Devo Won't Give Up the Fight Against De-Evolution

Posted on Nov 10th 2009 1:30PM by Dan Reilly
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Although plenty has plenty has changed in the world in the three decades since Devo released their acclaimed debut, 1978's 'Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!' the New Wave rockers don't see much of a difference. "Things don't change, and the people that want to change things are either stymied or eliminated," bassist/vocalist Gerald Casale tells Spinner. "There's no question de-evolution is real. Everybody agrees with it. People are with us on this devolution thing, so we're all going down together."

And just as they did on 'Are We Not Men' and their landmark album, 'Freedom of Choice' -- both of which have been rereleased in deluxe editions -- Devo are still exploring the same concepts for their new album, 'Fresh,' which is due next year. "We feel the need to pry into human nature and explore dichotomies and contradictions that we don't see as dualities," Casale says. "Man is both an amazing creature and a piece of s--- all at once. We've fouled everything up and are in danger of wiping ourselves out. Everybody knows that, yet you see what goes on when people try to make changes and try to do the right thing. What takes over is fear, pettiness, violence, anger -- it's sad."

Casale's case in point? "Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, they're basically the new Joe McCarthys, but they have a 24/7 news cycle to spew out their demagoguery," he says. "And they're never held accountable. They spout these hateful opinions to manipulate people who aren't sophisticated enough to analyze information and they rile them up, they play with their fears, they stoke the fire, and they're despicable. They dumb down the level of discourse and represent the lowest possible mentality that the human brain has to offer."

Another problem Casale sees is the influence that corporate culture has over society. "We're like a beehive, one big organism and corporations are basically an externalized collective version of the need of the human being to conform, even on an individual level," he says. "There is no life outside of the corporation. It's like feudal society -- the drawbridge went up and you were left out there in the cold trying to build little fires if you didn't work for the king."

After 30 years of railing against these ills of society, nobody could blame Casale or Devo for throwing in the towel and giving up. "That comes and goes," he says. "I mean, you can't give up. You can't let them make you want to die and give up. That's what they want. That's what they all want. They want you to give up and I would never give them that satisfaction. I'm a fighter."