Polish your energy domes! Devo will release their first album in 19 years, the American new wave band have announced. "De-evolution has finally arrived," they proclaim in their press release, "and who better to guide us through the mess than Devo?"
It is hard to tell whether Devo's sci-fi synths will feel pertinent or kitsch on the threshold of the 2010s. Though their comeback single, 2007's Watch Us Work It, anchored a Dell computer commercial, it didn't exactly puncture the collective unconscious. The album, as yet untitled, is to be released in the autumn, and will be the band's first LP since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps.
Devo are still led by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, with brothers Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale providing little brother backup. On drums is Josh Freese, he of the $75,000 special-edition solo album offer.
Fuelling Devo's argument that the world has devolved, 2009 is already shaping up to be a busy year for the band. Besides shows in their native US, Devo will visit the UK in May, performing a greatest hits set at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. A few days earlier they will play London's Kentish Town Forum, offering a track-by-track recreation of their 1978 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!. Tickets are still on sale.
"It's pretty much fact – we now live in a devolved world that's getting wackier each and every day," Devo said in their release. Which seems like a good reason to don plastic red hats.
