Name DEVO, Gerald V. Casale
Best known for Being the Rodney Dangerfield of rock ‘n roll.
Current city Napa, CA
Really want to be in I’m here now, call me. I’m making my wine in Napa Valley. The 50 by 50 Wines, thefiftybyfifty.com.
Excited about My next collaboration with Josh Freese and Steven Bartek to follow the recent release of my latest songs and video “The Invisible Man” re-mixed by none other than the genius, Martyn Ware. And, of course, I am excited about bottling my 2022 Rose of Pinot Noir in March of 2023.
My current music collection has a lot of Dust.
And a little bit of Fingerprints.
Preferred format Each format fills its rightful place in the cosmos of music delivery systems. I do like that the song sequence on vinyl records is etched in stone so to speak.
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:
1
Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Bob Dylan
Why not start at the top? Bob Dylan is the most important poet of the 20th Century, camouflaged as a recording artist. His poetry is the dark matter that binds us together in our iteration of the Multiverse.
2
The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground
The best music was always created by artists using sound-producing instruments. The Velvet Underground’s debut album was a “hammer drop” taste test separating the cool crowd from the squares. Lou’s deadpan nasal proclamations driven by downtown NYC psychedelic noise-rock transgressed the rules of rock and pop. Nico’s icy flat vocals drove passive males with tender tails to submission. This was “the shit” as they say and it sounds just as dangerous now as it did in 1967.
3
Electric Ladyland, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
I loved all things Jimi Hendrix from the moment I dropped the needle on “Foxy Lady” in 1967. He was Robert Johnson on acid and he gave hope to a generation of rebellious youth taught to “duck and cover” and die in Vietnam by transporting them to an alternate reality. He exploded into the Zolo Sphere with “Voodoo Chile” and “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)” on his 1968 double album opus masterpiece.
4
Diamond Dogs, David Bowie
In 1974, DEVO had been laboring in garages and basements experimenting and forging our concept-driven aesthetic with seminal works. ThenDiamond Dogs was released. I was stunned and put in my place. I thought about giving up. Shortly after, I went to see David’s live “Diamond Dogs” show in Cleveland Ohio. Beyond jealousy or envy, that show rose me from the dead and gave me my marching orders to raise the bar on Devo in a do-or-die effort. I had seen what it takes to combine theater, concept and music in a three-stage rocket to mind-blowing effect. I could listen to that record while in the midst of assisted suicide.
5
Dig Your Own Hole, The Chemical Brothers
Having created original and groundbreaking music, I had grown jaded by the 1990s. Everything just sounded like a computer-based amalgam of all that had gone before in pop music – except EDM. When I heard the Chemical Brothers’ “Block Rockin’ Beats” I heard what Devo should have been doing and failed to embrace. This was symphonic music meets electronica in dynamic, immersive compositions driven by the best studio-birthed sonics in decades. I felt revived and inspired in a way I had not in three decades. Dig Your Own Hole is an orgasmic, exhausting ride!
