DEVO: Pop, rock et régression

Casual Pop-Music Fans with any Degree of Awareness will Most Likely Reference "Devo" as a 1-Hit-Wonder who Created "Surreal" Music-Videos Included on the "Playlist" of the Newly-Developed MTV,

The Reality is "Devo" was a Cleveland Based Band Formed as a Secondary, but Necessary, Outlet for the Bands Art-Fetish Exporting Biting, Cutting Edge "Social-Satire" through Succinct Visual Images Cut & Pasted from Pop-Culture, Corporate Domination, and the Expressive Landscape that Dominates, Over-Looks, and Controls the Masses through Multi-Media.

That Subverts Free-Thinking and Mesmerizes Everyone by "Manufacturing Consent". A Subconscious Capitulation to Things that May Not Be in Their Best-Interest.

At an Impressionable Time and Space-Place of the Band-Members, a Tragedy Struck on the Campus of Kent State University where Some of Them Witnessed First Hand...the National Guard was Deployed to Maintain Order on "Protestors", THEN...

The Guard Open-Fired and "4 Were Dead in Ohio" and Over a Hundred Injured.

Mark Mothersbaugh Sites this Horror as the Catalyst for Him and the Others to Not Be "Couch-Potatoes" No More. So They Shunned the Spud and "Devo" was Born.

Difficult to Describe other than Surreal, Bizarre, and Unique..."Devo" and its Art-Form of Music and Sound Combined with a Provocative, Stimulating, and Vibrant Aesthetic...A Thing most People Don't Get. Never Will. In the Long-Run what Penetrated was an Ultra-Simplistic-Diddy Called "Whip It"...

that was a Far-Cry from Their Usually Dense and Deep Lyrical and Musical Postulation on the Problems of a "Devolving" Species. An Anti-Darwinian Exclamation of a Reversal of the Theory of Continual "Progress" of a Life-Form for Survival.

Everything about "Devo" is a Complicated Cornucopia...a Primal-Scream of Pain from Human-Being Confronted with an Obvious but Ignored Decline of Everything and Anything About Life as Living in 20th Century America.

"It's a Beautiful World", They Sung..."For You, For You...Not Me".

The Band's Legacy will Stand the Test of Time, if there is any. Because it is Nothing Less than...

THE TRUTH

A Must See Documentary of the Band who Documented with Music and Images the Glaring "Rot" in America and Dared to Ask the Question...

"Are We Not Men?"

Watched this at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Chris Smith creator of "American Movie" creates a fun documentary about the band DEVO who are widely misunderstood with interesting choices of music, background observations and conversations. DEVO's background and story is pretty interesting as the documentary does a good job on exploring the band with some fun insights.

Since I am not the biggest music documentary person, I found certain aspects feeling slow and uneventful towards the second act. Including some of the conversations feeling a little dry. Overall, there are some really nice fun moments together.

Weird, strange, quirky, futuristic, innovative and all out rockin', Devo was unlike any other. An oddball hodgepodge of bizarro literature, Experimental music, Sci-Fi garb and pointedly biting anti-American satire that extends all over the globe, this motley troublemaking geeks rode out a run of great music and striking visuals during their peak late 1970s - early 1980s run. Fueled by the Kent State Massacre (which some of the band members witnessed firsthand), a desire to be different visually and musically, a manifesto unflattering to the human species and Punk Rock, the Akron, Ohio spud boys became an unlikely success offering a very different slant to Popular Music at the time.

"DEVO" charts the surreal saga in characteristic fashion: colorful and over the top in its barrage of visuals comprising interviews with the band members (an impressively articulate Gerald Casale stands out) as they go toe to toe with snippets of live footage and a varied array of films and images from vintage reels to historical snapshots. The result is a cornucopia of sight and sound and great music.

For a band as fun and as eccentric the documentary strangely moves at a conventional and sedate pace at the first half. A lack of perspective ensues with a failure to give emphasis on the band's impact and influence on music and the entertainment industry as a whole. Also, the band members' careers after the band's heyday are given short mention which is a shame considering Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale pursued eclectic and quite interesting artistic endeavors. This is a doc that could have been another hour long.

Whether looking like aliens in janitor's uniforms or a bunch of nerdy autists in early 20th-Century swimwear, all topped by those memorable saucer-shaped hats, Devo, all robotically-synchronized stage movements and mainstream infiltration-subversion, and again, great music (re-listening to their songs I was struck how fresh and much better they sounded) left a distinct and enduring mark. A fine tribute to a brilliant band, this is one fans and Rock enthusiasts should see.

Wow!!! Did I learn a lot about DEVO!!

I was unaware they were actually highly intelligent people trying to give a message politically to us all!!

So many people who were influenced by them and inspired by their music being it controversial mongoloid etc. Didn't know David Bowie had anything to do with them either.

I thought so many of their songs were great and real catchy and still get a buzz out of hearing them. Also now know why MTV do not play their music (didn't in the 80's) and haven't seen them since so that goes to show Sadly 2 of the four have died at a fairly youngish age but the 2 telling the story are fascinating to listen you.

This documentary tells Devo's story to the drum beat of Devo. It stays true to the Devo's creative, brilliant and very quirky traits.

The story is mostly told by leading band members Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale. A lot of stuff they talk about would be known to Devo fans, maybe some stories were new or defined better. They talk about their evolution from art students to bumbling musicians and how they came up with the raw Devo concept.

Right from the start Devo were very cynical and frustrated with the world, and stayed that way throughout their Devo journey. I'm not sure if they ever really thought they would alert the world and change it for the better. They take you through their clumsy early years as a band during the early to mid 1970's playing in small clubs and getting booed. Then in 1978 they gain a huge audience by playing on a TV show. A couple of years later Devo peaked with their hit song Whip it, and with some frustration they slowly faded away. Devo were innovative and excellent musicians tight and sharp, but the documentary doesn't give too much credit to this.

Once again, the documentary confirms that it is very difficult to put Devo into a musical genre, they just don't really fit anywhere. Once you see this documentary you might understand why. If you were/are a fan of Devo you should enjoy this. If you don't know or understand what Devo was all about, this might confuse you more!

As a teenager, I first heard Devo's music in 1978. I didn't know what I was listening to, but I liked it. I was drifting away from pop music and needed something else. Devo was a total different world of music. Tell people you liked Devo and most people would roll their eyes.