Devo
Devo, Title TBD (Warner Bros.)
Release Date: April 2010
"Devo already did the kind of alternative world, hermetically sealed alien band, and we did that quite well," says Jerry Casale, co-founder of the pioneering art-rock band that will release its first album in 20 years this spring. "So we said, 'What would Devo do now, now that de-evolution is real and Devo is normal?' " The answer was to partner with a major label and New York ad agency Mother for the ultimate in consciously ironic corporate consensus-building around the album, which Casale hopes to call "Something for Everybody" despite the publicized working title of "Fresh." The final track list is still being decided but is likely to feature the high-energy (and "focus group-approved," according to Casale) "Please Baby Please," as well as tracks by producers including Greg Kurstin and John Hill. As for the two-decade gap, Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh isn't worried about the band's association with any particular era. "Lyrically we're talking about the same things we always did: pro-information, anti-stupidity, the human condition," he says.
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