A New Devo?
Published February 15th, 2006 in MusicSo I just watched the new CD I bought tonight, that is, I watched the “bonus DVD” that came with it. The CD is called Devo 2.0, and it consists of a teenybopper group offering up covers of classic Devo songs, as well as two new songs.
And the new Devo songs are “official” Devo songs, one from Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh and the other co-written with Devo co-founder Gerald V. Casale. The Devo 2.0 project was evidently headed by Casale, who used his music-video directing skills to recreate the Devo style with the young Devo 2.0 (their age range is 10-13). The kids pulled the act off very well in the music videos, so much so that for a moment I wondered if they might be actual offspring of Devo (they are not).
Also on the DVD, the youngsters of Devo 2.0 visit the Mutato Muzika headquarters to interview Mark and Gerald. Mark explains that his original vision of Devo was it being more like a laboratory where they create things but have others bring them to the public. Thus Devo 2.0 would be like getting back to his original vision of Devo. Gerald, however, frames the new band more simply as “like Star Trek: The Next Generation.” That would be a cool idea, however, the liner notes reveal that it was Devo members who play the actual instruments on the album, and only three of the five Devo 2.0 kids actual contributed to the vocals (my guess is that this is probably standard in the teenybopper world, though). A third version of the germination of this group can be found at the Official Devo 2.0 website (under Press/News). It states that this album is the first release of the new Disney Sound label, who intend to bring forth more “remaking the band” projects. The next one will feature the Go-Go’s.
So can I consider this CD to be the new direction of Devo, or will it be just a one-shot deal, the first in a new trend for 80’s bands in general? Whatever the case, it’s a well-produced album and I’m happy to consolidate it into my Devo collection. I also intend to get copies for those in the target audience that I know. I am very interested to see how they take to this recycled entertainment.
Not sure whether to laugh or cry. On one hand, this is so Devo-esque. They always had the in-joke that they were making corporate music in a corporate environment, so there was no reason to even try and pretent they were rebels, right? At least that’s what Mark Mothersbaugh said in an interview I have of him laying around here somewhere. So this is just an extension of that - taking their own music and making it into teeny-bopper canned corporate shit extreme, which is pretty much was the corporate music industry is doing anyway (hence how we got crappy artists like Brittney Spears). Right? On the other hand, it’s still corporate teeny bopper music. So I’m not sure if the joke is on us or on the corporate system in this case.