Photo by Rex USA
Masterminds Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale (with a little help from Josh Freese) trace the evolution of the de-evolutionists. [Magazine excerpt]
1. FROM HIPPIE TO HIPSTER – THE JERRY CASALE WAY
At Kent State, the Devo cofounder was a member of Students for a Democratic Society and attended the tragic May 4, 1970 protest where unarmed students were fired upon by the National Guard. Two of the four slain were friends of his.
Casale: "That solidified brute power winning out over truth. They got away with murder. When you live through that and see the newspapers are a complete and utter lie, you realize that's the real world. I wouldn't have been into a Devo aesthetic if that hadn't happened to me." He then shed any trace of counterculture style he may have associated with peace and love. "I cut my hair, got rid of my flared pants and velour shirts, and went to this pimp store in Cleveland, where I bought straight-legged pants, high, black shoes, and a long leather jacket, like you'd see the Black Panthers wearing."
2. NEVER TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS
In the mid-'70s, Casale divided his time between the unknown Devo and the blues band 15 60 75, which was famous throughout northeast Ohio.
Casale: "Mark and I had started buying masks. One time I brought a full-head rubber ape mask with me to a 15 60 75 gig and slipped it on before we did that Bo Diddley song 'You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover.' The people that were dancing stopped cheering for the band, started pointing, and [frontman] Bob Kidney turned around and saw me in the mask. I got fired. That helped me get more serious about Devo."
MORE Devo
3. A TWISTED PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Casale: "Everybody had a whacked-out sound. There were no normal sounds on any of the instruments. They had all been tweaked. What you hear on the Hardcore Devo CD is how we would sit around in a living room in 1974 or '75. Mark would have a Minimoog on a table and an ARP Odyssey [synth], I would have a Gibson bass and a tiny amp, Jim Mothersbaugh would have his electronic drums, and Bob Mothersbaugh would have a guitar coming through a little Champ [amp]. And we would write songs and play them…"
Mothersbaugh: "You're making it sound like Lake Wobegon."
4. SURVIVING THE SCENE
Mothersbaugh: "There were two places we could perform without fear of a fistfight or just being paid to quit. That was Pirate's Cove in Cleveland, where 35 hardcore people would show up, and the Crypt in Akron, where we always had 20 friends and four guys wanting to beat us up. When you're that ostracized and disenfranchised in your peer group and in your local culture, you turn unfriendly back. I know we didn't appear to be friendly, but it was self-defense. It was part of our manifesto to separate ourselves out; we were more like aliens making satirical comments on the culture. We took pleasure in being lightning rods for hostility and freaking people out."
5. VIDEO NOW FOR THE FUTURE
Casale: "People forget, we did play rock'n'roll. The emphasis got put elsewhere in the public image and the press. But nobody who saw Devo live thought we couldn't rock."
Mothersbaugh: "But we didn't think we necessarily had to go out and perform. We were inspired by a Popular Science magazine with some clean-cut 1974 couple holding up a laserdisc. We were making music-driven narratives, short films, and we were gonna do a collection of 'em once a year on laserdisc. And we also imagined playing one concert that would be beamed everywhere, so you don't go on tour to support the laserdisc."
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