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idealcopy-digest        Wednesday, May 24 2000        Volume 03 : Number 156



                               Today's Subjects:
                               -----------------
  Devo Redux                                           [george.m.hook@ac.com]
  Re: '80s Bowie all bad ?            ["lucifersam" <lucifersam@supanet.com>]
  Re: Bowie Highs......Lest we Forget...  ["lucifersam" <lucifersam@supanet.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 22:09:15 -0500
From: george.m.hook@ac.com
Subject: Devo Redux

One of Wire's Favorite Groups is also back!  A report from CNN's Web site:

Devo redux: Box set looks back at New Wave pioneers



(Los Angeles Times Syndicate) -- It wasn't the plastic flower pots on the 
musicians' heads that made Devo significant. It was the lively brains
underneath that made the band one of rock's most influential.

Discover or rediscover them through the Rhino CD package "Devo: Pioneers 
Who Got Scalped (An Anthology)."

Despite robotic trappings, this inventive foursome drew from a 
fundamentally humanistic core. Devo co-founder Gerald V. Casale says, "We 
wanted to
show people that precision could be sexy. We wanted to show that five guys 
could put an idea before themselves and all work toward it. What you were
seeing with Devo was the power of cooperation."

The seeds of Devo can be traced to Kent State University in the early '70s. 
Casale taught drawing and design there. He met Mark Mothersbaugh, who was
also involved with the art department. "We started developing an art 
movement called Art Devo," Casale recalls. "It was a joke, like, 'OK, 
there's Art
  Nouveau and Art Deco. Now there's going to be Art Devo."

Devo was short for de-evolution. It was based on the theory that mankind 
was not progressing. Quite the contrary. "Eventually we wondered what
de-evolution music would sound like. We enlisted our brothers to help out, 
and it just evolved -- or devolved, if you will." Casale played bass; Mark
Mothersbaugh, keyboards and guitar. Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale also 
played guitar. Then drummer Alan Myers was added.

'There was taunting'
But in their native Ohio, audiences didn't see it that way at first. With 
electronic sounds, satirical lyrics and costumes that looked like they were
left over from an Ed Wood science fiction flick, Devo anticipated 
resistance. And they got it.

"There was taunting," Gerald Casale says. "We got physically attacked. We 
got stopped after a song or two and thrown out."

Casale describes the band's unique concept: "It was the high meets the low; 
primitive minimalism meets the future. We wanted the drum beats to sound
like a one-armed drummer could do them. We wanted to never make a chord 
change unless we had to. We put all these restrictions on ourselves. Every
sound had to have a reason. We weren't into layering or lush production.

"I guess we were reacting to everything that was going on that we hated -- 
the cult of personality, the ridiculous histrionics of guys with long hair,
  still screaming like hippies long after that culture was gone."

Gradually they built a cult following in Akron and Cleveland. Casale went 
to New York, carrying a single they had recorded in a garage, and posed as
the manager of a hot new group called Devo. He secured bookings in punk 
meccas CBGB's and Max's. A laudatory spread in a rock publication earned wider
  attention. Soon California started calling. Devo moved there.

The group's first single, "Jocko Homo," was released on Devo's own Booji 
Boy label. Next came a stint on U.K. indie Stiff. "With our look and our
message, with lyrics that were about something other than sex and drugs, we 
were initially picked up by the disenfranchised and by more intelligent
people. They embraced Devo as a cult. Then they became horrified at any 
hint of commercialism," Casale says and laughs. "You can't win."

Controlling the image
In '78, they inked a pact with Warner Bros., collaborated with producer 
Brian Eno and created the innovative album "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are
Devo!"

Custom merchandising and marketing became part of Devo's subtly subversive 
approach. "At the time," Casale says, "it was totally misunderstood. People
  in rock didn't market images then. Bands didn't show up in commercials. 
These were rock 'n' roll no-nos. Everything we did was heresy. They didn't
see the irony."

Some cynics didn't look past the gimmickry to find the profundities of 
Devo. "We knew by the way we were being treated that nobody, except the fans,
understood what the hell we were trying to do. We controlled our image and 
that pissed a lot of people off," he continues.

"They didn't see we were playing with the fact that we were signed to a 
huge corporation and were pretending to be independent, rebellious artists. We
  realized it was all a joke. But most radio programmers and critics didn't 
understand what we were playing with. I look at it now and go, 'God, this
is what everybody does now, if they want a voice in the marketplace.' It's 
shameless -- the marketing, merchandising, the photo ops, the E! Channel.
It's insane. Everything that used to be a no-no is now taken to be the 
gospel truth. Nobody bats an eye at it."

The first Devo single to capture the general public's fancy was a cover of 
the Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." "People didn't understand
Devo," Casale explains, "and we thought it would be easier to show them how 
to devolve a standard, a classic. It was kind of like a musical faction of
  the deconstructivist movement in architecture."

Such Devo hits as "Whip It" and "Girl U Want" helped push the band to 
platinum-album status. Casale had expected success. "We were so insulated and
such true believers that it didn't surprise me at all. People don't know 
how long or hard we worked to get there. It's what I felt we deserved. I was
just surprised that it took so long."

Directing Devo's wonderfully weird little films, Casale paved the way for 
music videos. "We pioneered that. We were making videos before there was
MTV. They weren't called music videos then. We thought we were making film 
shorts that told a story about us and the song.

"Anything good can be inverted. Music videos quickly turned into bad 
commercials to promote the egos of lead singers. They're cookie-cutter 
fantasy."

Though Devo made a massive impact, ushering in rock's new wave, band 
members didn't get wealthy from their efforts. "We really were pioneers who got
scalped," Casale says. "We made what we thought were good deals and then 
found out that nobody has to keep them. The rip-offs and lies are
overwhelming. It's a dirty business, one big sado-maso circus."

Slowly, the band's cohesiveness dissolved. "Nobody can kill you from the 
outside unless there are chinks in the armor inside," Casale says. "The
all-for-one, one-for-all, Three Musketeers spirit started eroding into the 
negative aspects of personality and individualism, the things we had been
railing against."

Devo never officially broke up. Its final album to date was 1990's 
"Smoothnoodlemaps." The band has recorded tracks for movie use. In '96, 
Casale, who
  writes screenplays and hopes to helm a feature film someday, directed the 
group in "Adventures of the Smart Patrol," a CD-Rom. Devo occasionally
reassembles for special concerts. The musicians always have been renowned 
for their live extravaganzas.

During the shoe-gazing grunge era, Casale lamented the loss of showmanship. 
"What happened was an inward turn in the culture where all the children of
  dysfunction and all the people with psychological problems had a voice in 
the marketplace, but in a way that was very depressing. It was just
unformed rage. There wasn't a manic energy anymore.

"Devo got people totally crazed. For the whole concert, nobody sat in their 
seats. But they felt good. They felt like someone just gave them a vitamin
  B-12 shot in the (butt). They didn't feel like, 'Yeah, I'm going to kill 
myself now' or 'I'm going out to the parking lot to trash cars and beat the
f--k out of somebody.' That was not the end result of the energy we gave out."

Never heard a good cover.
Today's rock scene doesn't impress Casale. "It's amazing, the emphasis on 
eye-candy pop groups -- 'N Sync, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys --
all this feigned emotion and completely anal, unspontaneous choreography. 
It's so creepy, it's fantastic."

At the other end of the spectrum is Limp Bizkit. Via satellite, Casale 
watched that band exhort the Woodstock '99 crowd to turn vicious. "It's truly
de-evolution. You're looking at these guys who have gone out of their way 
to make themselves really ugly, spewing this disingenuous, completely vapid
rap to the audience.

"It reminded me of 'Island of Lost Souls.' You just heard this guttural 
groan from the crowd and then they started the trouble, as requested. What
else do you expect in a corporate, feudal state?" he ponders. "That is 
exactly the message the media wants to put out -- 'Here's what you're reduced
to: inarticulate beasts with no ideas and no politics.' That's good 
rebellion, because it's totally controllable and it's connected to 
commercialism."


Casale, who directs music videos, not of the cookie-cutter variety, for 
such bands as Soundgarden, Silverchair and the Foo Fighters, mentions Prodigy,
  the Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, Stereolab and Beck among his favorite 
contemporary artists.

Many modern rockers revere Devo. Several bands have covered Devo songs. A 
tribute album, "Freedom of Choice," was recorded. Casale says, "It's pretty
funny about the covers. I've never heard a good one. But I guess that's 
perfect. They're either embarrassingly, deadly earnest or just so bad that
they're not good bad.

"Devo was exquisitely stupid. But we knew we were being stupid, whereas a 
lot of people are stupid and don't realize it. There's a big difference."

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 07:11:38 +0100
From: "lucifersam" <lucifersam@supanet.com>
Subject: Re: '80s Bowie all bad ?

Not too bad....Hardly "Heroes" though is it..
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: sean bowen <sean.j.bowen@ukgateway.net>
To: ideal copy <idealcopy@smoe.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 9:47 PM
Subject: '80s Bowie all bad ?


>      I liked 'This is not America' with Pat Metheny band.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 07:10:24 +0100
From: "lucifersam" <lucifersam@supanet.com>
Subject: Re: Bowie Highs......Lest we Forget...

Nice additions sir........
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: <george.m.hook@ac.com>
To: lucifersam <lucifersam@supanet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2000 5:27 AM
Subject: Re: Bowie Highs......Lest we Forget...


> 
> 11.  Honourary Mentions
>        "Drive in Saturday"
>        "Rebel Rebel"
>         "John I'm only Dancing"
>        "Loving The Alien"
>         "Cracked Actor"
>         "7 years in Tibet"
>         "Little Wonder"
>         "Bewley Brothers"
>         "Quicksand"
>         "Boys keep Swinging"
> 
> And may I add:
> 
> DJ
> Panic in Detroit
> Diamond Dogs
> Jean Genie
> 
> 
> Nice list, I agree with it more than Bowie "Lows."
> 

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End of idealcopy-digest V3 #156
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