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Oh, No! It's Devo

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Track listing[]

All songs written and composed by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, except where noted. 

Side one
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Time Out For Fun"    2:48
2. "Peek-A-Boo!"    3:01
3. "Out Of Sync"    3:34
4. "Explosions"    3:01
5. "That's Good"    3:23
Side two
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
6. "Patterns"    2:57
7. "Big Mess"    2:42
8. "Speed Racer"  Mark Mothersbaugh 2:38
9. "What I Must Do"    2:34
10. "I Desire"  John Hinckley Jr., M. Mothersbaugh, G. Casale 3:13
11. "Deep Sleep"    3:24
Total length:
 32:14
1995 Infinite Zero reissue on CD format adds:
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
12. "Part Of You"    2:49
13. "Find Out"    3:22
14. "Peek-A-Boo!" (Dance Velocity)  4:36
15. "Peek-A-Boo!" (DEVO Dub)  5:24
16. "Here to Go" (Go Mix Version)  5:32
17. "Here to Go" (Here to Dub Version)  5:44

Personnel[]

DEVO[]

Additional Personnel[]

Tour Setlist[]

  1. Time Out For Fun (extended intro)
  2. Patterns
  3. Speed Racer
  4. Big Mess
  5. Peek-A-Boo!
  6. Out of Sync
  7. That's Good
  8. Freedom of Choice Theme
  9. Whip It
  10. Girl U Want (EZ)
  11. Planet Earth
  12. Deep Sleep
  13. Jocko Homo
  14. Mongoloid
  15. Uncontrollable Urge
  16. Gates of Steel
  17. Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA
  18. Gut Feeling
  19. Booji's Beautiful World
  20. Come Back Jonee or Satisfaction
  21. DEVO Corporate Anthem (as tape playback and projection)

Extra Info[]

Oh, No! It’s Devo was an album where we leaned into that caricature that people had built for us and wrote from the perspective of fascist clowns. That was our form of retaliation.
- Jerry (2020) [1]

Instrumentation and Gear[]

  • This album features acoustic and electronic drum sounds. For tracks that would be played live, a click track was used, to sync to projected film.
  • 3-DEVO, as well as the three "live videos" made for this album, feature the instruments and gear used by DEVO in concert.
  • In concert, Bob 1 played a J.B. Player Buick during “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA,” instead of a LaBaye 2x4.

Tour Triva[]

  • The oh, no! it's DEVO tour lasted from 1982-10-30 to 1982-12-31 [2]
  • This concert tour showcased DEVO's newest D.I.Y. multimedia theatrical experience.
“It’s more like theater than a rock show.” - Mark (1982) [3]
  • Jerry said, there were background film elements for seven songs off the album.
    The 16mm film was synced to a 35mm magnetic (mag) sound track.
  • Except for the 3-D simulcast and technical difficulties, 3-DEVO faithfully represents the 1982-83 oh, no! it's D E V O tour [4] that audiences saw.
  • The first half of the set (songs before the FOC Theme) were played against a sync film track that was projected behind the band through a right-angle prismatic lens. Alan kept time with the click track and the band interacted with the visuals. [6]
  • Performing in front of large screen in concert, DEVO were “discreetly lit by computerized Pan-a-Spots from Morpheus Lighting.”
  • The Spudring collars, made by Brent Scrivner from a DEVO concept,[5] [6] were designed to reflect stage lighting back up, and provided a clean line to connect to the visual of the potato body, that was seen on the album cover, in the “Time Out For Fun” video, and in concert. [7]
  • Neither Come Back Jonee, Satisfaction, or the DEVO Corporate Anthem were played during the disastrous debut show of this tour and Explosions was played in the second half of the set. Microphones cut out, and the click track was not offset as required for Alan to count the beats. However, the rest of the tour had no such technical difficulties.
  • The "1982-83" "World Tour" – while technically correct - is a joke by Devo. The New Year's Eve '82 show [8] (may have) lasted past midnight, and except for the 1982-11-10 show in Canada, all dates were in the U.S. The many 1982 New Zealand and Australian gigs were part of the New Traditionalists Tour.

Releases[]

Outfits[]

  • This year DEVO transform their bodies into spuds — as seen in concert, in the "Time Out for Fun" video, and on album art. In November Mark talked about his new asymmetrical body:
"The good thing is we're now devolving as much as everyone else. Just as an example, (guitarist [,keyboardist]) Bob Casale came to rehearsal the other day and he had grown a couple more pairs of eyes. I looked in the mirror this morning and my body is now asymmetrical. It feels good."
- Mark (1982)[9]
  • DEVO wear white Spudring collars with black outfits and slicked back dark hair.

Merchandise[]

  • The Club Devo catalog[10] offered new items to invest in, including a “Spudring” collar, a square neck T-shirt, and a color poster[11]

References[]

  1. ↑
    Szatan, Gabriel. (2020, October 27) “We’re Just a House Band on the Titanic”: A Conversation With Devo’s Gerald Casale. Tidal.
    tidal.com/magazine/article/devo-gerald-casale/1-75145 (From archive.org)
     We were certainly talking about those things, but we were not those things. How could this not be obvious? I was a very sensitive young man at the time, and I could not believe how badly wrong the press were getting us. We received a hard lesson that all aspects of nuance in the media had flown out the window. You could even say we flew too close to the sun and got our wings clipped, becoming pariahs at the same time these hypocritical evangelical hucksters gained moral legitimacy in the early ’80s. Oh, No! It’s Devo was an album where we leaned into that caricature that people had built for us and wrote from the perspective of fascist clowns. That was our form of retaliation.
  2. ↑
    The oh, no! it's DEVO tour lasted from 1982-10-30 to 1982-12-31.
    And the nationwide tour outside of California was announced as starting November 3 and continuing through New Year's Eve:
    Jeffrey Ressner. “Superstar Tours Buoy Hopes Of Promoters For 4th Quarter”. Cashbox, (1982, October 23) pg 9
    LOS ANGELES — "...Devo are just a few of the major acts promoters hope can turn the state of the concert industry around this fall following a slow summer season."
    “...Devo (which starts its nationwide tour Nov. 3 and has 35 tentative dates penciled in up through New Years Eve)...”
  3. ↑
    Regan McMahon. “DEVO Takes Time Out For Fun”, BAM (1982, December)
  4. ↑
    oh, no! it’s
    1982-83
    WORLD TOUR
    DEVO
    [ Backstage Pass Laminate: (https://archive.ph/WwVBe) ]
  5. ↑
    "Spudring Collar - from Earl Porges". Gear: Plastics. Devo-Obsesso.
    devo-obsesso.com/html/gear_pgs/plastics/spudringcollar-from-earl.html (From archive.org).
  6. ↑
    Jerry said the Spudring was inspired by the white Puritan collars seen on Dutch Masters tins,[1] [2] and in advertising. [3]
    (Ernie Kovacs endorsed Dutch Masters brand. [4])
    Image source: 1662 oil painting by Rembrandt (son of Harmen, from Leiden): The Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild (De Staalmeesters).
  7. ↑ Gerald V. Casale. “Devo: a video history”. Optic Music. (1984, August).
       It seemed we caused a lot of confusion by the approach we took to “Peek-A-Boo,” “That’s Good,” and “Time Out For Fun,” from the album, O No! It’s DEVO.
       There were no promotional dollars available to use for the production of video clips and, with MTV’s new power and influence, we decided to return to a variation on the early DEVO videos that had served as a prototype of “the band and insert theme” cliché prevalent now. MTV exposure was just as important as touring; if not more so. In an effort to make creative use of available funds, we tried to close the gap (media-wise) between the record album, the video clip and the live-concert performance.
       I storyboarded background film elements for seven songs off the album. Using everything from digital scene simulation fabricated at Digital Productions, to cartoon animation, to still graphics and pixillation, to blue screen and live action photographs shot on high speed 16mm (not to mention extensive ADO work); we created a twenty-eight minute program capable of being played in sync with the band during a live performance.
       Click tracks, effects tracks and sequence lines were recorded separately, but simultaneously during the master mixdown sessions in the sound recording studio (Cherokee).
       The background visuals were cut to a completed mix. Select tracks were then transferred to a six-track film dubber so that later the image could be stripped of its full mix work-track and interlocked to 35mm mag and just the special tracks copied for playback off the dubber.
       The background film element was rear-projected onto a 17’ x 22’ screen in concert. The band stood eight to ten feet in front of the screen, discreetly lit by computerized Pan-a-Spots from Morpheus Lighting.[5]
       DEVO could stay in sync with the backdrops by playing to the click-tracks off the sound dubber audible through individual stage monitors. This allowed us to interact with the images and characters that appeared on the screen for each song and involved the audience in a live-performance video game atmosphere.
       For the finished video clips, we would lip-sync to playback against a blue sweep, simulating the look of a live performance by matching camera angles and focal lengths to the backgrounds using the ADO in post-production. For instant concert footage, we could have just keyed in one more layer – an audience (not recommended).
       The idea was to find a workable technological solution to the various media and reinforce DEVO as the serious music-video act it has self-consciously been from the start...
  8. ↑
    DEVO Live Guide 1982. 12/31/82 - Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA
  9. ↑
    Graff, Gary (1982, November 05) "Backtrack - It's full speed ahead in reverse for Devo" Detroit Free Press. “extra/weekend” - p1C.
  10. ↑
    Image of catalog as included on oh, no! it’s D E V O LP slipcover:
    https://www.discogs.com/master/52741-Devo-Oh-No-Its-Devo/image/SW1hZ2U6NDU2Mjk1NzI=
  11. ↑
    Full color poster: “oh, no! it’s D E V O” (24”x36”) [ Suitable for framing, better than art! ]
    i.ebayimg.com/images/g/edYAAOSwtc9mzJ7P/s-l1600.webp(https://archive.ph/dkmeG/image)
DEVO Live Guide - 1982
"Re-Recording Log - 9/16/82"

Links[]

Oh, No! It's Devo   (master release) -- Discogs
Oh, No! It's DEVO   (release group) -- MusicBrainz
Oh, No! It's Devo   (overview) -- AllMusic
Oh, No! It's Devo -- Wikipedia
Oh, No! It's DEVO (album lyrics) -- Genius Lyrics
Oh, No! It's DEVO (BPM Profile) -- GetSongbpm
Oh, No! It's DEVO (Harmonic Profile) – GetSongkey


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DEVO
Mark Mothersbaugh | Gerry Casale | Bob Mothersbaugh
Bob Lewis | Bob Casale | Jim Mothersbaugh | Alan Myers
David Kendrick | Josh Freese
Jeff Friedl | Josh Hager
Record Labels / Publishers
Booji Boy Records | Warner Brothers | Enigma | Devo, Inc. 
Stiff | Virgin | Rykodisk | Infinite Zero | Restless | Discovery | Rhino 
MVD Audio | The Orchard | Superior Viaduct | Futurismo
Production
Brian Eno | Ken Scott | Robert Margouleff | Roy Thomas Baker | DEVO 
The Teddybears | Greg Kurstin | Santi White | John King | John Hill | Mark Nishita 
Studio Albums
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978) | Duty Now For The Future (1979) | Freedom of Choice (1980) | New Traditionalists (1981) | oh, no! it's Devo (1982) | Shout (1984) | Total Devo (1988) | SmoothNoodleMaps (1990) | Something for Everybody   (2010)
Compilations / Live Albums
B Stiff EP (1978) | E-Z Listening Disc (1987) | Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace (1989) | Hardcore DEVO Vol. 1 74-77 (1990) | Hardcore DEVO Vol. 2 1974-1977 (1991) | DEVO Live: The Mongoloid Years (1992) | DEV-O Live (1999) | Recombo DNA (2000) | Live In Central Park (2004) | DEVO Live 1980 (2005) | New Traditionalists: Live 1981 Seattle (2012) | Something ELSE for Everybody  (2013) | Miracle Witness Hour  (2014) | Live at Max's Kansas City - November 15, 1977  (2014) | Butch Devo and the Sundance Gig  (2014) | Hardcore DEVO Live!  (2015) | Art Devo 1973-1977  (2023)
Filmography
In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-Evolution (1976) | The Men Who Make The Music (1981) | Human Highway (1982) | We're All DEVO (1984) | The Complete Truth About De-Evolution (1993) | DEVO Live (2004) | DEVO Live In The Land Of The Rising Sun (2004) | DEVO Live 1980 (2005) | Butch Devo and the Sundance Gig  (2014) | Hardcore DEVO Live!  (2015)
Related Articles
History | Bootlegs | Booji Boy | Devolution | Influence | The Wipeouters | Jihad Jerry & The Evildoers | Devo 2.0 | Akron, Ohio | Kent, Ohio | Music Videos | Cover Versions | Outfits
DEVO: The Brand / DEVO: Unmasked
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