devo | Every Moment Has A Song

‘Hello Spud!’: How a Conversation About Potatoes Ultimately Led To Devo

05 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: devo

via Spin.com

Three days had passed since the 2024 presidential election and, like millions of other Americans, Devo co-founder/frontman Mark Mothersbaugh was baffled by the outcome. One of the masterminds behind the Postcards for Democracy art project, Mothersbaugh has been deeply interested in politics since the 1970s. Devo itself is short for “de-evolution,” the idea that mankind has stopped progressing and is instead now regressing.

With Donald Trump headed back to the White House, for half of the country it’s difficult to argue otherwise. But for now, Mothersbaugh is doing his best to embrace an alternate perspective.

“I’m just impressed with how many people could be attracted to the president that’s elected now,” Mothersbaugh tells SPIN with a sense of bewilderment. “He’s going to be our president next year. I’m just impressed because his techniques all seem like warning signs of reasons why not to honor him.

“I’m curious to see where it goes because over half the country seems to be approving. Maybe this is a year I learn something that I didn’t know before. I guess it’ll be interesting to see which things he was telling the truth about and which things he was lying about.”

Postcards for Democracy, launched alongside artist Beatie Wolfe in 2020, carries on Mothersbaugh’s tradition of making postcard art, something he did even before the early days of Devo. In fact, it was a postcard that brought Devo bassist Gerald “Jerry” Casale and Mothersbaugh together while studying art at Kent State University…

“Whenever I got accosted on the street by a crazy maniac, the best thing to do was walk away. I always felt threatened. We had to leave by the back door at a lot of places”: Devo’s battle for survival

31 Mar 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: devo

(via LouderSound) by Paul Lester

The concept behind Devo was created during a single shocking event in 1970. From their earliest moments they had a point to make – but they also had a specific way of wanting to make it, and it wasn’t an easy journey. In 2015, Gerald V Casale looked back on the band’s career with Prog.

“God, those were exciting times,” says Gerald V Casale, vocalist, bassist, synth player and joint founder of Devo, über-geeks of the States’ late-70s new wave. “When you’re just so energised by what you’re doing and you’re the chief believer in your own vision.”

Casale is reminiscing about Miracle Witness Hour, a live album, previously unreleased, of his band performing in a biker bar in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1977. That was just before Devo’s “full bloom,” when they became America’s Public Anomaly No.1.

“It was a very strange place,” he says of the Eagle Street Saloon. “It was mouldy and decrepit. There’d be a towny bike-bar scene and then the music would start. Some locals would stick around and create tension and terror for the artsy punks there, and then we’d play to them – around 40 people. Then we’d just get out of there.

“I remember being really afraid. I had things said to me and figured the best thing to do was ignore them. Whenever I got accosted on the street by a crazy maniac, the best thing to do was walk away. I always felt threatened. We had to leave by the back door at a lot of places.”