Even DEVO

Drey-chan called me from traffic with this little news blip. Apparently the techo-geek anthems of DEVO, the band that invented nerd-garage sound, are up for sale. And you'll never guess who bought them. Even worse, what they are going to do with them!

Walt Disney (keee-rist!) has made a deal with the original band to purchase their likeness, song catalogue and what not to create DEV2.0 (git it?), a teen-bop band that will perform only original DEVO material, wearing costumes similar to the original band. So now the Disney channel (which I already HATE with a white hot passion) will be slaughtering the classics of my youth and introducing a new generation of kids to Jackie, Nathan, Michael, lead singer Nichole (??? a girl?) and Kane the drummer. This is a formula that Disnoid has used before with "The A-Teens" who were hired to perform the song catalogue of the late pop group ABBA. So it should work, profit wise.

Get this.. they filmed the DEV2.0 video for "Whip It" and instead of bullwhips, they used mixmasters and whipping cream as visual props. The lyrics were nicely sanitized for the kiddies, too!

Don't take my word for it: Video

Of course, when it comes to Devo (the original), it's hard to figure out where the intentional irony starts, or if they just got hungry.

Now, I never viewed DEVO as anything more than a goodtime garage band with a snappy beat and a high degree of geek empathy. Theirs was not music that changed the world. At the end of the day, they really are just more showbiz people trying to make a buck. However, they are a recognizable part of my younger days-- I recall stumbling around to the beat of "Whip It" and "The Girl You Want" and "Mongoloid" in a drunken stupor. There's something about Disney using that experience to sell breakfast cereal (or whatever Disney is selling these days) that really makes me grind my teeth!