Devo - Hardcore Devo Vol. 1

Hardcore Devo Vol.1 and Hardcore Devo Vol.2, are a collection of the early demo's and basically about everything the group had developed prior to their first official release, the Brian Eno produced Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo (1978). Obviously a fairly well known band, Devo's first few albums being primarily considered their best works. These two volumes of their earlier work should be well received by most of these fans. Though "weirder" and even more stripped down than their first couple full length albums, but lets face it, it's Devo. Weird and stripped down isn't going to chase away most that find Q:Are We Not Men?... and Duty Now for the Future a good listen. Vol. 1 contains some early versions of songs that turned up on the aforementioned albums. Songs such as "Jocko Homo", "Soo Bawls", and "Mongoloid" to name a few. The lineup at this time saw the Akron, OH band-members at their most numerous, with Mothersbaughs all over the place to say the least.


Devo - "Mechanical Man"

First song on the album, starts off with a minute of zooming sounds fading in and then out, not unlike one of those police cruisers doing a fly by from the movie Blade Runner. Robotic "mechanical man" voicing over simple guitar and keyboard/synths, but very catchy. Use of hard stereo panning, guitar to the left and keyboard/synth to the right.


Devo - "Auto Modown/Space Girl Blues"

"Auto Modown" begins with solid guitar, high-hat and bass drum, bass guitar rolls in and is given the freedom in the song to play around a bit, including some nice playing off each other between it and the guitar. Also throwing out some love to good ole' Youngstown, OH. "Space Girl Blues" kicks in about halfway through, and Mothersbaugh's distinct voice waxes on about those hard to get and rejecting space girls. Always slightly sexual, the Devo lyrics in these early works certainly reflect the same.

These early songs have really grown on me to the point that they're my first choice when going to listen to some Devo at this point. I found a few copies still available at Amazon.com. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as anyone's first exposure to Devo, but these 4-track recorded demos are nice little diamonds in the rough for Devo fans.