Opening night of the 55th Nashville Film Festival on September 19, 2024, highlighted a documentary, DEVO, directed by Chad Smith, which premiered originally on January 21, 2024 at Sundance. As it was introduced to the audience at the Belcourt Theater, the comment was: “So insightful in ways that I never thought it would be.” The “Whip It” creators formed DEVO in 1973 in Akron, Ohio. They still seem to be ready and willing to continue as a band, if not as able as they were in the 70s and 80s. The dedication at documentary’s end was to three members of the group who are dead. At film’s end three of the surviving members—Bob Mothersbaugh, Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerard Casale—answered questions from the audience via zoom screen.
At the Opening of the 55th Nashville Film Festival.
The band credits the impetus for their formation to the political unrest at Kent State, Ohio, that led to the May 4, 1970 deaths of 4 students (and the wounding of 30) who were demonstrating against the Vietnam War. As someone who took part in demonstrations of the era at Berkeley, I can remember and relate to the horror the members of the group experienced at this historic mis-use of power in the United States. Nixon had expanded the war in Vietnam without an act of Congress; my generation’s young men were being sent to Vietnam to die in a war that was ill-advised and unwinnable. The draft was in full swing; we were mad as hell and not going to take it any more. The students had set fire to the ROTC headquarters on campus and burned that building down. President Richard Nixon decided to send in the National Guard, who opened fire on the unarmed students.
AHEAD OF THEIR TIME
DEVO:
photographed in Holland, 1978 by Barry Schulz.
Through the years, the band doggedly worked to satirize society and, as they admit, “We did some absurd things.” In explaining the famous “energy hats,” as well as the lacquered hair-dos that the band wore (based on JFK, not Reagan), the group admitted, “We like ironic humor.” They also said that the masks and hats and odd costumes were “a way to amuse ourselves—a very Meta idea.” DEVO was anti-punk rock, saying, “We’re the fluid in the punk enema bag.” Over the years, the group saw the future of film in music and began making music videos which were shown on MTV (MTV didn’t exist when the band first formed). Casale went on to helm music videos for current groups like Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters and Soundgarden.
Not only was the band way ahead of the curve in using music videos to promote themselves (most of which were directed by Gerard Casale), but they contributed to the birth of electronic music. Jim Mothersbaugh created circuit bending before there was a name for that process. Jim Mothersbaugh went to a muffler shop to build a guitar that was the precursor of the Moog synthesizer. In this respect, the film reminded me of the SXSW documentary “Resynator,” ,helmed by Alyson Tavel, which catalogued her father Don’s similar pioneering attempts to create the Moog synthesizer. (Highly recommended). DEVO has been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, 2021 and 2022.
FAMOUS FANS
Audience members at DEVO at the Nashville Film Festival on 9/19/2024.
After a video that the band submitted won an award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival their fortunes took a turn upwards. Famous fans included David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger, Dennis Hopper, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. Over the years, the band made appearances on “Saturday Night Live,” David Letterman’s “Tonight” show, daytime talk shows like Merv Griffin’s, “American Bandstand” and many others. Neil Young put them in a movie entitled “Human Highway” in 1977 (released in 1982) where the members of the group wrote their own parts and portrayed nuclear garbagemen.
However, the group said, “Being self-aware put us in a delicate position” and added, “How soon will you become the people you hated?”
Q&A
During the post-film conversation with three members of DEVO the trio shared some amusing details of what they term the “headache” solo. This episode is shown onscreen. The small audience of 12 people dwindled to 6 people when all the band played were electronic high-pitched sounds. As Mark said, “The guitar players backstage were having a horrible time trying to tune their guitars. The bit ran five times as long as we thought it would. It was Supreme Dada—like Andy Kaufman performance art.”
Bob Mothersbaugh, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Gerard Casale during the zoom interview after the documentary DEVO.
CONCLUSION
This documentary about a band best-known for their #14 Billboard Hit “Whip It” was quite interesting. It drives home the need for good marketing, good management, and good legal advice in areas like the music, publishing and entertainment businesses. While DEVO’s video marketing was good, it was ahead of its time as MTV did not yet exist. The management and the legal advice seem to have been spectacularly MIA.
That, as much as anything else, led to the death of DEVO—(if they are really and truly dead.) As Mark Mothersbaugh said, “Somebody decided that DEVO should die. We succumbed to the same reality we were satirizing.” He added, “DEVO didn’t officially end” and said, perhaps prophetically, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”
A solid opening to the 55th Nashville Film Festival.