Devo to be subject of documentary by 'Tiger King' director
Lights, camera, jumpsuits.
Akron’s own Devo will be the subject of a new documentary.
The quirky new-wave band, famous for yellow jumpsuits, red energy domes and plastic hair pomps, had a major influence on popular music in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As robotic purveyors of “The Akron Sound,” the band embraced the dystopian theory of de-evolution — that humans are evolving backward into a more primitive form.
So far, they haven’t been proved wrong.
Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh formed the artsy, iconoclastic group in 1972. The classic lineup includes their brothers Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale, and Alan Myers.
Devo is known for the 1980 smash “Whip It!” as well as other songs like “Jocko Homo,” “Uncontrollable Urge,” “Girl U Want,” “Freedom of Choice,” “Working in the Coal Mine,” “Beautiful World” and “Through Being Cool.”
The group’s devoted fans affectionately refer to themselves as spuds.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the 1978 release of the debut album “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” and the group’s famous appearance on “Saturday Night Live” in which they startled America with jangly renditions of “Satisfaction” and “Jocko Homo.”
Director Chris Smith, whose previous films include the Netflix docuseries “Tiger King” and the Emmy-nominated “Fyre” and “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond,” will lead the project.
“Devo was a huge influence on me,” Smith explained in a prepared statement. “Their approach to music, film, video and art was something I had never seen before and was one of the truly formative artistic influences that showed me there were entirely new ways to look at things.”
The movie, cleverly titled “Devo,” will be the first authorized documentary about the band.
Nina Corcoran, a writer for the online music publication Pitchfork, noted that BMG, Fremantle Documentaries and Warner Music Entertainment, will be the executive producers.
“Using a mixture of interviews and archival footage, ‘Devo’ will explore the group’s formation in the wake of the Kent State massacre, Devo’s years as outsiders in the music scene, their breakout moment with ‘Whip It’ and the faithful fandom they’ve maintained,” Corcoran wrote.
The band has been nominated twice to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but has not made it into the hallowed Cleveland shrine thus far.
Spuds can only hope.
Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
More:No place like Devo: Gerald Casale revisits childhood home in Kent
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Devo to be subject of documentary by 'Tiger King' director
