The Devo Faq

[Faq Boy]

THE

DEVO

FAQ!

Last-revision: 2-Feb-1996



Maintained by Raju Tavadia, dr...@escape.com. My old CUNYVM address is
dead, please don't send anything to that address now.

Although I don't post on alt.fan.devo all that much, rest assured that
I *am* reading it and keeping up-to-date with all things devolved.
Please, check the Last-Revision date above before you complain about
a "glaring omission" from this FAQ. And make sure the facts you mail
me really aren't here - you'd be surprised at what people have told me
isn't in here. Anyway, I'm going to try updating this every 6 months
or so from now on. I decided not to waste your time with pretty
pictures and instead opted to toss in as many links as possible.
Please let me know if any of the URLs change.

Enough of this stuff, spuds.


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CONTENTS:

[1] Lineups and Genetic Imperatives
[2] Video Releases
[3] Mutato Muzika
[4] Devo's World Service
[5] Devo Performing On TV
[6] Devo In Print
[7] "THE LASERDISC!"
[8] Info From Jerry Casale
[9] Covers of Devo Tunes
[10] Devo's Instruments
[11] Misc. Info and References in our Neo-Pre-Macro-Post-Modern
Society
[12] More Devo
[13] More Devo You Get To Pay For
[14] Contributors



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[1] Lineups and Genetic Imperatives:

1974-early 1976: Mark Mothersbaugh (voices, synths), Gerald V. "Jerry"
Casale (bass, vox), Bob Mothersbaugh (guitar) and Jim Mothersbaugh
(homemade electronic drums). Jim eventually went to work for Roland
(one of the top electronic musical instrument companies in the world)
and he is listed as a technical consultant on Total Devo. Roland
equipment figured, uh, *kind* of prominently on that album.

late 1976-1985: Mark (voices, synths), Jerry (bass, vox), Bob "Bob 1"
Mothersbaugh (lead guitar), Bob "Bob 2" Casale (rhythm guitar), and
Alan Myers (all kinds of drums, none of them homemade).

1986-1990: Alan Myers replaced by David Kendrick, friend of Bob 2.
Dave was formerly in a band called Sparks, which was a something of a
merge between two other bands called Bates Motel and Gleaming Spires
(members of one band were "lent" to the other on occasion.) The
"Somewhere With Devo" song on Now It Can Be Told is from Gleaming
Spires' cover tune. Jim Mothersbaugh was a tech for Sparks in 1984
before Kendrick went to Devo. Alan left the band because he saw his
role diminishing as electronic drums became predominant. He now plays
drums in his wife's band, Babushka. He's also an electrical/sound
technician.

Bob 1 has sung lead on "Secret Agent Man", "37", "Baby Talkin'
Bitches", "Midget", and also sings backing vox. We used to think Bob 2
sang on "Blow Up", "Working In A Coalmine" and "Bread & Butter", but
it's been suggested that It's Not Right; it could be Mark,
pitch-shifting his voice. I kind of doubt this:
NedWard94 proposed that they used a pitch-shifter, but that that
screwed up the timing, so they sampled every word and played them
back into phrases. That doesn't sound right to me, because I've
played with my own and cum up with a similar effect, and the
timing is just fine. Anyhow, pitch-shifting doesn't explain
"Working In A Coal Mine" which was way back in the Seventies when
(as far as I know) no such device existed. They could have slowed
down the tape with the vocals on it, but then that would result in
timing headaches, which might be fixed by splicing tape. But I'm
pretty sure it wouldn't.

At any rate we can see him shouting "We are Devo!" on the The Men Who
Make The Music videotape. At least he contributed that much.

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[2] Video (Compilation) Releases:

The Men Who Make The Music (1980 Warner Bros, originally from
Time-Life) VHS
We're All Devo (1990 Rhino, originally 1983 Sony) VHS
The Complete Truth About Devolution (1993 Voyager) Laserdisc only

Each of these compilations has unique videos and ones that can be seen
on one or both of the other two, so you've simply got to buy all of
them. :-) Links to shopping areas are at the end of this FAQ.

Video Characters:

Booji Boy: Himself (actually Mark Mothersbaugh)
General Boy: Robert L. Mothersbaugh, Sr.
Rod Rooter: Michael Schwartz
Donut Rooter: Larraine Newman
Dr. Byrthfood: Dr. Timothy Leary
Spazz Attack (from the "Satisfaction" video): Craig Allen Rothwell
Daddy Know-It-All: Earl "Petie" Peterson

Chuck Statler generally helps out on production/direction. He is not a
member of the band (nor is Jerry's name "Corsalis") as "reported" in
Wired magazine.

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[3] Mutato Musika:

Mutato Muzika is Mark's own label; Bob Casale and Bob Mothersbaugh
work with him. Mark and Bob 1 write the music, Bob 2 engineers it.
Denis M. Hannigan often works on the same shows as Mark, and emails
his MIDI data to Mutato via America Online. They're doing quite well
finding contracts these days. Their address is:

Mutato Muzika
2164 Sunset Plaza Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(213) 650-0561

Their web site is http://www.mutato.com/Mutato. It requires lots of
Netscape plug-ins, but it's certainly worth it!! Currently available
are copies of the books "What I Know, Volume 1" (Mark's art &
autobiography, $20 plus s/h) and Booji Boy's "My Struggle" (red cover
and gold title, $50 plus s/h). Music For The Gallery is Mark's new CD:
CD: 1994 US (Mutmuz Records; MUTMUZ 0001) [first 500 with custom covers]
Syntax Error (gallery mix)
Syntax Error (big dirty farmer edit)
Syntax Error (sedadundundun edit)
Clowns Ahoy! (gallery mix)
Clowns Ahoy! (funhouse edit)
Clowns Ahoy! (recreational vehicle edit)
Clowns Ahoy! (cocktail weiner edit)
Welcome To The Peekaboo Room

You can buy all this stuff at any gallery showing Mark's art, and soon
you will be able to order from the web site.

TV Credits:

Mark has been nominated for about 3 Emmys!
* A recent MIX magazine interview with Mark mentions that Mutato has
scored commercials for Lifesavers and McDonald's. There is also
the infamous Coca-Cola commercial with the words "submit" and
"obey" hidden in the jingle. Current clients include Nike and
7-Up.
* "12 Months", Russian animation from the 50's with a new score by
Mark.
* "Kevin's Kitchen" and "Santo Bugito". "Rugrats": Mark provided the
voices of "Jingle Reptar" and "Singer" in season one. He and Denis
M. Hannigan score both "Rugrats" and the "Weinerville" series on
Nickelodeon.
* "Liquid Television" on MTV. Mark did the theme music, and himself
and Bob 1 sometimes work on music for the animated shorts as well.
* Mark and Bob 1 are "touching up" old Popeye soundtracks.
* "Strange Luck", "Great Scott" (Mark sang for this one, and at
first I thought it was Jane's Addiction!), "Medicine Ball" and
"Sliders" (with Denis, though he's uncredited) on Fox. Mark has
directed at least one episode of Sliders. Dennis McCarthy (former
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" composer) scored the two-part
pilot and Mark took over for the series. Also "AJ Timetraveler"
(?!) and "Too Something".
* "Muscle" on the WB network.
* "Davis Rules" from ABC to CBS to cancellation. He sang a little
(in "scat" style, that "bippity-bop-bop-ba-doo" stuff) at the end
of the intro theme. Plus "Dumb & Dumber".
* The short-lived "Mann and Machine" (ran from April to August 1992)
and the "Perpetually Grinning Man" saturday-morning bumpers,
featuring Mark as the voice of PGM, on NBC.
* "Pee Wee's Playhouse", including "Pee Wee's Christmas Special"
which is on video. You know why this was cancelled. Also
"Beakman's World" with Denis Hannigan, which is doing quite well
so far on CBS. It's now turned to Mark, Rusty Andrews, Josh
Mancell, David Kendricks, and John Dentino. The new "Felix the
Cat" starts this fall on CBS and MutMuz is rumored to be involved.
* From Denis himself:

Music for "Adventures in Wonderland" [on The Disney Channel] was
done by a lot of song writers including Bob Mothersbaugh & Bill
Mumy. The underscore on 100 shows was pretty much split by Denis M.
Hannigan (42 shows) & Rusty Andrews (most of the balance).
Also Mark and Denis on Disney's "The New Shaggy Dog" TV-movie.
* "FutureQuest" on PBS.
* The children's video "Frosty Returns" (with Denis). He also did
"Will Vinton's Claymation Easter," which featured Mark as the
voice of the Easter Bunny; At one point in the show, Mark actually
sang a song! I am kicking myself for not taping this the first
time I saw it, since I haven't yet seen a rerun, and this aired a
few years ago.

Movies:

* The new Adam Sandler movie (he plays a golfing idiot) was scored
by Mark.
* "She Fought Alone" by Mark.
* "Four Rooms" was recorded by Combustible Edison at Mutato Muzika,
produced by Mark, and engineered by Bob 2.
* "It's Pat", about the androgynous Saturday Night Live character
(with Denis).
* "Flesh Suitcase".
* Two tracks on "The New Age": "Peter and Katherine's Theme" and
"Flower Shop Muzika".

CD-ROM:

* Fox Hunt, from Capcom (with Denis).
* Johnny Mnemonic.

Art:

* Mark's "postcard" works are touring galleries right now.
* Mark did the cover art for one of Henry Rollins' albums (Hot
Animal Machine) and Rollins' book, "Pissing In the Gene Pool."
* He also has at least one work in "Revelation X", the new Church of
the SubGenius book.

Other Stuff:

* Mark is a member of Keyboard magazine's advisory board,
effectively putting him in the company of other keyboard legends
such as Chick Corea and Keith Emerson.
* The Sept. '95 issue of Wired has a small article on Mark and
MutMuz.
* Mark is a member of the Church of the SubGenius; he appears in the
"Arise" videotape and has done a version of "Beautiful World" for
them (using the word "BoB" for each note) on the "Ear Of Bob"
album.

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[4] Devo's World Service

Devo (the entire band) has done some extracurricular work as well:

Music:

* A side project called "Visiting Kids", where Mark+Jerry+Bob 1
played instruments and their children sang. It's distributed by
New Rose Records (Rose 230 CD). The video for their Big Single
"Trilobites" is in the Bootleg Archive. Incidentally, Alex
Mothersbaugh is pictured on the cover of Shout - Bob 1's daughter.
Alex Casale is thanked on smoothnoodlemaps as being born on March
5th, 1990. Nancy(e?) Ferguson was a member of the Visiting Kids,
(obviously one of the older ones) and Mark has been married to her
since about 1993. I'm guessing she's one of the girls in the liner
for Now It Can Be Told, since they both match her description.
She's also in the "Disco Dancer" video.
* Toni Basil's Word Of Mouth album was produced by Devo and some of
the boys played on the album. There were covers of "Pity You", "Be
Stiff", and "Space Girl Blues". Spazz Attack performed in the "Be
Stiff" video.
* Jerry directed some other bands' videos, including:
+ Foo Fighters (Dave "Nirvana drummer" Grohl's new band, also
featuring Pat "Sometimes Nirvana backing guitarist" Smear).
The name of the video is "I'll Stick Around". An MTV
interview with Grohl revealed that he picked up "We're All
Devo" and was amazed by what he saw. He found Jerry's name
under the directing credit and approached him. Dave "wanted
to make a video like a Devo video - without being a parody of
one."
+ Jane Siberry: "One More Colour"
+ The Cars: "Touch & Go" & "Panorama"
+ Rush: "Mystic Rhythms" (from Power Windows) &
"Superconductor" (from Presto)
* They sang backup on Jermaine Jackson's "Let Me Tickle Your Fancy".
* Martini Ranch was a band with Bill Paxton (he played "Hudson" in
the movie "Aliens") and Andrew Todd. Bob Casale produced the track
"How Can The Laboring Man Find Time For Self-Culture?", while Mark
and Alan played on it. Mark sang additional vocals on one other
track, "Fat-Burning Formula". Ivan Ivan, who remixed a lot of
Devo's later material produced two other unrelated-to-Devo tracks.
The album was called Holy Cow. The disc is out of production but a
12" mix of "How Can The Laboring Man..." appears on the Just Say
Yo compilation disc, the second disc of the Just Say Yes series.
* Bob 2 produced the band "Barnes & Barnes", who wrote that "Fish
heads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads" song.
* The Mothersbaugh brothers are featured on one song on the album
called Nosferatu, done by Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers and
former Captain Beefheart drummer Robert Williams in the late 70's.
The name of the song is "Rhythmic Itch", which Mark helped write.
It's on Liberty/United records cat # UAG 30251.
* Mark and Booji made an appearance in The Boogie Boys' "You Ain't
Fresh" video.

TV:

* "Rudy Coby, The World's Coolest Magician" used "Puppet Boy" in his
1995 (94 if you're English) TV special.
* They did commercials for Honda Scooters and Coca Cola in the
eighties.
* "Uncontrollable Urge" was used in an episode of "21 Jump Street"
centered around some M.I.T. nerds.

Movies:

* "Whip It" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" were used in Martin
Scorcese's 1995 movie, "Casino".
* Devo starred with Tawny Kitaen and Jamie Farr in a 1987 movie
called "Happy Hour".
* A new song, "Are You Ready?!" is on the Mighty Morphin Power
Rangers (1995) sountrack and is featured prominently during a
fight scene in the movie.
* "Girl U Want" was completely reworked, rerecorded, and played over
the opening credits of "Tank Girl" (1995). The sountrack CD has
Mark's vocals, but the movie uses a version with female vocals.
* "Pink Jazz Trancers" is used in "Big Meat Eaters".
* "Bread and Butter" for "Nine and a Half Weeks". This one is easily
availible on the soundtrack album; However, the liner from the CD
says that the song does not appear in the US theatrical version of
the film.
* "Let's Talk" for "Fright Night."
* "Theme From Dr. Detroit" and "Luv Luv" for "Dr. Detroit"
("Theme..." has a video on We're All Devo but not The Complete
Truth...)
* There is a Swedish version of "Baby Doll" on the soundtrack from a
movie called "Tapeheads". Sins...@admin.uh.edu (Doug) says:

The two main charcters (the tape heads) are hired to produce a video
of "Baby Doll" for a Swedish band. It's presented as an original
tune, rather than a Devo cover. The song appears nearly in it's
entirety as a big Sweedish guy and his band have paint poured and
sprayed on them. Pretty good movie. Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedy's
fame makes a cameo as an FBI agent.
* They also worked with Toni Basil on the soundtrack to
"Slaughterhouse Rock". Brian Larson wrote:

Anyway, Devo did the music for it (that's what the credits say, but
I suspect it's more like Mark Mothersbaugh did the music). It's
mostly just electronic background music as the undead are biting off
heads and (in one memorable scene) punching fists through a guy's
face all the way through the back of his head. There was one song in
the movie that Toni Basil (of "Hey Nikki you're so fine..." fame)
sings. This song is pretty good, but I don't remember it. It is
heard several times throughout the movie. This song was written by
Devo but not performed by them for the movie.
* Devo was featured in the Neil Young film "The Human Highway". This
is where the footage used in the video "A Worried Man" comes from.
They had Booji singing "Hey Hey My My" with Neil and they also did
"Come Back Jonee". A quote from Denis C Warburton:

The film "Human Highway" was a film by Neil Young. It starred Devo,
Dennis Hopper, the guy who played Al in "Quantum Leap" (sorry, I
can't remember his name at the moment), and of course, Booji Boy. It
was originally billed as a nuclear comedy. What it actually turned
out to be was a really pathetic film, although there is some great
Devo footage in the film ("Worried Man" song, misc. bits w/ the spud
boys & Booji, and "Come Back Jonee" live footage from Mahubay
Gardens, and Booji & the spud boys playing some song with Neil
Young.) You can get a copy of this movie from the Devo Bootleg
Archive, although I recently heard (I believe it was this newsgroup)
that "Human Highway" was going to be released on video sometime in
the near future... Bottom line: Devo parts are good, the rest of the
film sucks.
There's an article on the film in the Aug 19, 1995 issue of Billboard;
Devo's mentioned a lot. The video has finally been released and
should cost you under $20. It's been re-edited, so now the Devo
parts are longer and the really horrible parts are shorter. Oh
yeah, I've heard that Neil made everything up the night before
each scene was shot.
* "Spirit of '76" info, from robert@nfinity:

Also, DEVO did cameo in this movie "The Spirit of '76", the one
about the future people who try to time travel to 1776 to retrieve
the constitution to save the future. Instead they wind up in 1976.
Mark, Bob, Gerald (I think), and David Kendrick are all in the film
at the beginning and end. I *think* David Kendrick had an actual
part. They were in the credits as "Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO!"
* "Pray-TV".
* There was a band dressed up as Devo in "Revenge of the Nerds", and
for the second movie Mark and Jerry wrote tunes and had Devo
perform them.
* Devo is also rumored to have written a complete soundtrack for a
movie version of William Gibson's "Neuromancer" novel. The movie
was never made. Some people say they released the songs as an EP,
but this is doubtful. "Some Things Never Change" from Total Devo
was sampled in the intro screen for the Neuromancer computer game
and was used in an instrumental version as the background music
for the entire game. My best guess would be that they included the
songs from the would-be movie on the Total Devo album, which is
why it is so long (52 min. CD instead of the usual 30-35 min.
albums--although we must consider that they had four years to work
on it!). Some more info comes from JoeRo:

I talked to Gibson about this a couple of years ago. The movie was
never made. The guys who optioned the movie rights for Neuromancer
were "complete amateurs" according to Gibson (apparently they named
their production company Cabana Boys Co because that's what their
last day jobs were!) Unfortunately Gibson at the time was almost as
clueless about this part of the game as they were and sold the
rights to the wrong people for less than they were worth. However,
they revert back to him after some years (I don't recall how many)
so he may eventually get a movie made. Too late for Devo, though.
Maybe not. I don't know how successful the "Johnny Mnemonic" movie
eventually was, but at the time of its release I started hearing
rumors that Gibson was going to finally get Neuromancer to the
silver screen because of "Johnny". Supposedly, this was why the
"Molly" character was written out of JM; something about legal
troubles if she was used in Neuromancer. I just asked Interplay if
they planned to rerelease or redo the game, but they said they had
no such plans. Maybe if a movie actually gets made, they'll change
their tune.
* Devo was in the movie "Urgh...A Music War" doing "Uncontrollable
Urge" live.
* They (sort of) appeared in the film "Heavy Metal". A spudly band
performs "Through Being Cool" towards the end of the movie, and
"Working In A Coal Mine" is played over the closing credits.

CD-ROM:

* A Devo CD-ROM is in the works: Eric Solorio says:
I saw this at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last
weekend and I thought that you should know...If you don't
already know...So here it is direct from the WarnerActive
Inscape CD-ROM label. For a dealer near you or to bug them
about a specific release date, call 1-800-MY DEALER or
1-800-693-3253. Their spokesperson said that they just made
the deal a few weeks ago.

--Begin promo ad--

Devo PRESENTS ADVENTURES OF THE SMART PATROL

Inscape's Fall 1995 release on MPC/Windows and Mac is the
timely and totally deranged, "Devo Presents Adventures of the
Smart Patrol." (TM) Now that we have Beavis and Butthead who
needs devolution anymore? In fact, we need it more than
ever! And you'll get plenty of it when inscape brings you
Devo's interactive, live action, surrealistic adventure in
Spudland - a land created for you by the "whip it" boys where
new diseases, virtual drugs and subhumans abound at every
twisted turn. Can Boogie Boy and the Smart Patrol recapture
Turkey Monkey, the hideous recombinant beast, before the evil
Rod Rooter of Big Entertainment gets him first? You'll
laugh, you'll cry, and you may even escape this ROM-mare
before you contract the dreaded disease that turns your bones
to jelly.

--End promo ad--

There you have it. The band is said to be directly involved.
Should be interesting. The promo they made for it features
"Mechanical Man" and a visual of the turkey monkey, a turkey
with a monkey head, on the loose.
Quoted from another Inscape news release:

[Jerry] Casale is the software's author and overall creative
director; [Mark] Mothersbaugh developed the CD-ROM's audio track and
music.
The release date has been pushed back to January 1996.

The big news: the CD-ROM's soundtrack will be released on audio CD when the
game ships! There will also be a single released titled, "That's What He Said"!

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[5] Devo Performing on TV

* Saturday Night Live: Twice; the first was October 18, 1978 when
they played "Satisfaction", and the second one was during the oh
no! it's DEVO era (The boys sang "That's Good" and shot rubber
chickens out of the air during the "POP!" parts in the song.)
* The Merv Griffin Show (around '81-'82): They wore the plastic
hairpieces and gave one to Merv. The first time, they did "Freedom
Of Choice", "Whip It", and "Snowball". The second time, they
performed "Jerkin' Back 'n Forth" and "Working In a Coalmine" on
treadmills and showed the video for "Beautiful World".
* Mike Douglas: "Whip It" lip-synched
* Square Pegs: "That's Good"
* Late Night with David Letterman: During the oh no! it's Devo era.
* The (pre) Halloween TV concert in 3-D, broadcast to various
college campuses on 10/30/82.
* The King Biscuit Flower Hour: The Devo Live 1980 EP was recorded
at the Fox Warfield for broadcast on the show. I saw an interview
with Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum who said that that was
the first concert he ever attended.
* Solid Gold: "Peek-a-Boo", where they were all playing the wrong
instruments for the "live" performance.
* Fridays: Three times, once doing "Girl U Want" and "Gates Of
Steel", once doing "Whip It" and "Uncontrollable Urge", and the
third time doing the "NuTra Theme", "Jerkin' Back N Forth", and
"Working In A Coal Mine". "Through Being Cool" was also performed
with a special intro by "DOVE, the band of Love" (a semi-common
DEVO disguise):

Jesus by the river bed-ooooh
Jesus lay down by me-oooh
Jesus by the river bed-oooh
Jesus came into me
Now I saw Jesus in the morning by the burning bush
I saw Jesus in the afternoon too-oooo
I saw Jesus at dinner swimming in my stew
that Jesus, he's everywhere
* Don Kirschner's Rock Concert: Video: "The Day My Baby Gave Me A
Surprize", then live "Secret Agent Man" and "Blockhead", then an
excerpt from The Men Who Make The Music, live "Mongoloid" and
"Uncontrollable Urge", finishing with the video for "Devo
Corporate Anthem" (which is just the five of them saluting).

Many of these performances can be had from the Devo Bootleg Archive.

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[6] Devo In Print

* "The Beginning Was The End", by Oscar Kiss Maerth has the exact
same cover as Now It Can Be Told, right down to the phrase "How
Man Came Into Being Through Cannibalism - Intelligence Can Be
Eaten." It's basically a racist-trying-to-be-scientific kinda
deal, according to those who've read it. The Library Of Congress
data looks like this:

(First entry)
Maerth, Oscar Kiss, 1914-
The beginning was the end; translated from the German by Judith Hayward.
London, Joseph, 1973. 236, [16] p. illus. 23 cm.
LC CALL NUMBER: GN281.4 .M313 1973
SUBJECTS:
Human Evolution.
Brain.
Cannibalism.
DEWEY DEC: 573.2/01
NOTES:
Translation of Der Anfang war das Ende.
ISBN: 0716111036
LCCN: 73-169648

(Second entry)
Maerth, Oscar Kiss, 1914-
[Anfang war das Ende. English]
The beginning was the end. Translated from the German by Judith Hayward.
New York, Praeger [1974, c1973] 236 p. 21 cm.
LC CALL NUMBER: GN281.4 .M313 1974
SUBJECTS:
Human evolution.
Brain.
Cannibalism.
DEWEY DEC: 573.2
NOTES:
Translation of Der Anfang war das Ende.
LCCN: 73-19834 r83
You can find it at the Virtual Bookshop.
* Hal Leonard released sheet music for Freedom Of Choice and New
Traditionalists. Unfortunately, the books are long out of print.
* T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" poem was probably the inspiration
behind "The Shadow" off Total Devo.
* Peit Hein's "Grooks 1" book of short poems and drawings may have
inspired the happy/sad face on Total Devo. Or maybe it was in
reference to the famous symbol for Theater: the Comedy and Tragedy
masks.
* Mark's "What I Know, Vol. I" book: Actually it is a collection of
selections from his 3000+ item "Secret Diary." This diary seems to
consist mostly of the backs of Japanese postcards that Mark has
drawn and/or painted on. The pieces from his gallery shows (where
I got the book) are also drawn from the Secret Diary. Each drawing
is accompanied by a couple-paragraph story or description of the
scene. The drawings are often disturbing/twisted/sexual, and often
extremely funny, especially after repeated readings. There are
several Devo references. The drawings are mostly from 1986-1987.
* There's a "Devo Reference" in the cartoon book "Fox Trot", page
137.
* The comic book "Ninja High School" contains Devo references when
Steve Ross writes it. Look for "NHS Yearbook 1991".
* The DC comic "Watchmen" had an issue in 1986 that dedicated a
whole page to discussing how, when Nite Owl wears goggles, he
looks Devo.
* The letters column for the comic "Pirate Corp$" (now called
"Hectic Planet") was called "Mr. B's Ballroom".
* The comic "Zot!" contains two alternate universes, where evil
monkeys called the Devos are men in one world and monkeys in the
other. They yell "DEVOLVE!" and Cool Stuff happens.
* When Bill Mantlo took over the "Howard The Duck" comic, in the
black-and- white issue #4, the Playduck issue, 3 Spuds appear as
apparitions (along with KISS and a Beatle or two) and one says "We
are not men. We are Devo."

Some of these and many more await you in the Devo Print Archive.

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[7] THE LASERDISC!

Since I own "The Complete Truth..." but don't own a laserdisc player
I'll just quote Sammy Larson:
OK guys, I've just had a run-through of the laserdisc, so here is What
I Know:
This laserdisc contains EVERYTHING that Devo still has in the way
of video products that they made. Unfortunately some video has
been lost over the years (video shorts that they did for concerts)
and some video they do not have the rights to (Honda Scooter
commercial). But just a quick scan of the contents assures you
that they went to great pains to make this as complete as they
could.
There are two soundtracks to the disc, as mentioned in this group
before. The digital track consists of the basic soundtrack, i.e.
the music. The analog track consists of the music plus commentary
by Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, describing the details and
circumstances surrounding what is being shown, as well as
anecdotes about the Devo legacy. Side 1 is in extended play format
(CLV) while side 2 is Full Feature Format (CAV) which allows
stills to be shown.
So without any further ado, here are the contents of the disc:

Side One (CLV)

1 Logos
2 Titles
3 Devo Corporate Anthem (1979)
4 In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-evolution
(1976-1977)
5 Satisfaction (1978)
6 A word about laserdiscs
7 Come Back Jonee (1979)
8 The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise (1979)
9 Worried Man (1979)
10 Whip It (1980)
11 Girl U Want (1980)
12 Freedom Of Choice (1980)
13 Another word about laserdiscs
14 Through Being Cool (1981)
15 Love Without Anger (1981)
16 Beautiful World (1981)
17 Time Out For Fun (1982)
18 Peek-A-Boo (1982)
19 That's Good (1982)
20 More about laserdiscs
21 RU Experienced? (1984)

Side Two (CAV)

22 The final word about laserdiscs
23 Disco Dancer (1988)
24 Post Post-Modern Man (1990)
25 Post Post-Modern Man, Rocky Schenck remix (1990)
26 Devo music video credits
27 Supplement opening/directory
28 Chuck Statler interview
29 Tour film
30 Early live gigs
31 Photos
32 The deal
33 Albums, singles, CDs
34 Posters
35 Devo-wear and T-shirts
36 Buttons, pins, badges
37 Miscellaneous de-evolution
38 Kindred spirit
39 Laserdisc production credits
40 Color bars

Notes:
+ the first chapter "Logos" just says "Voyager presents".
(Voyager is the company that released the disc)
+ the second chapter has some animation as it says "Devo" and
"The Complete Truth About De-evolution".
+ the four "About Laserdiscs" chapters contain an informational
project that Devo did for Pioneer back in 1979 or 1980.
+ the "Tour Film" starts with text explaining that Devo made
short video clips just to play during concerts. Then it plays
"Booji Boy's Funeral" where Booji gets his head chopped off
as seen in "We're All Devo", and explains that the rest of
the film which shows Booji at the hospital is now lost.
+ "Early Live Gigs" shows Devo playing at various places, the
first one being the Kent State Creative Arts Festival in
1972, their first public performance ever. Also includes a
performance by Dove (The Band Of Love), the band they opened
for themselves as.
+ "Photos" includes what must be over 200 shots of the band at
various stages of their career, including the Late Night
[with David Letterman] performance and many many promo pics.
+ "The Deal" is text by Jerry Casale explaining all the sordid
details behind their first record deal. Extremely
interesting. Then it includes a scene from "The Men Who Make
The Music" where Daddy Know-It-All reams Rod Rooter, who in
turn reams Devo.
+ "Albums, Singles, CDs" starts off with text explaining the
circumstances surrounding the cover of "Are We Not Men",
which you would not believe. Then it goes through album
covers front and back, domestic and import, picture discs,
and a very incomplete collection of singles and CDs.
+ "Miscellaneous De-evolution" contains excerpts from Booji
Boy's book "My Struggle", and shows pictures of literature
connected with Devo ideas in one way or another. Then it
shows a collection of artwork of the spudboys, apparently
done by fans.
+ "Kindred Spirit" shows the Timothy Leary scene from "We're
All Devo". Audio track contains both Jerry and Mark
explaining their connection with Dr. Leary.
The rest is pretty self-explanatory. The audio track is
priceless for the hardcore devotee. Jerry and Mark explain
the ideas behind each video and exactly how each one came
about, and then how well they were received (and perceived).
It gives the listener a real feel for what the band was going
through during their career. It's not pretty, but it's real
devo.
Some of you have asked where to get ahold of this gem. I
suggest you go to a video rental store and ask them to order
it for you. Expect to pay about $45 - $50, but rest assured
it is worth it. The word 'Complete' in the title is not an
idle boast, as I have attempted to show. Even if you do not
own a laserdisc player (I'm probably not alone here) many
video stores will rent you one, and then you can dub it off
onto a VHS tape. You'll have to dub it twice if you want a
copy with and without the commentary of course. BUT THIS WILL
NOT EVER BE RELEASED ON VHS because of its interactive
nature. So get it now before it becomes unavailable.
sammy

p.s. Jerry signed my copy by writing "Were we right? Or just
Devo". Pretty cool.

I got mine from Tower Records in New York City for $40. They still
sell a handful of them every week so it shouldn't be a problem getting
a copy.

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[8] Info From Jerry Casale

(gleaned during the summer of 1993, so some of this may be invalid
now) Thanks again to Sammy Larson...
As promised, here are the major things I learned from my conversation
with Gerald V. Casale. These are in no particular order, except
the order in which they popped into my head (sort of).
+ Devo is dead. The band will never get back together. Jerry
said he would love to start back up again, but Mark
Mothersbaugh doesn't want to do it anymore. (And without
Mark, it isn't Devo.)
+ On the pronunciation of Devo: When the band formed, the
emphasis was on the second syllable (dee-VOE). But when they
moved to California, everyone started calling them DEE-voe.
So I guess either one is valid. Jerry said that the name is
already butchered up so much (being short for de-evolution)
that it doesn't matter how much worse it gets.
+ On the spelling of Booji Boy: The original concept had the
spelling Boogie Boy, just like it sounds. But when they were
making a film, they did the text using an electro-set. Well,
they ran out of 'g's in their electro-set so they had to use
a 'j'. Then Mark started to put the 'e' on the end, and Jerry
said "Hold it - that looks good right there."
+ Enigma sucks. Jerry called them the worst label they ever
could have signed to. He said he's never seen a label that
could make a CD disappear so fast, referring to Now It Can Be
Told, a CD that Jerry was really fond of, which was extremely
hard to get soon after its release.
+ I told Jerry that I considered Devo albums to be textbooks on
human behavior instead of rock records, and since I would
never get another volume, what would he tell a spud like me
who was ready for his next lesson? He told me that now it's
time to go teach.
+ Jerry is busy trying to get a film project off the ground. It
is a story about Betty Page entitled "Pin Up" which he will
direct.
+ The reason Devo never toured the US for Smooth Noodle Maps is
that they lost big money on their first few shows, so they
cancelled the tour.
+ The commercials they did for Honda and Coca Cola were done
purely for financial reasons, not to poke fun at the
commercial industry or anything. The commercials were done
during that turbulent period when Devo was splitting with
Warners and with their management. They needed money or would
cease being a band. They had complete creative control of
both projects, though, and would not have done them
otherwise. Devo had been offered many, many commercials to do
in the past which they turned down because they didn't have
any say in them.
+ All the money they ever made from Devo is long gone, what
little there was. Jerry said that most people don't
understand that bands are the last people to make money from
their work, that they are labor owned by a company. A prime
example of this was a world tour of theirs that grossed over
$2 million. Each member of Devo got a check for $16K.
+ They lost a lot of money from the Club Devo fan club and
mailorder, and ended up having to sue the people in charge of
it.
+ Nothing is left of the Devo paraphernelia (energy domes,
yellow suits, plastic hair, etc). Mark rented storage space
to keep a copy of everything they ever made, but Jerry has
given away pretty much everything he had kept.
+ What Jerry is listening to these days: everything. He doesn't
listen to any certain band or style, but he particularly
enjoys what is coming out of the british club scene these
days.
+ Devo Studios is gone.
+ When asked what he thought of all the recent remakes of Devo
songs, he replied that he wished a huge band like Guns 'n'
Roses would do one! [G'NR's recent EP of cover songs, The
Spaghetti Incident?, is Devo-less. See below for a listing of
cover tunes.]
+ When asked why so many bands are doing Devo covers instead of
Talking Heads and other bands that got way more credit for
innovation at the time, he replied that it was because Devo's
music was interesting.
+ About Mark Mothersbaugh doing TV commercials these days: He
doesn't understand how Mark has all these industry
connections all of a sudden, when all Devo had were enemies.
When asked if he thought it was ironic that Mark was doing
commercials for the very corporations they used to make fun
of, he just smiled, paused for a few seconds, and said that
Mark is doing what he likes to do.

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[9] Covers of Devo tunes:

* Willy Porter: "Whip It" on the Gag Me With A Spoon comp.
* Sin 34: "Uncontrollable Urge" on Do You Feel Safe?
* The Trenchcoats (an acapella group) did "Whip It" and borrowed
some of Rockapella's version of "Working in a Coalmine". I read
this in a concert review so I don't know if it's on an album.
* Big Daddy: "Whip It"
* The Chipmunks: "Whip It". I believe that the Chipmunks were
created by the same people who do the Power Rangers, uh, things.
Hmmmm...
* Poison Idea: "Blockhead"
* Wreckless Eric: two versions of "Be Stiff" on his eponymous album.
(Repertoire Records, REP 4217-WY)
* The Mummies: "Uncontrollable Urge" on a Sub Pop 7".
* The Didjits: "Mr. DNA" on Full Nelson Reilly.
* Pussy Galore: "Penetration In The Centerfold"
* Def Dames: "Whip It" (5 versions, 1991 Zoo Entertainment)
* The Del Rubio Triplets sang "Whip It" on Full House and "These
Boots Were Made For Walking" on Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
* The Devotees Compilation: This was a project that happened soon
after Q:Are We Not Men? was released. Bands were asked to cover
songs from the first album and Jerry picked the best. Very rare,
very weird. One band used a touch tone phone for "Mongoloid".
* Soundgarden: "Girl U Want" on the SOMMS (Satan Orchestrate My
Metallic Sonata) disc included with some pressings of
BadMotorFinger. Some import (non-US) singles for "Fell On Black
Days" include "Girl U Want" as a B-side. Since the SOMMS disc is
very hard to find, you ought to grab the single if you intend to
ever hear the song.
* Hot Glue Gun: "Girl U Want"
* Superchunk: "Girl U Want" on the Freedom Of Choice compilation, an
"Artists of today cover the hits of the Eighties" deal.
* Nirvana: "Turnaround", (a "Whip It" B-side) on the Incesticide and
Hormoaning comps.
* Flourescent Echo: "Beautiful World", a B-side of their ltd. ed.
12-inch "Piranha Dance" single.
* The Funk Junkies: "Uncontrollable Urge"
* Clawhammer: The whole Q:Are We Not Men? album. (which became Q:Are
We Not Men? A:We Are NOT Devo!, on the Sympathy For The Record
Industry label. Mark "supervised" the recording [probably more
like "watched"] and an essay of his appears on the CD case's back
cover.) NOTE: It's HORRIBLE unless you can stomach the guy's
voice, and most people can't.
* 16 Volt: "Freedom Of Choice" on the Shut Up Kitty comp.
* Big Drill Car: "Freedom Of Choice" on their Batch LP.
* Lene Lovitch: "Be Stiff" on the The Stiff Years, Vol. 1 comp.
* Robert Palmer: "Girl U Want" on Honey.
* Flop: "I'm a Potato"

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_________________________________________________________________

[10] Devo's Instruments:

Guitars:

Bob 1 has used plenty of "weird" guitars. These are the ones I know by
name:
* Hagstrom: Or more accurately, a "lobotomized" Hagstrom. You get a
great view of it in the "Satisfaction" video.
* Ibanez: He used an Iceman in the live version of "Red Eye" on The
Men Who Make The Music.
* Fender: Looks like a Jaguar in "The Day My Baby Gave Me A
Surprize".

Jerry has used Steinberger and Gibson (or Epiphone?) 4-string bass
guitars.

Mark plays a standard Fender Telecaster in the "Satisfaction" video.
(Most of them don't require quite that much cable, though.)

Synth list, quoted from Chimera7:
Lately, I've been reading a lot of inquiries about Devo's synthesizer
setup. Hopefully, the list below will answer some questions. For
each synth, I've listed an album, song, or time period in which
the synth was used. Please keep in mind, however, that Devo was
*very* much infatuated with the electronic and bizzare sounds, so
they used everything from synthesizers, toys, and homemade
equipment to space heaters and toasters.

+ (ARP) Odyssey: "Gates Of Steel" lead sound, "Girl U Want"
lead sound.
+ Casio: Concert usage
+ Eika Aoshima MIDI Wrist Watch: Total Devo
+ (Electronic Dream Plant) Wasp: One of Jerry's first bass
synthesizers.
+ (EML) ElectroComp 500: "Whip It" whip sound, "Through Being
Cool" V-2 rocket sound, "Race Of Doom" explosion sound.
+ (Emu) Emulator: Oh No! It's Devo!, Shout
+ Fairlight Series IIx: Shout, Total Devo (used only for
sequencing on this album)
+ (Hohner) Clavinet: Q: Are We Not Men?
+ (Linn) LM-1 drum machine: New Traditionalists, Oh, No! It's
Devo!, Shout
+ (Linn) LinnDrum drum machine: New Traditionalists, Oh, No!
It's Devo!, Shout
+ Mellotron: Early studio use
+ (Moog) Liberation: Freedom Of Choice
+ (Moog) Minimoog: "Mongoloid" lead, "Whip It" bassline, etc.
Heavily used by Devo from the 1970's through the early
1980's.
+ Custom dual Minimoog: A six oscillator 'monster' custom built
for Devo. Mainly used by Jerry for basslines.
+ (Moog) Prodigy: Another one of Jerry's early bass synths.
+ (Moog) Source: "Through Being Cool" lead synth, "Jerkin' Back
'N' Forth" lead synth
+ (Moog) Vocoder: Used on early demos and various albums.
+ Optigan: Early studio use. [And on E-Z Listening "Beautiful
World"]
+ (Roland) D-50: Total Devo
+ (Roland) Jupiter 6: New Traditionalists, Oh, No! It's Devo!
+ (Roland) Jupiter 8: New Traditionalists, Oh, No! It's Devo!,
Shout
+ (Roland) JX-3P: Shout
+ (Roland) JX-8P: Shout, Total Devo
+ (Roland) MKS-80: Total Devo
+ (Roland) MKS-100: Total Devo
+ (Roland) S-10: Total Devo
+ (Roland) S-50: Total Devo
+ (Roland) S-550: Total Devo
+ (Roland) SVC-350 Vocoder: New Traditionalist, "Beautiful
World".
+ (Sequential Circuits) Prophet 5: Used by Devo from the late
1970's until New Traditionalists (1981).
+ (Suzuki) Omnichord: Oh, No! It's Devo!
+ (Vox) Continential: Early studio use.
+ (Vox) drumbox: New Traditionalists
+ (Yamaha) DX-7: Used on Devo's albums during the early 1980's.


We also know that Mark used Fairlight and Roland equipment on his
Muzik For Insomniaks albums and now at Mutato Muzika. He uses all
kinds of recording equipment, including Mitsubishi, Sony, and Tascam.

I'd like to get a list of effects processors on here, too.

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[11] Misc. Info and References in our Neo-Pre-Macro-Post-Modern Society:

* Bands that have opened for Devo (quite incomplete!): X, Chi Pig,
Miss Xanna Don't, aMiniature, and U2!
* Underground filmmaker Bruce Conner directed a music video for
"Mongoloid" just before Devo got into the music business. Look for
a compilation video of his in a university film department or
perhaps an underground video store.
* Total Devo is a CD+G, according to The CD+G list. What that means
is that there are graphics stored on the disc so that properly
equipped players can display them on your TV screen. The list
doesn't mention if the Restless rerelease is a CD+G or not. It
would kind of make sense that Devo did use CD+G technology at that
time, since they went so far as to even release Total Devo on
Digital Audio Tape (DAT)...
* According to Mark, "Disco Dancer" was inspired by an indian pop
song with the chorus, "I am a disco, I am a disco!"
* If you don't feel like shelling out the money to buy the rerelease
of oh no! it's DEVO from IZ just to hear the never-before-released
track "Find Out", look for the Infinite Zero Promotional CD #2:
PRO-CD 95.ZERO.1 (9 00000-2). It's got the track and it cost me a
DOLLAR in a used CD store.
* Learn how to build a spudgun that can send a potato nearly 700
feet!
* "The History Of Rock and Roll" video series includes some words
from Jerry in at least two episodes ("Punk" and "Up From The
Underground").
* "Working In A Coal Mine" was written by Allen Toussaint and sung
(first) by Lee Dorsey in 1966. "Morning Dew" was written by T.Rose
and B.Dobson (or was it Buffy St. Marie?) It was *not* the
Grateful Dead; they only covered it.
* Songs Booji Boy has sung (mostly at early concerts):
+ "The Words Get Stuck In My Throat" from the Japanese monster
movie "War Of The Gargantuans". The lyrics from a bootleg
sleeve, thanks to Mark Lodge:

"If I had a tiny microphone
Hidden in my heart
It would amplify my love for you

But the words get stuck in my throat

If I had a little telegraph
Tapping in my brain
It would tap out a morse code line to you

But the words get stuck in my throat

If I had a little viewmaster
Snapping in my brain
It would snap out pictures all of you"
+ "In Heaven, Everything Is Fine" from the movie "Eraserhead".
+ "Roll Out The Barrel" (the music that's played when Devo
meets Rod Rooter in TMWMTM)
+ "Worried Man" and "Hey Hey My My" from "Human Highway".
* Dimensions for the Energy Domes (a.k.a. Flowerpot Hats) from
Klilin:

This taken from a hat I caught at a concert:
material-thin plastic (vacu-formed), crimson red
form-4layer slightly conical crossection stack
base-9.3/8 tapers to 8.5/8 , 1.3/4 tall
next-7.1/2 tapers to 7 , 1.3/4 tall
next-5.5/8 tapers to 5 , 1.1/4 tall
top- 3.3/4 tapers to 3.1/2 , 3/4 tall
total height-5
logo on top- EV
D O
letter size-3/4
top embossed 3/64
all dimensions in inches<br>

It'd be nice if someone had the means to start producing them.......
* When they used to do "Jocko Homo" in The Old Days, Devo would
chant "We accept you, we reject you! One of us! One of us!" This
is from an old film called "Freaks".
* The Max Fish bar on Ludlow Street in NYC has Hardcore Devo on
their jukebox.
* The Mothersbaughs went to Woodrige High School.
* Jerry and Bob 2's last name is pronounced "cuh-SAHL-ee".
* A press release from Apple Computer:

<blockquote>Apple Multimedia Program Interactive Music Track Announced

The company also launched a support program for musicians and music
publishers creating multimedia content for the burgeoning interactive music
market. The Interactive Music Track extends the well-established,
1,500-member Apple Multimedia Program (AMP) to musicians, providing
multimedia and interactive music information, contacts, networking
opportunities and discounts on software and hardware. Members also receive
Apple's QuickTime interactive music tools announced today at no additional
charge exclusively as part of the program. Initial members of the Interactive
Music Track include: Ray Manzarek of <a href="http://www.cs.uit.no/Music/View/t
he+doors/">The Doors</a>, Lady Kier of Deee-Lite, Mark
Mothersbaugh of DEVO.
</blockquote>

* Mark has released two solo albums called Muzik For Insomniaks,
volumes one and two. Supposedly, volumes three through seven were
released in Japan only. The music on these is quite different from
Devo; it's extremely minimalist, un-poppy and, of course,
instrumental. If you can only get one disc, start with #2. They're
very hard to get because 1-Enigma had very crappy distribution, as
Jerry mentioned, and 2-Enigma closed up around 1991. :):( I got
both of mine through the Used-Music Server.
* "Weird Al" Yankovic has poked fun at Devo on two occasions: first
in "Polkas on 45" (from IN 3-D) where he uses the first verse of
"Jocko Homo" (plus bits from "Smoke On The Water", "Hey Jude", and
"My Generation", plus others), and second in "Dare To Be Stupid"
on the album of the same name and also on the Transformers:The
Movie soundtrack. The video for "Dare..." is really well done.
They're both both a parody and praise of Devo's sound, but because
there's a video for "Dare To Be Stupid" it's easier to pick out
the individual songs he's using.
* Keyboard magazine lists Q: Are We Not Men?/A:We Are Devo! as one
of the Top 20 Keyboard albums of the past 20 years in the Sept.
'95 (20th Anniversary) issue. The point of their blurb was that
this album proved that synths had a place in "garage bands". "Whip
It" is named one of the top 20 singles of the period. Other
musicians on the list include Kraftwerk, Isao Tomita, Jean-Michel
Jarre, Peter Gabriel, the Eurythmics, Thomas Dolby and Brian Eno.
* Brian Dedrick:

If you don't already know, Mark's cousin, Al, is in the Kent, Ohio
based band called the Twist-Offs. I have seen the band 11 times, and
let me tell you, they are one of the best bands around. Al plays
trombone among the rest of the musical chaos. See them live or order
their CD's through Dill records.
* Frank Zappa's Does Humor Belong In Music video-concert injects a
few bars of "Whip It" into Zappa's own "Tinsel Town Rebellion".
Not for anyone but the hardcore fan who can take some ribbing.
It's not included on the Tinseltown Rebellion *album*, so Lookout.
Jerry mentioned Zappa awhile back:

If you've ever come upon the RE/SEARCH series, there's an issue
(#11) titled PRANKS. There's a four page interview with Jerry
Casale.

"When we started Devo it was really that--a serious prank. People would
constantly ask, 'This is a joke, right?' looking to us for some kind of
confirmation. Of course, we weren't going to give them any. Our
intention was always to subvert the accepted obvious reality behind
anything we presented--whether fashion, lyric, role, stereotype, etc.

We never wanted to be like Frank Zappa, where you can be passed off as
purely a wierdo, or 'Hey, I know that you know what's going on here
(wink, wink)'"
</blockquote>

There's a great picture included of Jerry in a priest's outfit,
holding "totems of the modern age": rubber lips and a gun. The hand
holding the lips is making the peace sign, with the fingers together
like Jesus used to make it. :-)

A summary of the short film, "The Beginning Was The End: The Truth
About De-Evolution", from Keithstans:

<i>Opening Title: Close up of a TV screen with the title "IN THE BEGINNING WAS
THE END - THE TRUTH ABOUT DE-EVOLUTION"

Next: We see our heroes (Boogie boy included) in a plant, strange clear
masks over their faces, blue outfits, hard hats. They leave the plant,
get into a blue Chevy, drive to a club, go inside.

DEVO performs Secret Agent Man with Bob Mothersbough on vocals in front of
big painted DEVO sign. Insert film clips of men in monkey masks, and other
odd things throughout. Exit with someone in JFK mask waving.

Next, we see Boogie Boy running up back stairs into a building, meets up with
General Boy.
</i>
<b>GB:</b> Come in Boogie boy, you're late. Have you got the papers China man
gave
you?<br>
<b>BB:</b> <i>(Boogie gives him envelope)</i> Here it is dad, is it a surpris
e?<br>
<b>GB:</b> Yes, Boogie. In the past this information has been suppressed, but
now it
can be told. Every man, woman and mutant on this planet shall know the truth
about De-evolution.<br>
<b>BB:</b> Oh Dad! We're all DEVO!

<i>Cut to Neon Letters spelling out DEVO with "Mechanical Man" in background.

Next, Jocko Homo video. Mark Mothersbaugh dancing the Poot. Everyone in masks
.

After song, cut to extreme close up of video screen with the following
written on screen:<br>
</i>
<ul><b> 1. wear gaudy colors or avoid display
2. lay a million eggs or give birth to one
3. the littlest may survive & the unfit may live
4. be like your ancestors or be different
5. we must repeat
</b></ul>
<i>Next scene, Boogie Boy tied up in chair, no shirt on. Man with no shirt
comes up and pulls mask off, stabs Boogie Boy in chest.

Closing credits.
</i>

I found an old interview with Kim Cattral that was done right after
Star Trek 6 was released, and she mentioned that she was dating one
of the spuds - "He used to be in a rock group called Devo. They were
big in the 70's and 80's." She never got more specific than that.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (on Comedy Central) occasionally uses
Devo allusions. (A mad scientist donned his protective goggles and
tilted his head, while Joel asked the question, "Are We Not Men?")
Look for "The Unearthly", "Crash of the Moons", "Teenagers From
Outer Space", "The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy", "The Corpse
Vanishes", "Mitchell", "Outlaw", "Skydivers", "Starfighters", and
others. For more info read alt.tv.mst3k, rec.arts.tv.mst3k or
rec.arts.tv.mst3k.announce.

The Virgin
UK-combo-album-"remastered"-limited-edition-three-disc-box-set
STINKS. There are dropouts and the sleeve design is really pathetic.
You don't get lyrics and there are about 3 different pictures on
each sleeve. (That's not a lot considering there are two albums on
each disc.) You can get all the albums domestically except for Devo:
Live (1980, not The Mongoloid Years), New Traditionalists and Shout.
Duty Now For The Future and oh no! it's DEVO were recently released
by Henry Rollins' label, Infinite Zero, and the rest of the albums
may not be far behind. They run a great service called the Ultimate
Band List. Nearly everyone agrees that IZ does a first-rate job of
rereleasing classic Devo.

The movie "Spaced Invaders" featured a person who looked and acted a
LOT like Mark Mothersbaugh-- I won't describe him, you'll know him
when you see him. The TV station shrank the end credits for a news
preview, so I couldn't tell if it was him or not.

Devo's axe-meister extraordinaire Bob "Bob 1" Mothersbaugh once said
his favorite personal contribution was the bleepy noise in
Uncontrollable Urge. Everyone probably thinks that was Eno's work,
but it is the sound made by touching the guitar cord tip with his
finger. You can't get it with an ordinary amplifier, just with a
wierd German amp that Bob found in Germany during the Q/A sessions.
[Anybody happen to have the *name* of that amp?]

In the episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer has to pass a nuclear
physics course, there is a poster on a wall with five Simpson-esque
heads wearing energy domes. It's in the geeks' dorm and only appears
for a second. Watch the left side of your screen as Homer is pacing
back and forth.

David Bowie is said to have "discovered" Devo. I have been told that
this was not entirely true. There's a picture of him with Jerry
Casale (both fully dressed) in the liner for Now It Can Be Told.
Bowie also supposedly got Brian Eno to produce the first LP. (Eno
definitely produced it, but how much Bowie was involved remains to
be seen.) As the story now goes, Bowie simply sat in a corner and
watched the recording process.

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[12] More Devo:

On the World Wide Web:

MuteWeb
A damn fine Devo page!

Spudland
A fantastic new page!

Adventures of the Smart Patrol
Inscape's page on the CD-ROM!

http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~zippy/devo.html
And another one!

http://rampages.onramp.net/~rick/devo.html
Written by Rev. Innacurate Decay.

http://www.swcp.com/~lazlo/Discographies.html
Get your discographies here.

http://www.teleport.com/~shojo/Optigan/optigan.shtml
To read about the Optigan organ, which provided the "backing
band" for the EZ-Listening version of "Beautiful World".

A cool Punk Page with lots of pictures.

http://hartke.lib.ohio-state.edu:70/
A link many people have referenced but I have yet to see work.

By FTP:

ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/devo.
If there's something on the net related to Devo, it's here.

ftp.ccnet.com/users/bjhigh/devo/
A newish FTP site.

ftp.uwp.edu/pub/music/artists/d/devo.
There is a discography, lyrics and some guitar tablature here.

ftp.nevada.edu/pub/guitar/d/devo
Guitar tab.

gigaserv.uni-paderborn.de/doc/guitar/d/devo
Nevada mirror.

ftp.uu.net/doc/music/guitar/d/devo
Nevada mirror.

By Email:

* A mailing list is run on the WKUVX1.WKU.EDU server. Send a message
to list...@wkuvx1.wku.edu with a body of subscribe devo-l [name]
where [name] is your real name.
* The Devo mail server is no longer running. Please don't send any
more requests for it.

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[13] More Devo You Get To Pay For:

I'm not associated with any of these! Don't sue me! Ever!

*

NOTE: The Devo Bootleg Archive is currently relocating. I'm leaving it in
here as-is until the changeover is complete. The new keepers should be up and
running by the time the next FAQ comes out.
The Devo Bootleg Archive is run by Mike Watters. He has tons of audio
and video tapes for sale containing hard-to-find Devo stuff that
was never commercially released. Quite a few of the appearances
mentioned above are availible here. From one of Mike's
announcements:

There's either a video or audio tape of EVERY tour (sometimes both).
Quality is naturally quite variable from good to crap. There might
be more material entering the archive in future, but there are no
immediate expectations.
For anyone who is wondering, this project has been checked and
approved by both Mark and Jerry. We haven't and WON'T be including
any material that is commercially available. After all the
commercial copy would be MUCH better quality than what we could
provide. There are a few things here and there on the tapes that DO
duplicate something available commercially (especially the radio
interviews which include tracks off the albums). These were left
intact mostly to preserve continuity and shouldn't be viewed as an
alternative to a copy of the record.
This is a really worthwhile deal, (and you'd be a strange spud not to
be interested in it) but please be patient; the tapes are
basically copied by Mike and one or two other guys, which
obviously makes for a slow Turnaround. If you can help out with
distribution, *please* get in touch with Mike! Not only would you
help defeat bootleggers, but you'd also get the Satisfaction of
helping other spuds such as yourself.
* The Devo Print Archive is run by Sammy Larson and is over 300
pages' worth of stuff you won't even find in THIS file! Send $15
to:
Devo Print Archive
660 Veteran Ave #107
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Make checks payable to Sammy Larson. Foreign orders should discuss
prices through email first.
And the promo:

The DEVO Print Collection
This is a compilation of various printed material documenting DEVO's
whole career, from the pre-contract days of 1977 thru the 1994
laserdisk review. Over 100 magazine articles and interviews, 100
reviews from every major album and concert tour, magazine
advertisements and all five letters From The Desk Of General Boy,
all photocopied and bound into a reference book fit for every
student of de-evolution.
Learn the trivial:
+ why the Duty Now album cover is covered with UPC symbols
+ the original TEN de-evolutionary precepts
+ jobs the spudboys had before DEVO

Learn the profound:
+ theories of "high DEVO" and "low DEVO"
+ the meaning of lyrics, album themes, and video concepts
+ DEVO's overall message, motive, and method

Learn the factual:
+ the events surrounding the split between Devo and Warner
Bros.
+ DEVO's arrest in Texas
+ DEVO's music equipment

All this and more await you. Interviews with the band show a witty,
intellectual side to Devo that goes beyond their albums and
concerts.
Being a product of The DEVO Archive, this collection is of course
offered AT COST to those who wish to take their conscious mutation
to the next level. The price: a mere $15, which covers over 300
pages of photocopies, a professional Velo binding, and first-class
postage. Donations to help offset the cost of acquiring the articles
will not be refused.
And don't forget, there is a *lot* that isn't in this FAQ yet and most
of it probably won't ever be.... so go buy a copy of the Print
Archive!
* Infinite Zero
3500 W. Olive Suite 1550
Burbank, CA 91505-4628
WWW: http://american.recordings.com/infinite_zero/
E-mail: infi...@earthlink.net
* CDNow!
http://cdnow.com and navigate, or go straight to Devo.
* CDWorld
http://cdworld.com
* Sloppy Joe's Underground Mailorder
* Voyager:
http://www.voyagerco.com/CC/vldh/p.devo.html This is Voyager's
page for the Devo laserdisc.
* EAR/Rational Music - To order CD's.
1592 Kilkenny St.
Boulder, CO 80303-1646
USA
(303) 665-DEAL (voice/fax)
ear-ra...@xmission.com for automated requests (CATALOG,
SUBSCRIBE, HELP etc) or
an...@xmission.com for human contact.
Sending a message to ear-ra...@xmission.com with HELP in the
subject line will give you a list of automated commands.
FTP: ftp.xmission.com/pub/other/ear-rational/catalog
* Insomnia Records
PO Box 86308
Los Angeles, CA 90086-308
Phone: (800)774-8775
Fax: (213) 222-7167
Web: http://www.insomnia.com
They're selling Duty Now For The Future shirts!! They're cotton
t-shirts with red and purple D E V O lettering down the right
side, and a large DNFTF "scientist" logo. Availible in black or
white.

* Used-Music Server
Mail used-mus...@wang.com with "subscribe". This will get
you a fairly good-sized weekly listing of used CD's that people on
the net are offering for sale.
* VUZ Records is trying to get an "Electro/Gothic" Devo compiliation
out by 1996.
* The Roscoe Foundation wants YOUR Devo covers for inclusion on a
three-tape compilation.

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_________________________________________________________________

[14] Contributors

Many thanks to everyone who's dropped by over the years.
FAQ's don't get this big without a lot of help -
and a very interesting topic.

Sammy Larson!
Mike Watters!
Denis M. Hannigan!
Gerald V. Casale!
Brian Larson, olaf, Robert Chao, Eric Eiverson, jmjones, ibpunk,
dmost5+, Sam Cramer, fnord, Ggreg, blankm, joero, dhm, sinsfdwf,
davidbro, Jason Medwid, Michael Francis McDougall, Pat 2E, Per Henrik
Johansen, Jo Rourke, The Pinhead, Cheloveck, Michael Hooper, Paul
Bruneau, Craig Hlady, Mark Turner, Chuck G, Opus37, Jason Landsbach,
Eric Solorio, Simon Leo Barber, Scott Huffines, Erik Thoresen, Magnus
Johansson, KenVT, Glennb, devotee, Kevo X, Anh-Tuan Duong, Brent
Nathaniel Robertson, Mark Terranno, Terrence M Ryan, Guybrush7, Matt
Kimmel, ZipTrip, Nelson Fernandez, r0xy, Richard Hancock, NedWard94,
Avidacer, Denis C Warburton, Robert Schmeltzer, chimera7, Lazlo
Nibble, Mark Feldman, Garr Godfrey, Paradox, EdGreen452, Greg Hanssen,
Alan Rosiene, Goldbase, Rev. Innacurate Decay, Brian Dedrick, Be
Stiff, Klilin, Ken Lieck, Lee Wilkinson, Dennis Pantazis, Dave Warker,
Robert, Andy Jukes, Tit Wrench (hey cool!), Zachary Adams, Steve
Pasko, Charles B Fishman, Mark Condon, McDeath, Keithstans, Jeff
Economy, Michael & Kim, Greg Padlowski, Alyn O'Megalopolis, James
Stuckey, Lazlo Nibble, Prophet, Tom X. Chao, John Stuart, Rob
Warmowski, mattyj, David Copeland, Joshua Samuel Guenter, Nutra,
Robert@nfinity, Shawn Bogard, Harlan Whitley, Holger Hanraths.

Your name could be here! For instant worldwide fame, mail me an
obscure Devo fact! Please include your real name if you want to be
added to this list.
And to Mark or Jerry: mail me so I can call this "Official"!! :-)
Many thanks to Denis for being kind enough to grace my mailbox!

_________________________________________________________________

This Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file is Copyright (C) 1995 Raju
Tavadia. Commercial use without my consent is prohibited. And VERY
NAUGHTY!!

_________________________________________________________________

Raju Tavadia

dr...@escape.com

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