Devo is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic lineup consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales, along with Alan Myers. The band had a No. 14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", the song that gave the band mainstream popularity.
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as co-founder, lead singer and keyboardist of the new wave band Devo, whose "Whip It" was a Top 20 single in the US in 1980, peaking at No. 14, and which has since maintained a cult following. Mothersbaugh is one of the main composers of Devo's music.
Freedom of Choice is the third studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in May 1980 on the Warner Bros. label. The album contained their biggest hit, "Whip It", which hit No. 8 and No. 14 on the Billboard Club Play Singles and Pop Singles charts, respectively. Freedom of Choice peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.
Polysics is a Japanese Techno/Electronic Music band from Tokyo, who dubs its unique style as "technicolor pogo punk". It was named after a brand of synthesizer, the Korg Polysix. The band started in 1997, but got their big break in 1998 at a concert in Tokyo. They create high energy music, fusing conventional guitar music with synthesized and computer generated sound to create a unique mixture of punk and synthpop heavily inspired by the American bands Devo and The Tubes, as well as Japanese bands such as P-Model and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Their song lyrics often consist of Japanese, English, or just downright gibberish. The band has been noted for their extremely energetic live performances and their wild gimmicky outfits, notably their straight-bar sunglasses and trademark orange boiler suits stamped with a simple "P".
Oh, No! It's Devo is the fifth studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in October 1982, on the labels Warner Bros. and Virgin. The album was recorded over a period of four months, between May and September 1982, at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles. By the time of its release, Devo were a full-fledged synth-pop act, with guitar-based new wave sounds pushed more towards the background. Most of the music on Oh, No! It's Devo was created by electronic means, giving it a much different sound than the band's earlier albums, such as their 1978 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, which relied more on guitars than synthesizers. This alienated some fans, despite the band stating since at least 1978 that their goal was to "de-emphasize" guitars. The album was produced by prominent producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had notably worked with, among others, Queen and the Cars.
"Whip It" is a song by American rock band Devo from their third album Freedom of Choice (1980). It is a new wave and synth-pop song that features a synthesizer, electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums in its instrumentation. The apparently nonsensical lyrics have a common theme revolving around the ability to deal with one's problems by "whipping it". Co-written by bassist Gerald Casale and singer Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo recorded "Whip It" with producer Robert Margouleff at the Record Plant in Los Angeles.
New Traditionalists is the fourth studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in August 1981, on the labels Warner Bros. and Virgin. The album was recorded over a period of four months between December 1980 and April 1981, at The Power Station, in Manhattan, New York City. The album's sound continued in the vein of their previous studio album Freedom of Choice, with synthesizers moved even further to the forefront and the guitars becoming more subdued. Some of the tracks featured drum machines for the first time on a Devo album. In addition, the lyrics are frequently dark and vitriolic. It features the minor hits "Through Being Cool" and "Beautiful World".
An energy dome is a helmet often worn by the American new wave band Devo as part of the members' stage outfits. The dome was first worn during the band's Freedom of Choice campaign of 1980. It reappeared in the 1982, 1988, and 1990 tours, as well as most performances since 1997. The domes were custom made for the band from vacuum formed plastic, in a distinctive round, ziggurat shape, and are occasionally—and incorrectly—referred to as "power domes" or "flowerpots". The shape is also reminiscent of the Waldviertel Pyramid. When asked about the story behind the hats, Mark Mothersbaugh recounted:
We designed them, Jerry [Casale] and I. We were influenced both by German Bauhaus movement and geometric fashion, and Aztec temples. We just liked the look. It looked good, and it didn't look like any other bands out there. We weren't interested in wearing groovy hats or groovy clothing. We kind of looked like Lego toys or something by the time we got those on our heads, and that was a positive thing.
Gerald Vincent "Jerry" Casale is an American musician, composer, music video director, and vintner.
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! is the debut studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in August 1978 on the Warner Bros. label. Produced by Brian Eno, the album was recorded between October 1977 and February 1978, primarily in Cologne, West Germany.
Shout is the sixth studio album by American new wave band Devo, released on October 9, 1984 by the labels Warner Bros. and Virgin. Arriving two years after their previous album, Oh, No! It's Devo, the album retained the synth-pop sound of their previous few records, with an extensive focus on the then-new Fairlight CMI Series IIx digital sampling synthesizer. Despite the popularity of synth-pop in 1984, the album was a critical and commercial failure, peaking at only No. 83 on the Billboard 200 and ultimately leading to Warner Bros. dropping the band from their label.
Devo 2.0 was a pop group quintet, created for Walt Disney Records, of child actors who sing, dance, and mime playing instruments along to songs re-recorded by some of the original members of Devo. Jerry Casale directed all nine of the videos. Actress Jacqueline Emerson, who later appeared in The Hunger Games, was a member. The band split up in 2007 when lead singer Nicole Stoehr and lead guitarist Nathan Norman quit.
Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace is a live album released by American new wave band Devo, recorded during their 1988 "comeback tour" in promotion of the Total Devo album. It contains performances of several cuts from Total Devo but largely focuses on earlier material and also contains one exclusive song, "It Doesn't Matter to Me."
"Evolution" is a song by American nu metal band Korn. The song was the first single to be released from the band's untitled album on June 12, 2007. It is one of the four tracks in which Brooks Wackerman of Bad Religion performed drumming duties.
"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" is a song written by John Fogerty and released as a single in 1971 from the album Pendulum (1970) by roots rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song charted highest in Canada, reaching number 1 on the RPM 100 national singles chart in March 1971. In the U.S., in the same year it peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. On Cash Box pop chart, it peaked at number 3. In the UK, it reached number 36. It was the group's eighth gold-selling single.
"Watch Us Work It" is a single by the US new wave band Devo, produced by Teddybears. It was originally released in 2007, and was featured in a commercial for Dell. It was subsequently re-released, on vinyl, in 2008. The song was included on the deluxe version of the band's ninth studio album Something for Everybody which was released on June 15, 2010. The song features a sample drum track from "The Super Thing" from Devo's 1981 album New Traditionalists.
Something for Everybody is the ninth studio album by American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in June 2010 on their original label Warner Bros., and was their first issued on that label since their sixth studio album Shout in 1984. The album was recorded between July 2007 and mid-2009, at Mutato Muzika, in West Hollywood, California. The album is the last Devo album to feature Bob Casale, who died in February 2014.
"That's Good" is a song by the American new wave band Devo, written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale. It appears on their fifth studio album, Oh, No! It's Devo (1982). According to Casale, "the lyrics deal with the ambiguity that if everybody wants what you want, how can everybody have it if everybody wants it and what happens when everybody tries to get it, and maybe you should change what you want."
