tommydski wrote:While I do like the first record, I can see the Talking Heads comparison SE made earlier on.

I haven't heard anything pre-QAWNMAWEAD, so I wouldn't know what they were like pre-Eno.

I think any similarity with the Talking Heads may have more to do with the rise of art dorks in general in the underground music scene at the time, than it would with any conscious effort on Devo's part to sound like them. I assume you are talking about the vocals, correct?

This was when you had the Residents and Screamers on the west coast, Pere Ubu and Devo in the midwest, Talking Heads, Television and a few others in New York, B-52's and, I think, Pylon (who I've never heard) in Georgia, and probably other lesser known bands scattered around the country. It seemed like similar ideas just bubbled up simultaneously around the country, and since then there was no internet, each bubble seemed remarkably self-contained. Probably some cross-pollination of ideas, but not as much as you might think.

I believe Mongoloid was their first 45. I don't remember any major difference in the sound of the 45 vs. the LP. I may have to pull out the 45 and re-listen, as back then I didn't pay that much attention to production values.

Mark Hansen wrote:

tommydski wrote:While I do like the first record, I can see the Talking Heads comparison SE made earlier on.

I haven't heard anything pre-QAWNMAWEAD, so I wouldn't know what they were like pre-Eno.

I think any similarity with the Talking Heads may have more to do with the rise of art dorks in general in the underground music scene at the time, than it would with any conscious effort on Devo's part to sound like them. I assume you are talking about the vocals, correct?

Yup. Though I love the Talking Heads, and I especially love Byrne's voice, I just didn't dig the vocals on the Devo album too much...when I said it was Byrne Cliffs Notes, I mean that basically the voice sounded like it had all the Byrnelike tics and none of the expressiveness.

SecondEdition wrote:

Mark Hansen wrote:

tommydski wrote:While I do like the first record, I can see the Talking Heads comparison SE made earlier on.

I haven't heard anything pre-QAWNMAWEAD, so I wouldn't know what they were like pre-Eno.

I think any similarity with the Talking Heads may have more to do with the rise of art dorks in general in the underground music scene at the time, than it would with any conscious effort on Devo's part to sound like them. I assume you are talking about the vocals, correct?

Yup. Though I love the Talking Heads, and I especially love Byrne's voice, I just didn't dig the vocals on the Devo album too much...when I said it was Byrne Cliffs Notes, I mean that basically the voice sounded like it had all the Byrnelike tics and none of the expressiveness.

Well, regarding Devo's vocals, I think, considering the concept of the band was the dehumanization of modern man in the face of consumer society, a man shorn of true personality and of the ability to decide for themselves what they want, that Devo's vocals perfectly match up with the intent of the band. People turned into automata, only able to communicate their distress by increasingly inhuman welps, squeals and sqeaks creeping in to the otherwise rigidly robotic vocal tones fits their concept perfectly.