I am a big fan of Devo. I suppose that fact is obvious to most people who've ever listened to My Robot Friend songs like "Dial Zero." The first album that I ever bought with my own money was "New Traditionalists." I still love the record, but it is hard to judge it objectively anymore because I have listened to it for so many years.
I never actually got a chance to see Devo live until recently at Central Park Summerstage in New York City (the Yeah Yeah Yeahs opened for them). It was amazing! They still rocked! All of the original members were there except for the drummer.
As an added bonus, there was a really funny moment where Jerry Casale was doing this jogging-in-place thing with shorts on and one of his testicles popped out. He was playing with his testicle out for a bit after that until it naturally somehow found its happy way back into his shorts on its own. So, I can proudly say without irony, "I saw Jerry Casale's testicle and it seemed to have a mind of its own!"
Aaaanyway, so I read this biography of Devo (called Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! by J. Dellinger and D. Giffels) where they describe a surreal moment in music history. It almost sounds too bizarre to be true. There is a scene where the band is meeting with Richard Branson, the president of Virgin Records, in Jamaica. He gets them all high with some pot and then makes an interesting proposal:
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"What do you guys think of the Sex Pistols?"
"Well, we like them," Mark [Mothersbaugh] said.
[...]
Branson smiled.
"Well, I'll tell you why you're here," he said. "Johnny Rotten is in the next room, and he wants to join Devo. He wants Devo to be his new band after the Sex Pistols."
Mark squirmed. He looked down at his shoes. Branson continued.
"And if you want to make that announcement, we can go out to the beach - we've got all the British press here - Melody Maker, Sounds, New Music Express - and we can go down to the beach and make that announcement right now."
Mark looked at the huge joint in his hand. Was he hearing this right? Maybe it was the pot.
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Here is a classic video for their cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvcuaJy9OwIAlso, I stumbled across a video from Toni Basil (of Oh Mickey fame) doing a cover of Devo's "Pity You." She called it "You Gotta Problem" for some reason. Regardless, the video is very awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcHKXmSb2Fw