Here’s what most people know about Devo – they’re the band that wears those funny red hats that look like upside down planters, and sing Whip It, but the Akron-based act are far more than the “one-hit” wonder that most people think of them as. Formed in the early 1970′s at Kent State University, and taking their name from the concept of de-evolution, the band embraced the pop-art and audio-visual antics of Andy Warhol, while taking a subversive sociopolitical stance against junk culture. With their odd brand of angular, syncopated New Wave, they found early fans in Iggy Pop, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno (who produced their debut album) and David Bowie who declared them “the band of the future” at their 1977 New York City debut gig.
The quirky art-rock pioneers are the subject of the new documentary Are We Not Men? We Are Devo. Directed by Tony Pemberton, the doc, which has been four years in the making, chronicles the band’s entire career using archival film, private home movies, recent concert footage and features new interviews with the band as well as with Iggy Pop, Dave Grohl, Tony Hawk and more. The movie, which is currently in post-production, is seeking additional financing via Kickstarter to help meet their goal of being able to enter it for consideration in next year’s Sundance Film Festival. They’ve already exceeded their initial goal having raised over $37K to date, with 28 days still to go in their fundraising campaign. Let’s check out the 5-minute extended trailer…
Record Store Day (@recordstoreday) is this Saturday and the folks behind the annual event taking place at independent record stores across the globe have begun showcasing some of the special releases set to be issued. In a handful of tweets they’ve started sharing links, images and other details about the limited edition (mostly) vinyl products. We shared some details on the Phish Junta Record Store Day package earlier this week, and as you’ll see below the @recordstoreday account is already fielding questions about the 3-LP set.
Neil Young’s Ohio, made famous by Crosby Stills Nash & Young, is a protest song referencing the horrible events at Kent State University on May 4th, 1970 that left four dead and nine injured. Recorded just three weeks after the fact, it was pressed to single and rushed to radio stations with the B-Side Find The Cost of Freedom.
The Contestants:
Artist: Anders Osborne & Big Chief Monk Boudreaux Album: Bury the Hatchet The Skinny: HT favorite Anders Osborne leads off this week’s Cover Wars with this studio acoustic rendition and a little help form Big Chief Monk Boudreaux.
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A live electric version from Osborne and his band:
Despite regularly touring over the last few years, it’s been two decades since we’ve seen a new release from art-rockers Devo. Yesterday that drought came to a halt as the Akron-based act released their first album new of new material since 1990, Something For Everybody, with the band reaching out to its fans for input during the recording process resulting in the the “world’s first focus group-tested sonic document”.
As a way of promoting the album, the band – who has turned in their red-domed hats for blue ones - produced their own web “reality” series with a new episode to be rolled over each of the next five weeks…
