Devo - Art Devo 1973-1977 (2023)

Futurismo proudly present the release all hardcore Devo fans have been waiting for: Art Devo 1973-1977, a lovingly packaged box set housing rare, unheard and obscure mind blowers sourced directly from the vaults of The De-Evolution Band. This anthology takes you from the bands initial conception in Akron, Ohio to the moment before the world woke up, in a collection of sonic and visual art that captures Devo at the dawn of industrial death.

Art Devo showcases the mesmerizing evolution of a band on the brink of discovery, mining irony, wit and dark humour from the madness of a distorted modern world still coming to terms with aftermath of a collapsed economy and the Vietnam war. From 1973-1977 Devo would transform from an art project, pop art in the literal sense, into the group David Bowie would declare “the band of the future”. Here you will find the audio mutations of a band at the edge of greatness, initial concepts that gave birth to a new aesthetic that continually challenged preconceptions about music, art, performance, culture, composition and consumption...it was also the birth of Booji Boy. While the songs here may not be fully grown, raw even, these are the seeds of subversion that kickstarted Devo’s fifty year legacy.

Spanning 3 LP’s and a 7”, this collection draws purely from that integral early history, garnered from unearthed basement recordings, original demo tapes, unfinished montages and rare live audio, all taken from the bands personal archive. The music is set against rare imagery, photos and personal artwork, with liners penned directly from the hands of founding members Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh and packaged in a gold foiled archive box containing separate art cards, to evoke a pseudo auction house art catalogue. Did we mention one of the images is also Scratch ‘N’ Sniff!

This is a one-time only, strictly limited edition box set, never to be remade, showcasing why Devo was, and is still is, one of the most important bands in American history. De-evolution is real. The art of Devo is real. Here is the evidence.

The set has a tracklist that has been curated by the band, housed in a gold foiled archive box, and contain a set of double sided art cards - including a Scratch ‘N’ Sniff image. Plus liner notes by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald V Casale.