DEVO De-Evolution Is Real and the Future Is Now Gerald Casale, Bob Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, Josh Freese, Bob Mothersbaugh
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JUNE 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM SPOTLIGHT Joshua Dalsimer DEVO De-evolution is real and the future is now Gerald Casale, Bob Casale, Mark Mothersbaugh, Josh Freese, Bob Mothersbaugh DEVO’S MARK MOTHERSBAUGH synth lines, the songs are of a piece with turned the tracks over to several preeminent used to be frustrated that the band was so the band’s classic 1970s and ’80s work. artists and producers for remixing. “That idea frequently misunderstood. Today, many of Yet the trademark Devo style remains just came from the song ‘Watch Us Work It,’ the concepts the group put forth 30 years as contemporary as it was when “Whip It” which we originally wrote for a Dell ago are all too familiar. “We talked about fi rst hit radio. “Each of us had different ideas commercial,” Mothersbaugh explains. de-evolution, and people thought we were about what a new Devo album should sound “Dell’s ad agency asked if we minded if crazy,” Mothersbaugh says. “We predicted like,” says Mothersbaugh, referring to fellow [Swedish band] the Teddybears remixed it, one day there would be something called members Gerald Casale, Bob Casale, Josh and we told them to go ahead. When we Music Television, and our record companies Freese and Mothersbaugh’s brother, Bob. heard the results, we thought, ‘Wow, the and our managers said, ‘Why are you “We ended up picking the best from both Teddybears made the song sound better wasting money making fi lms of your songs?’ worlds—the old and the new.” than we did.’” But those things happened. Now if you ask Until now, Devo had been protective Devo finally feels it is of its time someone if they believe in de-evolution, a of its music to the point of straining its rather than ahead of its time. Perhaps for large percentage of people will agree with relationships with producers. “We felt like that reason, the odds are good the group that possibility—or that reality.” none of them understood what we were won’t allow 20 years to elapse before Though two decades have passed since doing,” says Mothersbaugh. “We were the next release. “Making this album has Devo last made an album, the band’s new always reluctant to let them have their been an enjoyable process, for the most disc, Something for Everybody, sounds as way with our music.” For Something for part,” he says. “I could see us repeating if the group has never been away. Rife with Everybody, however, not only did the band it soon.” robotic beats, brittle guitars and squiggly let its fans choose the track listing, it also –Russell Hall DIERKSDIERKS BENTLEYBENTLEY A country star rediscovers a teenage love affair with bluegrass DIERKS BENTLEY WAS A 19-YEAR-OLD FROM PHOENIX, Ariz., aiming for a career as a country singer when he walked into Nashville’s Station Inn nightclub, famous as the stomping ground to many of the city’s fi nest bluegrass pickers. What he heard there changed his life. “Up to that point I always thought of bluegrass AS SEENmusic IN:as being JUNE an older 2010 generation’s M MUSIC genre,” he& says. MUSICIANS “I didn’t MAGAZINE associate it with being young, cool and hip. But I walked in and saw kids my age tearing away on these instruments and having so Danny Clinch much fun playing together. It was like Columbus seeing land—it was a whole other thing I never knew existed.” 1616 M mag 4.indd 16 6/15/10 11:29:18 PM.