Electric Independence: Inside Devo's UFO Studio, They Whip It New Wave, With New Hats
Posted by Motherboard on Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010
As the whole music industry struggles to cope with the rise of the machines, and old marketing models go the way of the newspaper, leave it to new-wave pioneers Devo to come up with some kind of solution. Backed by a fancy marketing agency and that ol’ dinosaur Warner Brothers, the fathers of devolution are making a comeback with a corporate guise (Devo, Inc.), buttressed by a set of focus groups meant to guide their creative process.
Our opinions won’t be swayed: even if the irony is thicker than their synths, the super glossy corporate bit is a typically brilliant trick for the campy new-wavers to recapture the tapering imaginations of kids a) weaned on Lady Gaga and b) who only know Devo because Wes Anderson hearts Mark Mothersbaugh.
Not that they need any more followers. Armed with a new album (and focus-grouped blue energy dome hats) – and fresh off a gig at the Winter Olympics – Mothersbaugh and the rest of the gang met Motherboard in the band’s amazing spaceship of a studio to talk about their rich and strange musical trip, from basement tinkering in Akron, Ohio to subverting dominant cultural paradigms.
They also share their favorite circuit bent gear and antique synths (including an organ they rescued from Pink Floyd’s garbage), rhaposdize about the Moog (while they appeared in an ad with it, Devo never really used the Liberation keytar), and discuss their continued dream of cultural devolution.
(Bonus: the amazing studio of Motherbaugh’s Mutato Muzika was designed by Brazil’s architect titan, Oscar Niemeyer, whom Motherboard profiled last year..)
Learn more at clubdevo.com and devo-obsesso.com
Watch more Motherboard videos, including our piece on the legendary Stylophone and other episodes of Electric Independence. You can also be our friend on Facebook, and get our updates via Twitter
Filed under:
