Devo: Hardcore Devo Vol. 1
1990
Superior Viaduct Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Mechanical Man 2. Auto Modown 3. Space Girl Blues 4. Social Fools 5. Soo Bawlz 6. Satisfaction 7. Jocko Homo 8. Golden Energy 9. Buttered Beauties 10. Midget 11. I'm a Potato 12. Uglatto 13. Stop Look and Listen 14. Ono 15. Mongoloid
I used to have this on cassette back in the day... The cover was a little different then...It actually said "Hardcore Devo" on it and had a purplish tint..
I used to love this tape...An in-depth look at the strange world of Devo's earliest, experimental period, consisting of pre-fame 4-track home recordings from 1974-1977...For homemade recordings, they do a really nice job...Every instrument is clear as a bell, and the vocals are clear enough to make out most of the words without a lyric sheet...Sure, it's a lot less polished that even "Q: Are We Not Men..." but I'd say this is still solidly "mid-fi."
I can't quite recommend this to beginner's though, unless you're into the more avant garde side of Rock N' Roll...The music on this album is more Pere Ubu or Residents than Thompson Twins...So if your listening habits lean more towards misshapen riffs and off-kilter rhythms then this is highly recommended...Or if you think Devo peaked with the first two albums, this might also be up your alley...
A few of these ("Jocko Homo," "Soo Bawlz," "Mongoloid," "Satisfaction") would show up later in the band's discography, but for the most part, Devo never got around to revisiting these songs, which in some cases is surprising...Spruced up versions of "Stop Look and Listen" and " Uglatto" would have made excellent anthems on their early albums...And "Midget" is the best shit ever...A severely funky song with some of their funniest (and twisted) lyrics:
"I had the body of a two and a half year old baby,
I had the brain of a man.
I used to play underneath my momma's skirts all day
I parked my car in her garage...
She didn't know I was a midget
But when dad came home she put me away..."
And if you think those are weird, check out "Buttered Beauties":
"Buttered beauties of the negroid north
Spread your tallow on me
Oiled wonder of the midnight forest
Toss down your glossy web on me..."
There's a second volume of "Hardcore Devo," but I don't own it...It's a double-record release and it's usually a tad pricey for me...Maybe someday if I feel like splurging I might go for it...But until then, "Volume 1" has to hold me over when I'm in the mood for something particularly de-evolved...
Oh yea, in a surprise move, the band is currently touring behind this reissue, playing the "Hardcore Devo" albums in their entirety...Goddamn, that sounds great, unfortunately they're not coming to my neck of the woods (curses fate)...
Oh well, here's "Mechanical Man" by Devo...Check it out...
Devo: Pioneers Who Got Scalped
2000
Warner Bros. Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. We're All Devo! 2. Jocko Homo (Booji Boy Version) 3. Mongoloid (Booji Boy Version) 4. Be Stiff (Stiff Version) 5. Uncontrollable Urge 6. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 7. Too Much Paranoias 8. Come Back Jonee 9. Triumph of the Will 10. Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA 11. Secret Agent Man 12. The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize 13. Soo Bawlz 14. It Takes a Worried Man 15. Girl U Want 16. Freedom of Choice 17. Gates of Steel 18. Whip It 19. Snowball (Single Remix) 20. Mr. B's Ballroom 21. Working in the Coal Mine 22. Love Without Anger 23. Through Being Cool 24. Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth 25. Beautiful World 26. Nu-Tra Speaks (New Traditionalist Man)
Disc 2: 1. General Boy Visits Apocalypse Now 2. Peek-a-Boo! 3. That's Good 4. Big Mess 5. One Dumb Thing 6. Theme from Doctor Detroit (Dance Mix) 7. Shout 8. Here to Go (Go Mix) 9. Are You Experienced? 10. I Wouldn't Do That to You 11. Bread and Butter 12. Let's Talk 13. Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini 14. Baby Doll (Devo Single Mix) 15. Disco Dancer (7-Inch Version) 16. Some Things Never Change 17. It Doesn't Matter to Me 18. Stuck in a Loop 19. Post Post-Modern Man 20. Head Like a Hole 21. Thanks to You 22. Communication Break-up 23. Duty Now for the Future! 24. The Words Get Stuck In My Throat
This is a huge-ass, two disc, greatest hits/outtakes/rarities compilation with the most non-functional lenticular cover you can imagine...
It works about as good as the still picture I've posted above...And there's one guy on the back cover whose arm does actually move, but the only way I could tell what was supposed to be depicted was by looking at the sequential photos located inside the CD booklet...Still, I love the idea and it always makes me happy to pull this big, fat box of the shelf and see that cover...To be fair, if you close one eye it does kind of work....
Boyoboy, is this a lot of Devo...2 discs, 50 tracks, 2 and a half hours...On one had it's the perfect retrospective, since it covers the band's entire career up until that point...Previous greatest hits album usually only went up to "Oh No! It's Devo!" with a token track from "Shout" thrown in as an empty gesture...But this thing covers everything...."Total Devo" is just as represented as "Oh No, It's Devo"...For that same reason, I wouldn't recommend this to a newbie...Even I have a hard time making it through Disc 2...I can't imagine what a newcomer would make of it...In the end, I'd recommend picking up "Q:Are We Not Men..." through "Oh No..." and then picking up "Pioneers Who Got Scalped" for the rarities and as a good single disc overview of the wilderness years, giving you a good excuse to skip over the post-1982 output entirely....I've already covered half of what's on here, so I'm just going to talk about the other stuff...
The original self-released Booji Boy single versions of "Jocko Homo" and "Mongoloid." Slower, lumpier and more mutated than the version that would appear on the debut...Stylistically, these fall somewhere between "Hardcore Devo" and "Q: Are We Not Men..." I tend to lean more towards the Brian Eno -produced versions, but these are definitely more unique and interesting...
The absolutely classic "Be Stiff" single...An early anthem featuring all the ingredients for a great Devo song: Odd angles, gross sexuality and buzzing instruments that blur the line between synth and guitar...One of their best, and since I no longer own copies of the old "Greatest Hits/Greatest Misses" discs, I no longer had this in my collection, so I'm thrilled by its inclusion....
"Soo Bawlz" was the B-Side to the "Secret Agent Man" single....The chorus doesn't quite live us to the promise of those excellent muted verses, but all in all, it's a nice, tight, guitar-based new-wave track....This song made zero sense to me until I found out that the original lyrics were "Blue Balls"...
Recorded for some Neil Young film I've never seen, "It Takes a Worried Man" is one of my favorite Devo tracks and to be honest, this song was the reason I picked up this compilation...It's a cover of a traditional folk song, but in Devo's hands it becomes ridiculously happy New Wave with slight gospel overtones...I hear a lot of Dove in this one...And the backing vocals just get better and better as it goes on...Absolutely essential...Check out the video (posted above) if you don't' believe me.
The hit single, "Working in a Coalmine" is here too...I believe I've discussed my love for the "Heavy Metal" Soundtrack in the past, so needless to say, this was one of my favorite songs as a kid...I can't tell you how hard I used to laugh at the "Lawd! I am so tired, how looong can this go oooon?" vocal...Waitasec...Is that part racist?
There are a couple of single remixes of popular Devo tracks...The "Snowball" remix is no big deal, but the remix of "Here to Go" totally trumps the original in every way...A brief glimpse at what "Shout" could have been...
"I Wouldn't Do That To You" is from some movie called "Happy Hour" that I've never heard of, but judging by the poster, it looks like it could be the greatest movie ever made! I see beer, girls in bikinis, Jamie Farr and possibly that nerdy guy from Critters 2!! Alright, that poster's sold me...I've got to see this movie!!
We also get a cover of the remarkably irritating oldies-radio staple, "Bread and Butter"...The only reason to check this out is to hear Jerry sing, "She was eatin' chicken McNuggets with some other guy!" That part made my day, so ultimately I'm glad they did it...This originally appeared on the soundtrack for the Kim Basinger erotic-drama "91/2 Weeks"...Huh? Really?!?! What was this doing on there? Oh yea, I went to Kim Basinger's town once...She bought a town back in the day and I stayed there a few years back in Joe Queer's studio...The town was full of scarecrows...True Story...
YES!! Fright Night! I love this movie! Damn, Devo did a lot of soundtrack work back in the day (and there's still plenty more to go)..I guess there were a few years there where it was mandatory to have a new Devo song in your film...Fright Night used the generic "Let's Talk," which has the tendency to go in one ear and right out the other...
Next we have their cover of "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" from the "Revenge of the Nerds 2: Nerds in Paradise" soundtrack...Damn, Devo was really in soundtrack hell at this point...To be fair, their version isn't as skin-crawlingly irritating as the original, but it's also really not much of anything...It's not good, it's not funny, it's not innovative...It's just sort of bleh...
Eek! Actually, can we get back to the soundtracks? In 1988 Devo returned from a 4 year hiatus to bless us with "Total Devo," represented here by three tracks...I have zero idea what they were getting at here...Everything that made the band great and interesting is so long gone at this point, and we're left with bland, limp, soft-synth-pop...The word "pop" implies melodies though...These are just slabs of nothing...I kind of enjoy "Disco Dancer" on a superficial level, but I again, I'm unsure of what they were trying to accomplish...Is this satire of some sort? Disco in 1988? Were Devo now the hopelessly unfashionable disco boys? Is that what they were saying? It didn't have to be that way...I happen to know there were a lot of people around in 1988 that would have been thrilled at some exciting, innovative new Devo tracks...Unfortunately, these aren't it...
Hey! I like this "It Doesn't Matter to Me" song! Believe it or not, it's not weird hearing the band play strummy, acoustic folk-rock because they're surprisingly good at it...Why didn't they do more stuff like this and give that soulless Fairlight a rest?
We also get two tracks from 1990's "Smooth Noodle Maps" album...To this day, I've never heard this record, but the two songs here sound marginally better than the "Total Devo" stuff...Against all odds, "Post Post-Modern Man" is a pretty good song...
What the hell? Up next we have Devo's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like a Hole" from the Supercop Soundtrack?!?!?! I honestly don't know what to say...For once, they've left me speechless...It pretty much sounds like the original except the rock guitars never show up for the chorus and much of the song features funny cartoon voices?!?!?! It's somehow even more odd than their usual de-evolved covers...Yea, I'm standing by my earlier proclamation that this compilation is no place for beginners...This is, without a doubt, the deep end....
Wow! Here it is! The Ninth Ring of Soundtrack hell! Two songs from the Meet Wally Sparks soundtrack!!! I don't even think a soundtrack album was issued, so "Thanks to You" and "Communication Break Up" make their first appearance on "Pioneers Who Got Scalped"... "Thanks To You" finds the band inching back to their classic New Wave sound (but it still has a ways to go), "Communication Break Up" is cocktail jazz...It's nothing too impressive, but it is different...
To finish things off, the band does a cover of "The Words Get Stuck in My Throat" which was a song that originally appeared in the 60's Kaiju classic "War of the Gargantuas." Apparently, the band used to play this during their live shows back in the day but never got around to recording it...It's easily the best thing in the last three quarters of Disc 2...Mark sings it in that high-pitched Mickey Mouse-esque Booji Boy voice. The oddball lyrics turn out to be a perfect match for the band and they finally sound halfway inspired again...A shockingly appropriate ending for this epic trawl through the band's catalog...
I wish they would have focused a bit more on the unreleased material...Having "Turn Around," "Penetration in the Centerfold" and the fast version of "Social Fools" would have been nice, but it's an interesting warts and all career overview...Again, I'd urge beginners to stay far away from this...
Here's "One Dumb Thing"...Enjoy...
Devo: Something For Everybody
2010
Warner Bros. Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: 1. Fresh 2. What We Do 3. Please Baby Please 4. Don't Shoot (I'm a Man) 5. Mind Games 6. Human Rocket 7. Sumthin 8. Step Up 9. Cameo 10. Later Is Now 11. No Place Like Home 12. March On
Yes! A truly great reunion album if I've ever heard one...Sometimes I'll run across folks who claim "Something For Everybody" isn't so hot and that the folks giving it high scores are blinded by nostalgia, etc...I dare these people to do what what I just did; Listen to all of Disc 2 of "Pioneers Who Got Scalped" in its entirety and then put "Something For Everybody" on immediately afterword and tell me if this isn't a comeback...I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is easily the band's best album since "Oh No, it's Devo!" by a loooooongshot...It's reminiscent of their early 80's glory days but the sound is updated just enough...Most importantly, they bring back the guitars and drums and Mark and Jerry sing like their not bored out of their minds, which is an approach we hadn't heard in quite awhile...A good, long break can do that for ya sometimes...
The updated subject matter set some people off, but I think it works for them...Devo has always embraced technology, so hearing them sing about GPS and Hybrid cars seems natural...It would be more out of character if they ignored all the technological advances made since "Smooth Noodle Maps"...
It's very hard for me to pick out a highlight...I'd say at least half the album is in the running for my favorite track...Opener "Fresh" is an energetic, bracing start and it's a real joy...I can still remember putting this on the stereo for the first time back in 2010, afraid I was about to be put through "Disco Dancer" all over again...But as I heard that infectious guitar line, whip-cracking percussion and Mark's stuttering vocals, I breathed a sigh of relief...They had finally gotten it right...Do you guys know what it was like being a Devo fan in 1990?!?! You know the hell I had to go through?!?! Knowing that your favorite band was still out there playing gigs but only releasing the occasional godawful song on some shit-flecked Z-Movie soundtrack? It always felt like they were so close, yet so far away...
Even if "Fresh" was the lone quality track on the album I would have felt better, but the next song is arguably even better..."What We Do" reminds me of a disco version of Gang of Four, and most importantly, it finds their hilarious social criticism still intact:
"Feeding and breeding and pumping gasThen "Please Baby Please" comes on and it turns out to be one of their best-ever pop songs...It's got a kind of 50's style hook/harmony that I don't think they've ever attempted before, but they pull it off so well...Can we get some more of these?
Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, do it again..."
"Don't Shoot (I'm a Man)" is arguably the album's peak...A big, buzzing ball of modern anxiety: Surveillance, rooftop snipers, tazed bros...Too bad they already used the song title,"Too Much Paranoias"...
There's a coupla songs I could probably do without, particularly in the second half of the album... "Cameo" (which eventually kinda grew on me/made me laugh) and the overly somber and bombastic "No Place Like Home," which reminds me of "Beautiful World" minus the cynical humor and memorable melody..."Later Is Now" also comes across as overly preachy, but fortunately they set everything right with the triumphant closing track, "March On," which is the perfect ending to a Devo album...You get the sense of an army of conflicted robots marching onward to glory/disaster...
There's a few different versions of this album...There's the standard version I own, the 100% focus group approved version (oh yea, I didn't even cover the insane marketing aspect of the album...If you don't know about it, google it sometime) and a deluxe version that also includes four songs that didn't make the cut...Honestly, it kind of drives me nuts that "What Us Work It" was left off in favor of some of these tracks, but what can you do? Sequence your own version, I guess...They also recently released CD of tracks that never even made it to the focus group stage called "Something Else for Everybody" but I haven't run across a copy of that yet...
Here's "Please Baby Please" by Devo...Enjoy...
