Devo: The Men Who Make the Music

Like the recently reviewed Devo: The Complete Truth About De-Evolution (VL-5/14), this 1979 film compiles Devo music videos, while also adding concert clips from the band's 1978 tour. The 13-song set here closes with the former release's opener: “Devo Corporate Anthem,” a video made before the four-piece New Wave electronic pop/art group (“spud boys from tire town” Akron, OH) fronted by Mark Mothersbaugh were even a band. Other music video repeats include: “Jocko Homo,” a cut from their 1978 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, which set forth the Devo manifesto (essentially casting a questioning eye on the prevailing idea of human progress); the classic, stripped-bare monotone version of the Rolling Stones' “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction”; a cover of “Secret Agent Man”; “Come Back Jonee,” a song the band called “neo-fascist Bonanza music”; and “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise,” featuring an Atari-video-game-console generated background. The (roughly) other half of the program consists of Devo concert performances of favorites including “Uncontrollable Urge,” “Wiggly World,” and “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA.” The General Boy/Booji Boy characters interstitial material charting Devo's rocky relationship with “Big Entertainment” will be lost on non-fans, a truth underscored in the bonus hour-plus concert featuring Devo in a 1996 live gig at the Sundance Film Festival: the audience response to being asked whether they want Booji Boy (Mothersbaugh in a baby-face mask) is tepid at best; but the band has the last laugh when Booji Boy comes out to sing “Beautiful World”—and digs deep into his droopy soiled diaper to retrieve (and subsequently hurl) a voluminous amount of faux excrement into the no-doubt-puzzled crowd. The Sundance dozen-song-plus set features many of the aforementioned tunes as well as the hits “Whip It” and “Girl U Want” off 1980's Freedom of Choice. Other extras include a music video for “Gates of Steel,” and rehearsal footage. Despite the repetition, fans will still appreciate this oddball Devo music film, which is presented in Dolby Digital stereo. Recommended. (R. Pitman)