Home / Store / Books / Recombo DNA Story of DEVO Or How the 60s Became the 80s
Recombo DNA Story of DEVO Or How the 60s Became the 80s
by Kevin C. Smith
Published by Jawbone Press
320p, b&w, softcover, 6"x8.5"
$19.95
Out of Stock
"Devo may have become synonymous with the crass commercialism of 80s
new wave, but many of their guiding principles are firmly rooted in the
idealism of the 60s. Taking a willfully non-traditional approach to the
surprisingly conservative world of rock music, they sought inspiration
instead from Dada and Pop art to comic books and homemade electronics,
in the process crossing paths with everything from late 60s psychedelia
to punk, krautrock to new wave.
Recombo DNA is the first book to
evaluate in the proper context the innovations and accomplishments of
this truly groundbreaking band. Opening with the transformative effects
of the May 4 1970 shootings at Kent State University - the aftershocks of
which are felt throughout the book - author Kevin C. Smith traces the
sounds and ideas that Devo absorbed and in turn brought to prominence
as unlikely rock stars, dropping in along the way on studio sessions
with Brian Eno, post-apocalyptic filmmaking with Neil Young, and a
Jamaican odyssey with Richard Branson. For anyone who has ever wondered
where "the band who fell to earth" came from, here is the answer."