to include on its next CD and what clothes to wear onstage, he said.

"We want to know what you think," Casale said. "Just like CNN says 'What do you think?' We want to know."

"There's color studies going on, different costumes being shown to people, different mixes of songs, and we're letting people kind of direct us toward a final product," he said.

This will be the result:

[Eyes Unclouded]

Whines about corporate influence of society then signs with a huge music corporation. Something about that...

[CharlieOK1]

I’m a big Devo fan, but do they realize everything they have they owe to corporations? Including this recent comeback? Wait, don’t answer that...

[a fool in paradise]

Time-Life-Warner owns Turner-CNN. There was a spin off of WEA (Warner Entertainment) some years back but I don’t know if they still all reside under the same general corporate umbrella.

The “new” payola?

[VastRWCon]

When Obama comes along, you must whip it, into shape, shape up, move forward, it’s not to late, to whip it....

[LibFreeUSA]

[D_Idaho]

LOL!! You may be right from the sound of it. On another note, I saw Devo in concert about 10 years ago. I gotta say it was one of the best I ever saw. Way more energy than I would have assumed for a bunch of geriatric(like me!) rockers.

[a fool in paradise]

“We’re through being through being cool...”

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Instead of being an art band targeting a niche following, Devo is now using focus groups to choose which songs to include on its next CD and what clothes to wear onstage, he said.

LOL - yeah, right. Funny stuff. I remember and love Devo from when I was a kid. And thanks to YouTube, anyone can see how good they were live. There's an excellent set from Paris in the late '70s, showing these guys tearing through "Uncontrollable Urge", "Mongoloid", etc.

[a fool in paradise]

I heard that Mark Mothersbough didn’t rejoin the Devo reunions until last year though.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

I love Devo, even saw them live back in ‘78, but I can’t fathom them playing an Obama fundraiser in 2008. I thought they had better sense than that!

[qam1]

Busy day...

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.

[olepap]

Twist away the gates of steel!
Unlock the secret voice!

Man, I loved this band in the 80’s. Especially Mothersbaugh. He got a job scoring rugrats...

[dfwgator]

I guess you can’t spend your whole life doing kiddie show music.

[RandallFlagg]

In the same chapter, Gary Numan’s still out there making music.
And the guy finally started using a distorted guitar in it as well.

“Haunted,” is one of my favs.

[D_Idaho]

I heard you there. I remember a radio promo for a Morrisey concert that was sponsored by Coca-Cola. The promo was something like “Coca-Cola presents MORRISEY! the anti-hero of a generation.” I remember thinking, So the anti-hero of a generation has a corporate sponsor now. Cool!

[Jack Hydrazine]

It must be the energy domes they wear that make the concert so good.