Oh, No! Bob Casale, Devo founding member, dead at 61.
February 18, 2014 10:22 AM   Subscribe

Bob Casale passed away last night from conditions that lead to heart failure. Mr. Casale formed the band Devo in 1972 with his brother Gerald Casale, and brothers Mark Mothersbaugh and Bob Mothersbaugh, and drummer Alan Meyers (who passed away last year).
posted by Cookiebastard (133 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by Catblack at 10:24 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by DaddyNewt at 10:25 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by fings at 10:26 AM on February 18, 2014


Cracking whips in heaven now.

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posted by Talez at 10:26 AM on February 18, 2014


Grr.
posted by 0 at 10:27 AM on February 18, 2014


Devo's stuff always amazes me - it sounds like it belongs solidly to a particular time, but it also still sounds like it's on the boundary of the unexplored. That's a cool place to be. It means the music keeps sparking new ideas, which may be about the best legacy an artist can hope to leave.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:29 AM on February 18, 2014 [27 favorites]


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posted by Thorzdad at 10:29 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by annsunny at 10:31 AM on February 18, 2014


Damn. And I was all excited when I found out Mark Mothersbaugh is behind The Lego Movie soundtrack. (I still am excited about that, but this is very sad.)
posted by chavenet at 10:32 AM on February 18, 2014 [6 favorites]


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posted by dabitch at 10:32 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by Xoebe at 10:33 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by Kyol at 10:34 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by gcbv at 10:34 AM on February 18, 2014


Oh, jesus fuck. Shit fuck.
posted by SPUTNIK at 10:35 AM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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I got nothing. This is worse than losing Alan.

I'll be listening to the DEVO discography all day today.
posted by SansPoint at 10:39 AM on February 18, 2014 [3 favorites]


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Sad news.
posted by Gronk at 10:39 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by scody at 10:41 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by philip-random at 10:42 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by Elsa at 10:42 AM on February 18, 2014


Whoops. Mr. Meyers was not a founding member. Not that that really matters, just sloppy research on my part. This is devastating though. Devo was such a huge influence on my music, and on my whole way of thinking. I remember, so very clearly, at age 14 hearing the lyrics

"If you live in a small town. You might meet a dozen or two. Young alien types who step out. And dare to declare. We're through being cool."

and I just identified with that more than any single lyric I'd ever heard. I still do, because I'm still looking for (and finding) my fellow "alien types" wherever I go.

Devo taught me that there weren't just a few isolated mutants, but there was a whole goddamn mutant community out there, and we would find each other.
posted by Cookiebastard at 10:42 AM on February 18, 2014 [33 favorites]


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posted by Faint of Butt at 10:43 AM on February 18, 2014


some necessary history ...

VR: Going back to your early days. You were present at the Kent State shootings in 1970. How did that day affect you?

JC: Whatever I would say, would probably not all touch upon the significance or gravity of the situation at this point of time? It may sound trite or glib. All I can tell you is that it completely and utterly changed my life. I was white hippie boy and than I saw exit wounds from M1 rifles out of the backs of two people I knew. Two of the four people who were killed, Jeffrey Miller and Allison Krause, were my friends. We were all running our asses off from these motherf&*$#ers. It was total utter bullshit. Live ammunition and gasmasks – none of us knew, none of us could have imagined. They shot into a crowd that was running. I sopped being a hippie and I started to develop the idea of devolution. I got real, real pissed off.

posted by philip-random at 10:44 AM on February 18, 2014 [39 favorites]


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posted by ndfine at 10:45 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:46 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:46 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by janey47 at 10:47 AM on February 18, 2014


RIP. Putting on the Q&A album now.
There's some great live stuff from then on youtube.
posted by horopter at 10:50 AM on February 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


So upsetting. :(

SansPoint: " I'll be listening to the DEVO discography all day today."

On Youtube: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! Deluxe Remastered Version (Contains the full, 1979 studio album and a live performance of same.)

In lieu of a period:


posted by zarq at 10:52 AM on February 18, 2014 [7 favorites]


A deep and respectful . for Bob Casale.

I saw Bob2 and the other remaining spuds live in Columbus, OH a couple of years back when they were on tour in support of Something For Everybody. I remember being a bit taken aback by how old they all looked (at least compared to their '80s selves), but they still had plenty of energy onstage. His synth textures were absolutely an underappreciated yet key element of their overall sound in the early days and going forward.

(Note: Although the late Alan Myers wasn't the original drummer for Devo -- That was "Jungle" Jim Mothersbaugh, who you can hear on the Hardcore Devo records -- but he was the drummer through most of the band's studio albums, starting with their 1977 debut and ending with Shout in 1984. He was founding "enough" in my book.)

EDIT: On preview, I just realized that when either of the Mothersbaugh bros or Jerry Casale goes, I'm gonna be a wreck for weeks...
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:52 AM on February 18, 2014 [4 favorites]


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posted by doctor_negative at 10:53 AM on February 18, 2014


This is very sad. On the plus side, going to their website alerted me to the fact that I can buy a DEVO: Duty For The Future onesie for Tiny Fetus Madamin-let. That brings me joy.

Thank you, Bob et. al., for many moments like that.
posted by Madamina at 10:53 AM on February 18, 2014 [3 favorites]


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He's through being cool.
posted by Rob Rockets at 10:57 AM on February 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


zark Way ahead of you. I've got the CD.

Duty now, my friend.
posted by SansPoint at 10:58 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by mkim at 10:59 AM on February 18, 2014


.::.
posted by LSK at 11:00 AM on February 18, 2014 [3 favorites]


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And on that day, certain people in Kiev arrange to show us that it's a beautiful world.

Rest in peace, Bob. You tried.
posted by ocschwar at 11:00 AM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:01 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by JoeZydeco at 11:02 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by xarnop at 11:02 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by drnick at 11:02 AM on February 18, 2014


Hey, didn't just recently make a comment about Devo that might bear re-posting here? Fuck me twice, yes, in the obituary for Alan Myers!

Well, it still seems worth repeating "Devo said 'Normal is boring. Be weird.' I said yes, and that has made all the difference."

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posted by benito.strauss at 11:05 AM on February 18, 2014 [7 favorites]


oh fuck.

i worked on the music selection committee of a music fest: an opportunity popped up to have devo headline a day because they were already nearby. i fought and fought and campaigned and whined my way into getting it done. they fucking killed. KILLED. there were old old people and tons of teens and everyone was just completely blown away. DEVO seriously almost tore the place down. i got a chance to meet them for a moment backstage, and they were... standard humans. how great is that?

shitty. fuck.
posted by chasles at 11:06 AM on February 18, 2014 [21 favorites]


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posted by ouke at 11:08 AM on February 18, 2014


So sad. Duty Now was the first album I bought with my own money. Their '81 show in Seattle was my first live rock show. I was psyched when I recently found the recording of that show. I've caught their shows in recent years and been blown away by the energy they still bring to the stage.

So sad.

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posted by calamari kid at 11:10 AM on February 18, 2014 [4 favorites]


Despite loving them a lot, I never thought of labeling myself a BIG Devo fan by any stretch of the imagination. However, if I think about how even 6 year old me responded to Freedom of Choice when played by my cool college-aged uncle as we drove down I-80 across Illinois to visit my grandparents, I realize I would probably be a completely different person (for the worse) if they did not exist.

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posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:12 AM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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posted by Sophie1 at 11:15 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by cashman at 11:20 AM on February 18, 2014


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Saw this live. Devo - Satisfaction (Live on SNL 10/14/79)
Off the charts weird and sacrilegious.
Loved it.
posted by dougzilla at 11:21 AM on February 18, 2014 [8 favorites]


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posted by ambrosia at 11:22 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by ducky l'orange at 11:26 AM on February 18, 2014


I am so sad to hear this and grateful to have seen him one last time on their last tour.

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posted by mistersquid at 11:30 AM on February 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


Devo's Satisfaction IMO outshines the original and comes close to being a perfect song. Part of it is that you know that Jagger is being sarcastic when he sings about having a dry spell in that languid tom-cat purr, while Mothersbaugh and the guitars are frenetically beating against the bars of the cage defined by the lyrics.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 11:30 AM on February 18, 2014 [10 favorites]


i got a chance to meet them for a moment backstage, and they were... standard humans. how great is that?

I remember meeting a guy in LA back in the early 80s who claimed to be Devo's drug dealer. Every week he'd go up one the canyons to make a top secret delivery.

"What are they like?" I asked.
"Surprisingly normal," he said. "They smoke a lot of marijuana."
posted by philip-random at 11:33 AM on February 18, 2014 [7 favorites]


Devo's Satisfaction was one of the most unnerving and genuinely disturbing things I recall seeing on TV growing up. And as I grew up in the 70's...well, that's saying something.

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posted by mosk at 11:34 AM on February 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


Yeah man DEVO got it right. Weird, huh?
posted by Mike Mongo at 11:36 AM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


> Saw this live. Devo - Satisfaction (Live on SNL 10/14/79)
> Off the charts weird and sacrilegious.
> Loved it.


It was my junior year in high school when that was on SNL. Next Monday the teacher in Gov't class, a cool-dude surfer-dude (hey, that's what you get in Orange County) was going on and on about how weird and awful it was and asking "who likes that junk " and it seemed like everybody was nodding along with him. Looking back, I wish that I, who was a goody-good 4.0 science nerd type, had had the gumption to say how wonderful it was. I didn't, but it was a key moment in realizing that I had to get out of there. Again, thanks Devo.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:42 AM on February 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


The first DEVO album is just flat out brilliant art.
posted by davebush at 11:44 AM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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When I was a kid, I liked Devo, but I thought they were just a funny novelty act. Now I know they were, and are, prophets.
posted by vibrotronica at 11:48 AM on February 18, 2014 [3 favorites]


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posted by cazoo at 11:48 AM on February 18, 2014


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posted by El Brendano at 11:53 AM on February 18, 2014


The first DEVO album is just flat out brilliant art.

particularly if you've got the marble vinyl version
posted by philip-random at 11:53 AM on February 18, 2014


I saw them live a few times over the past few years and it always amazed me how utterly perfect it felt to have these late middle-aged men singing these songs.

Like, the music was meant for these guys. It was meant for guys who wore hats and had jobs and brought home the bacon and no one knew that, inside, there were these squidgy mutants going against those evil spuds.

It didn't matter that all the music was from when they were young and hungry. It still felt so right.

Bye, Bob.
posted by Katemonkey at 11:53 AM on February 18, 2014 [5 favorites]


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posted by dbiedny at 11:54 AM on February 18, 2014


I can't say how profoundly sad this makes me. As a weird mutant kid in the 70s, in a culture that had even less room for weird mutant kids than American culture overall, DEVO spoke a language that I could immediately understand. I even raised my kids in part with a worn old VHS copy of The Men Who Make the Music. Casale will be missed.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:54 AM on February 18, 2014 [3 favorites]


Casale's guitar work (particularly in the 70's) was insane. Like the choices he made weren't opposite of what you'd think he'd make, because that would imply he was just being contrary. No, the choices he made were not even related to the choices you'd think he'd make. Your thinking is just too narrow to even conceive of the choices he's going to make.

Exhibit A
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:09 PM on February 18, 2014 [9 favorites]



posted by Smart Dalek at 12:14 PM on February 18, 2014 [3 favorites]


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posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 12:17 PM on February 18, 2014


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posted by Ironmouth at 12:20 PM on February 18, 2014


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posted by Token Meme at 12:23 PM on February 18, 2014


I remember seeing them on SNL in 1979. Me and my friend were still in high school and living with our parents, but I remember him calling me after midnight and we were both like "OMG WE DIDN"T KNOW SUCH A THING WAS POSSIBLE HOW IS THIS WE DON'T EVEN." In other words, it blew our minds.

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posted by marxchivist at 12:25 PM on February 18, 2014 [5 favorites]


Yeah, I saw that SNL show in 1979. I was lying on my stomach in front of the TV like a little kid. I was transported.
posted by maggiemaggie at 12:33 PM on February 18, 2014


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Having survived heart failure at an earlier age, this is especially OMG for me. Also, it seems DEVO has now had as many original members die as The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones (but DEVO and the Stones were quintets so it's less obvious). Still a sad, sad cultural touchstone for the 'second generation of Rock'.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:33 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


Devo, particularly Q: Are We Not Men, was one of those moments in my life where I listened to something, and realized that it was completely different from anything I had heard before, or what I thought music even was.


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posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:38 PM on February 18, 2014 [4 favorites]


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I have said -- and will continue to say -- that Devo's cover of "Satisfaction" is the greatest cover anyone's ever done.
posted by AJaffe at 12:41 PM on February 18, 2014 [17 favorites]


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Saw them twice live in the last couple of years. I had not realized how much they'd influenced me and how much they'd rocked my socks until then. Also, sadly, how damn prophetic some of their ideas seem in the age of reality TV.
posted by immlass at 12:46 PM on February 18, 2014


I put together the Devo Live DVD some years ago. I had no idea who they were besides "Whip It." One of my co-workers (from O-HI-O) was a big fan and chose which songs got the multi-angle treatment. It pretty much blew my mind. Wish I still had that disc.

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posted by infinitewindow at 12:48 PM on February 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


Devo was my junior high boy band and the reason I met my husband.

I'm in shock. Why must I be the age where my heroes start to die? :(

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posted by luckynerd at 12:53 PM on February 18, 2014 [5 favorites]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze516U2sivY

I've loved them from the first time I heard them. :(

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posted by SpannerX at 12:55 PM on February 18, 2014


Bob 2 is the only member of DEVO I got to meet. He was the nicest guy. My best friend and I told him how DEVO got us through high school and was so incredibly important to us, and he said that he was retroactively our High School Advisor.

I'm gonna really miss him. At least I got to tell him how much he meant to me. You don't get that a lot, especially with famous people who had a huge impact on you.

What a wonderful man, and I'm so deeply sorry to see him go.

I'm seriously trying not to cry.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 12:56 PM on February 18, 2014 [15 favorites]


AJaffe: "I have said -- and will continue to say -- that Devo's cover of "Satisfaction" is the greatest cover anyone's ever done."

And I will continue to say that you are dead wrong, but only because Devo's cover of "Secret Agent Man" is even better than that.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:59 PM on February 18, 2014 [6 favorites]


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posted by NedKoppel at 1:01 PM on February 18, 2014


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posted by The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas at 1:02 PM on February 18, 2014


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posted by jquinby at 1:04 PM on February 18, 2014


   =
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posted by chococat at 1:07 PM on February 18, 2014 [18 favorites]


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posted by wallabear at 1:07 PM on February 18, 2014


I'm really sorry about this. I've loved DEVO through my teens and they are always on my playlist. I've inspired my children to be spuds.

And just to settle a dispute, all DEVO covers are better than the originals.
posted by Mario Speedwagon at 1:11 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


It'd be fun if someone would make a FPP of Devo covers of other songs. Just sayin'. (Who, me? I really don't know a lot about music.)
posted by JHarris at 1:12 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]






Not necessarily beautiful, but mutated.
posted by marxchivist at 4:16 PM on February 18


Yeah, no wonder the Hendrix estate hated that. I loved it though.
posted by SPUTNIK at 1:28 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]



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posted by Purposeful Grimace at 1:39 PM on February 18, 2014


Rev. Syung Myung Me: "I'm seriously trying not to cry."

That makes at least two of us, Rev.

PraBob!
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:41 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


I was in high school when my friends and I saw them on SNL doing Satisfaction. We were all fans of standard rock music at the time.

Listening to them tear down, rearrange, and completely turn that song inside out was one of the most amazing experiences of my musical life. It was like listening to aliens relaying a message from the future. My friends and I were stunned by the whole thing and I instantly became a fan.

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posted by freakazoid at 1:42 PM on February 18, 2014 [12 favorites]


And just to settle a dispute, all DEVO covers are better than the originals.

It is utterly impossible for me to not mentally hum the DEVO versions of both Satisfaction and Secret Agent Man. I'm not sure I even know how the originals go anymore.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:48 PM on February 18, 2014 [4 favorites]


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posted by facesonflags at 1:57 PM on February 18, 2014


When I was a teenager, almost everyone I knew and knew of liked Devo. It seemed like an almost cultish attraction until I heard "Beautiful World" (video) and I was hooked. For a few weeks now I've been on a Devo binge. Recently I added lyrics from "Later Is Now" to my Facebook Quotes section. I was just thinking that their music is timeless. This news is really upsetting.

Rest in peace, Bob. Thank you for being a big part of one of the happier points of my past.

Let the Devo marathon march on.
posted by quiet earth at 2:01 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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posted by Sys Rq at 2:02 PM on February 18, 2014


1980s. Visiting family. Went for a walk. In my absence, my dad saw my DEVO album and decided to play 'Satisfaction' for the assembled adults, so that when I got back, he & his peers could mock my generation's effete musical taste to my face.

Uh yeah so on my return, he shared all this & explained that the plan had fallen flat because DEVO's cover was actually kinda nifty. (My dad was a jazz fan, mostly.)

It was a sweet moment of triumph (and now a fond memory of my dad's backhanded style). Thx DEVO for being not tritely degenerate but DEGENERATELY BRILLIANT.
posted by feral_goldfish at 2:23 PM on February 18, 2014 [4 favorites]


DEVO on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (1979)
The boys ripping-through Secret Agent Man / Blockhead / Uncontrollable Urge / Mongoloid.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:25 PM on February 18, 2014


This one hurts. This one really, really hurts.

Thank you, Bob 2. As ever, duty now for the future.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:24 PM on February 18, 2014


So everyone is talking about the first time they heard Devo, and I actually can't remember, because thanks to my dad, they just always seemed to be there.

We used to watch their video compilation a lot while at my dad's place - and, okay, the scene where Booji Boy gets his head caught in the vinyl presser still makes me a little uneasy, we loved "Through Being Cool" and "Freedom of Choice" and just generally loved watching their videos because there was nothing like it out there - especially for nerdy kids having to alternate between nerdy Star Trek/Star Wars/old movies loving Dad and Focus on the Family/church three times a week/wholesome entertainment Mom.

One Saturday, after spending Friday night over at Dad's, my mother calls me into the kitchen. She wants to know what we did at Dad's.

"The usual. Watched movies. Goofed off."
"Your sister told me. Some movie where a bunch of guys were whipping the clothing off of a woman?"

She's talking about "Whip It".

And I'm stunned, because although I'm 13, and I'm definitely at that age where suddenly it's THE END OF ALL THINGS to watch anything remotely sexual with your parents, it had never struck me as a particularly sexual thing. It wasn't like the cowboy jock raping the cross eyed girl - I knew that wasn't right, but Mark Mothersbaugh whipping clothing off a woman? Seriously?

"That's just Devo, Mom," I said. And that was the only answer I had for her.
posted by Katemonkey at 3:25 PM on February 18, 2014 [10 favorites]


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posted by aesop at 3:29 PM on February 18, 2014


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posted by Windopaene at 3:37 PM on February 18, 2014


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Damnit.
posted by Mezentian at 3:42 PM on February 18, 2014



posted by charlie don't surf at 4:29 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


I think his guitar work gave DEVO's carefully crafted musical "fuck yous" the edge they needed in many cases. Neil Tennant comes to mind as someone who's just as sarcastic, but often a bit too slick in his crooning to really pull it off.

It helps that they picked many of the targets of their satire well. Peek a Boo, Girl U Want, Freedom of Choice, and Beautiful World still work. I think Whip It might have been one of their misses, but it's such a good song anyway.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 4:43 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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posted by homunculus at 5:02 PM on February 18, 2014


Are We Not Men came out right when I was ready for it.
posted by pracowity at 5:13 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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posted by limeonaire at 6:43 PM on February 18, 2014


The second time I heard Devo was as a teenager, babysitting the neighbours' daughters. They wouldn't sleep so we turned on the TV to Rage and were dancing round the lounge-room to Jocko Homo when their parents came home...

The last time I saw Devo was in 2012 on their Australian tour. It was a slick, fun, fantastic performance that went for hours but it seemed like minutes.

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posted by Kerasia at 7:12 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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posted by equalpants at 7:19 PM on February 18, 2014


I think I actually learned about Devo from reading the review of "Q: Are We Not Men" in Rolling Stone. These were the days when you could get exposed to great new bands by reading Rolling Stone or watching late-night television, then go out and buy the album and be blown away. I think that Booji Boy/Jocko Homo video was shown on Don Kirschner, or maybe SNL. Transformative.

Saw them do "Q: Are We Not Men" in its entirety a few years ago in New York. Just amazing, something I'm so happy to have had experienced.
posted by stargell at 7:51 PM on February 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


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posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 8:04 PM on February 18, 2014


You reach a certain age and you're not too surprised when you hear certain people have moved on. And then there are times when you hear about people and you can't imagine they have moved on. This is one of those cases. I remember hearing Devo in the late 70's. I can still hear them now. Thanks. Duty now for the future.

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posted by njohnson23 at 9:43 PM on February 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


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posted by drowsy at 11:47 PM on February 18, 2014


I was spending summers in Mogadishu with my parents in he mid 80's. My mother taught 3rd grade at the international school there, she would have me teach music ,as her skills were marginal in that dpt.
I taught the kids "beautiful world" as it was something that they could play along with rhythm sticks. The real message of the song went over their heads, but they liked the "for YOU, but not for ME" bit. I was a big devo fan, I still have my club devo packet.
posted by boilermonster at 11:51 PM on February 18, 2014 [2 favorites]


Man did I love the song "Going Under".
posted by boilermonster at 12:26 AM on February 19, 2014


I'm still floored. I can't believe this.
Years ago I did a Devo podcast. Episode #10 contains the various songs they've covered: Positive Mutations:Devo Covers (mp3 version)
And yeah, I use the f word a bit, but every podcast warns of it. ;)
posted by luckynerd at 1:35 AM on February 19, 2014 [5 favorites]


A THIRTY-SEVEN EPISODE PODCAST ALL ABOUT DEVO?!


posted by JHarris at 1:38 AM on February 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


49. Including two guests ones from a Mefite! :)
I had a lot of fun doing these.
posted by luckynerd at 2:10 AM on February 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh, that first SNL appearance. My mind was permanently blown. I was so fed up with 70s music and suddenly, here were people who GOT IT. Their music helped me through a lot of rough patches and made some of the good rides much better.

Got to see them live on their "Something" tour and they totally lived up to the decades of love. I am so grateful to have experienced them in person since there won't be another chance.

These guys were my band, and now they're going away. It's not fair. Not fair! I still needed them, we all still need them.

I need to go off somewhere to curse and cry. Sometimes mortality really sucks.

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You did a great job, Bob2. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest--to a fine DEVO beat.
posted by kinnakeet at 2:42 AM on February 19, 2014 [2 favorites]



posted by Gelatin at 2:57 AM on February 19, 2014


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From the Los Angeles Times article:
Gerald said he and his brother were deep into a project that would have been something akin to a "Devo online school." Consider it a trade school, Gerald said, that would have taught participants how to write music with digital tools or how to score a commercial.

WOULD. ATTEND.

Saw them live once, for the New Traditionalists tour, and was shocked at how tight and good they were live. One of my top 5 concerts of all time.
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 4:03 AM on February 19, 2014


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posted by Halloween Jack at 4:41 AM on February 19, 2014


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Come Back Jonee seems appropriate even though Bob wasn't part of the band yet.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:40 AM on February 19, 2014


Driving to work this morning I listened to their last album, and the track "What We Do" included this lyric:

Eeenie meenie meenie meenie miney miney mo
The lucky ones are going to be the first to go.

Damn.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:34 AM on February 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


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Never knowingly listened to a Devo album, but am glad they exist(ed)
posted by asok at 7:24 AM on February 19, 2014


or at least this one video which, though not their greatest moment, is perhaps the most succinct distillation of the Devo worldview.

It's a Beautiful World for you ... but not for me
posted by philip-random at 9:25 AM on February 19, 2014


I've been a fan since before the first LP. Be stiff, Bob. (Too soon?)
posted by stefan62 at 11:08 AM on February 19, 2014


Come Back Jonee seems appropriate even though Bob wasn't part of the band yet.

Bob2 is on this one. He joined in the Hardcore era. (I think there was a very brief period without him before they brought him in -- but I don't know if there's even any recordings of that era? And I might even be mistaken about that.)
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 2:38 PM on February 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Lefsetz gets out the handkerchief:
We’re sailing into the sunset.

We made history and soon we will be so.

Everything we thought so important is fading away.

We went from testing limits to being the limit.

So, so long Bob 2. I bought all those records, you weren’t the star, but I knew who you were.

So long cutting edge videos, they can only be done once, and they were, in the eighties.

So long KROQ, which once pioneered bleeding edge music and was the sound of a generation.

So long MTV, which was so busy casting aside generations it didn’t realize there was no core left to appeal to the next.

So long percolating in your local market before bursting upon the scene as a phenomenon, if anyone of note is creating in Akron, we know immediately.

And so long the rock dream
Not exactly the train of thought I had, but you never know how something's going to strike us old folks.

.
posted by hap_hazard at 9:40 PM on February 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


DEVO is really a part of the fabric of my everyday life. They have been since I first learned about them back in the early 80s.

I earn my keep these days by dabbling sometimes in code. Here's a piece of pseudocode I wrote on another discussion board and, besides maybe being worth a chuckle, it reminds me how much I will always love DEVO.
when (aProblem.comes(along)) {
     you.whip(it,must);
}

before (cream.sitsOut(tooLong)){
     you.whip(it,must);
}

go(forward);

move(ahead);

try(detect(it));

if (it != too late) {
     you.whip(it,good);
}

I think what I mean to say between my earlier post and this one is WE'RE ALL DEVO.

RIP Bob Casale.
posted by mistersquid at 11:55 PM on February 26, 2014 [3 favorites]


For those still reading: Bob had no insurance, and so his family has been hit hard with hospital bills, funeral costs, etc. A fund to help the Casales in the wake of Bob's death has been set up here.
posted by scody at 9:54 AM on March 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


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