Here Comes The Flood: Devo: Something for Everybody

photo: Joshua Dalsimer

Devo have split up and reformed more often than most bands. With their left-field synth pop they were the ultimate geek band, who decontructed the Stones' I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and crossed over to the kids with the S&M pastiche Whip It in 1980. Over the years the band was involved with various film projects, including the infamous Human Highway film made by Neil Young in 1982, with Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh scoring and recording much of the soundtrack, his first of many.

Although they made some inroads into the mainstream - they even worked for Disney, Devo remained a cult favorite with a hardcore fan base that was kept wondering if there would ever be a follow-up for their 1990 studio album Smooth Noodle Maps. Their patience has been rewarded with release of Something For Everybody. Was it worth the wait? The album was created with a lot of outside people helping out. They hired Greg Scholl to serve as COO for Devo, Inc., and had advertising agency Mother LA conducting a series of studies to find their fans feelings about album art color selection and song mixes. The results could have been disastrous - a middle of the road hodgepodge of an album that would take a short cut to the cut-out bin. As it stand all the corporate honchos and quibbling fans failed to kill off the signature rhythms and "I'm-cooler-than-you" vocals.

Something for Everybody isn't the new Freedom of Choice, but is way better than their latter day studio output. With the new single Fresh, the sci-fi love song Mind Games and the neo-Krautrock anthem March On, Devo extends its lease on life, continuing a career that has lasted more than 30 years - not bad for a bunch of geeks.

Devo:
Gerald Casale: bass guitar, bass synthesizer, vocals
Mark Mothersbaugh: synthesizers, vocals, mutated guitars
Bob “Bob 1” Mothersbaugh: guitar, vocals
Bob “Bob 2” Casale: guitar, keyboards, bass synthesizer
Josh Freese: drums