In 1973 in the town of Akron, Ohio, DEVO was born. Known today for their crazed antics, unique sense of style, and their staple in New Wave music, DEVO became an icon for those transcending out of Disco Fever and into a new synthetic revolution of music.
Their name is short for their satiric view of society. DEVO is short for de-evolution as the members and devoted fans believe that instead of evolving, society as a whole is de-evolving. If you ask for proof, they’ll tell you to just observe American society as it is today.
One of the most iconic objects in New Wave was created by DEVO, this being the energy dome. Normally red (however recently it’s become blue), this item was worn during their famous music video for their most reputable single, Whip It. Whip It came in at #14 on the Billboard Charts, but through relentless touring and a cult following, DEVO outlasted the rest of the New Wave rockers without adapting their sound to the changing times.
In fact, DEVO still tours today. They’ve recently dropped a new album (where the energy dome is now blue) and just completed a leg of their 2010 tour in San Diego. I just love to download music by Devo and their latest album Something for Everybody is my new personal favorite.
For more information on DEVO, check them out at their website.
Watch the most famous Devo in live action, as the perform Whip It on Jimmy Kimmel:
Jeffry Ross Hyman, (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001) better known to the world as Joey Ramone, was one of the original punk rebels. Joey Ramone was an outcast in high school. Inspired by David Bowie, Iggy & the Stooges and The Who, he took to the drums at age 13. In 1974 he formed a band with his school mates, John Cummings and Douglas Colvin from Forest Hill, Queens, New York. Giving themselves new names (Dee Dee, Johnny, and Joey) they took the conventional idea of what was acceptable for rock music at the time and went on to change the way that music would be thought of forever and influences a hard edge even today in the era of where soft artists and music downloads for free seem to run the industry.
With their manager who took the name Tommy Ramone, the group decided they could take on the world of commercial rock with their own brand of unique raw power. At the time the main rock acts in the world were very polished, technically accomplished and even over-produced.
The Ramones had a gritty, unrestricted energy that did not rely on lengthy guitar or drum solo’s like the mainstream. The songs consisted of two or three chords and short repetitive lyrics. The emphasis was on the emotional expression of the band and their lead singer. It was the strenth of the Ramones performances that gave them a reputation of leaving nothing to question and everything to remember.
In the UK, the band’s influence soon took hold. After their 1977 tour, British bands immediately changed the way they delivered their songs. The music became more basic and gritty, faster sounding and songs were shortened to around two minutes, all directly attributable to the Ramones sound.
Here is a video from the Ramones influential English full tour in 1977:
What the Ramones did for music is like what Warhol did for art… stripped it back to it’s most basic form, and in doing so made it reproducible. In the Ramones case, I think that their sound was so unique at the time, and simple, that it spawned imitation all over the UK. Is that a bad thing? Well, if it wasn’t for the Ramones challenging the status quo there would never have been the Sex Pistols, and punk music would never have existed
The late Simon John Beverley aka Sid Vicious, was the second bass player for the seminal punk band the Sex Pistols. He was the personification of the term rebel. He grew up in London and was a shy child that was prone to occasional fits of violence. His closest art school friend John Lydon renamed him Sid after a bite from his pet hamster.
At 17, Sid ended up homeless, living in squats and working as a rent-boy. He discovered a shop that sold fetish gear which was eventually and aptly named Sex. One of the shop’s weekend employees Glen Matlock, played bass and formed a band with guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook. The group originally was named the Swankers, but once they convinced the store’s manager Malcolm McClaren to become their band manager they were renamed The Sex Pistols. The manager’s partner (the now iconic fashion designer)Vivienne Westwood had seen Sid in the store and thought he could well be the front man, but his friend John Lydon got in there first, and so John became Johnny Rotten. The Sex Pistols had their first gig in 1975 and took off in both popularity and notoriety. Glen and John didn’t get along and when Glen left in 1977, Sid was asked to join the band even though his musical skills were almost nonexistent. Because the world is at our fingertips these days, you can easily obtain a music download of even the earliest albums put out, like Spunk and Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, both from that early time in 1977.
The Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren once said that Sid didn’t represent musical talent, he represented attitude. Sid could never play bass well, by the time he died he still hadn’t managed to learn the basics. Sid went against the idea that a musician requires skill to play in a band, and believed that all he needed was the ability to look and play the part. That’s what he did, from his on-stage antics like spitting at the audience, cutting himself and bleeding on stage… Yuck. That’s why punk audiences spit at bands to show appreciation today; but I’m pretty sure he was doing it to take the attention away from the fact that he couldn’t play his instrument.
Other rebellious things he did were attacking TV presenters, wearing offensive clothing that he had no real belief in like wearing Swastikas on his shirts. He wanted to provoke and cause outrage. It’s been alleged that he once threw a glass and blinded a women. Johnny Rotten said he was a poser, had a innocence about him, and the ability to laugh at everything. I think he just didn’t care about anything until Nancy.
Nancy Spungen
Nancy Spungen was a Sex Pistols groupie, who was a hand me down lay from a couple of the boys in the band, but for some reason Sid fell for her a couple of months after joining the band. Things went down hill from there. She was a junkie from New York, they shared a love of the Ramones and then he started using heroin too. The story goes that after a night of heavy use together, Sid wakes up and finds Nancy dead, stabbed with his knife. Because he was high, he couldn’t remember and didn’t know if he did it or if someone came in to their room and killed her while they were off their heads. He went to jail for for assault on someone else, getting clean while in there. When he got out his mum organized a delivery of heroin for him for getting bail on the murder charge. He overdosed that night. That was February 1, 1979.
He had a short life, but a produced a lasting impact on punk today. He wasn’t talented, but he had a charisma and he just didn’t give a damn. He rebelled from everything and everyone, and I’m pretty sure his band-mates disliked him – but for some reason he captured public imagination. In this way, he lives on as the archetype of punk. I’m going to leave you with this classic video of Sid which demonstrates how he did things his way:
Would you like to listen to the music covered on this site? You can download music on this site from Kazaa.com. Kazaa has over one million songs available for download. Right now, Kazaa is offering a 7 day free trial.
