Devo will be presented with The Moog Innovation Award this fall at Moogfest 2010.
The annual Moogfest celebrates the work of music pioneer Robert Moog, inventor of the synthesizer that carries his name, among other things.
The Moog Innovation Award celebrates pioneering artists whose genre-defying work exemplifies the bold, innovative spirit of Bob Moog.
As part of this award, Moog Music will present DEVO with a very special synthesizer, details of which will be revealed in the coming weeks. Past recipients of the previously titled Moog Award include Keith Emerson, Herb Deutsch, Gershon Kingsley, Jan Hammer and Bernie Worrell.
“MoogFest is about shunning limitations, opening your mind and rejoicing in what’s next. MoogFest is about celebrating the marriage of technology and art, fearlessly embracing the future while respecting the genre-definers of the past.
That’s why we created the Moog Innovation Award, to celebrate artists that helped to catapult pop music into the future and commemorate those artists that boldly burst through established norms to pave the way forward. That’s the spirit of Bob Moog and that’s the essence of the Moog Innovation Award.
The first recipient of the Moog Innovation Award is DEVO and we feel that they are a perfect representation of innovative sound-sculpting and genre-defying electronic music.
Like Bob Moog, DEVO enthusiastically charted their own course and thus dramatically affected pop culture because of it. Not to mention the fact that they used Moog instruments to create their inimitable sound.
MoogFest and the Moog Innovation Award is the perfect way to pay homage to Bob Moog and his adopted hometown of Asheville, NC where he raised his kids, gave birth to some of his greatest inventions and where he re-established the company that bears his name and carries on his legacy, Moog Music.”
– Emmy Parker, Moog Music
Devo, along with many more internationally renowned performers known for pushing creativity towards new dimensions, will play MoogFest 2010, a three-day festival celebrating the innovative vision of Bob Moog.
The Sex Pistols – “ever get the feeling…” Winterland Ballroom – San Francisco, CA – January 14, 1978
Following The Sex Pistols’ final show – January 14, 1978 at The Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco – Johnny Rotten was a man without a home.
Each of The Sex Pistols made their way to Los Angeles: from there, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and manager Malcolm MacLaren were headed to Rio de Janeiro for a working vacation (recording with U.K. train robber Ronnie Biggs for “The Great Rock N’ Roll Swindle” film); Sid Vicious was in bad shape, and a friend got him to New York, where he was hospitalized.
What about Johnny, then?
"The Sex Pistols left me,” Rotten said, “stranded in Los Angeles with no ticket, no hotel room, and a message to Warner Bros saying that if anyone phones up claiming to be Johnny Rotten, then they were lying. That's how I finished with Malcolm—but not with the rest of the band; I'll always like them."
Within the week, Johnny made his way to New York, where he announced the end of The Sex Pistols to the press. Essentially broke, Rotten called Virgin Records' head Richard Branson for help.
Branson agreed to pay for Johnny’s flight back to London, via Jamaica…
…and...this is where things get interesting.
Rotten meets up with Branson in Jamaica, who’s on a working vacation of his own: he’s there to scout for new acts for Virgin’s “Front Line” reggae label. While the two are in the country, producer Lee “Scratch” Perry records reggae version of two Pistols tracks: “Submission” and “Problems” – Rotten is not impressed with the results and the songs go unreleased.
Making nice during a label bidding-war to snag hot new wave act Devo - who turned some heads, the previous fall, with their first e.p., “Be Stiff” - Branson invites keyboardist Mark Mothersbaugh and bassist Bob Casales to Jamaica to talk things out.
In an interview with Swindle magazine, Mark Mothersbaugh picks things up from here. “We’re sitting there with Richard Branson, one of the richest men in the world, and we’re all in our 20s at the time. They had all this pot, so we’re like, OK. So we’re smoking pot. And they said, “What do you guys think of the Sex Pistols?” And we go, “They’re great.” We had partied with them on the last show they did in San Francisco. We were playing at some punk club, and they were playing the Winter Palace or wherever it was. They came over afterwards and blah-blah-blah.”
Mothersbaugh continued, “So they go, “Well, what do you think of Johnny Rotten?” We’re like, “Oh, he’s cool, we love everything he does.” They go, “He’s here in the hotel, and Johnny Rotten wants to join Devo.”
“And if you guys want to go down to the beach right now, we’ve got reporters from NME, Sound Magazine, and Melody Maker and they want to do a cover story about Johnny Rotten joining Devo.”
"That’s when we realized they hadn’t been doing any pot smoking, and it was only us," said Mothersbaugh. "They’d been rolling joints for us to smoke, but they’d just hold it, then hand it back to us.”
“We just started laughing at them until tears were coming out of our eyes and we were choking, and we’re like, “It’s not you, Richard. We’re not laughing at you. We love Johnny Rotten. That’s great. But what if we just help him start a band.”
So we had to hang out there for like a week with them because they’d flown us down there and we didn’t want to be in a band with Johnny Rotten. It was kind of uncomfortable.”
Despite Branson’s efforts to put the two together, reports suggest that Rotten likely never actually met with the guys from Devo while on the island, or even knew about the “meeting.”
Upon his return to London, Rotten went on to form Public Image Limited, while Devo’s full-length debut, “Are We Not Men? We Are Devo” was released in July - the same month Rotten entered the studio (as John Lydon) to record PiL’s debut, which was out before year’s end.
Last year, Mothersbaugh told USA Today, “I've thought about it since, I've thought that would've been interesting if we would've done an album, “Devo Featuring Johnny Rotten.” They just made it sound really permanent.”
Devo kick off their North American tour tonight in Kansas City.
The tour is in support of “Something For Everybody,” Devo's first studio album in 20 years, which came out last month.
In addition to some tv and online appearances earlier this year, Devo also performed at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February and at the Coachella Festival in April.
Devo “Something For Everybody” 2010 North American Tour
July 23: Kansas City, Mo. (City Market) July 24: Des Moines, Iowa (Simon Estes Riverfront) July 26: Indianapolis, Ind. (The Vogue) July 28: Atlanta, Ga. (Chastain Park) July 30: Richmond, Va. (The National) July 31: Clifton Park, N.Y. (Northern Lights) Aug. 1: Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Osheaga Music & Arts Festival) Aug. 4: Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State Fair) Aug. 5: Chicago, Ill. (Congress Theatre) Aug. 6: Chicago, Ill. (Lollapalooza 2010) Sept. 4: Squamish, British Columbia (Live at Squamish) Sept. 18: Phoenix, Ariz. (Arizona Fall Frenzy)
Devo return this June with their first new studio album in 20 years…how cool and crazy is that?
Always a fun band back in their prime, Devo seemed really intent on shaking things up in mainstream music – mentally, sonically and visually. The group’s thematic concept was based on “de-evolution” – that society was actually regressing instead of progressing, and Devo created mechanical-sounding music with accompanying visuals that were at the cutting edge and early days of the 70s New Wave movement.
A lot of what Devo did was just too far from the average person’s experience of what music was supposed to be, represent and sound like, and many people missed the boat. Some did get it big time: after Devo did the soundtrack for a short film in 1976 called “The Truth About De-Evolution,”David Bowie and Iggy Pop helped get the band signed to Warner Brothers records.
The first track many people heard from Devo was their version of The Rolling Stones classic, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which was so ‘out there’ it was virtually unrecognizable from its original…
The closest Devo got to crossing paths with the mainstream was with their 1980 Top 20 U.S. hit, “Whip It” – the band played it on Jimmy Kimmel last week…
The band has an interesting promo going on right now: “Devo Song Study” gives fans the chance to pick the songs that will make up the new disc. Devo have posted 16 tracks for fan review in the study, and needs help cutting the list down to the final 12; band spokesperson Jakob walks you through the process…
Devo – Devo Song Study (2010)
Here’s two of the songs in the study for your consideration…both from last week’s Kimmel appearance…
Devo - Whip It - Greatest Hits ![Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Deluxe Version) [Remastered] - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_seSFW8gy1VyDI1hofQi_tV-_2FIpjWH9kA_8D1s01CSb45RLp3Xz1Y4OKppTtWMahxLZU1sU7muKyKro5P8_4hUXRZpMvwr2tHGnRoC8kU-DEWGT36o78nACBoEbdOxOspXiCL6wHE2nNT=s0-d){kind=small}
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Deluxe Version) [Remastered] - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction