REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE ENCORE PRESENTATION (GERALD V. CASLE of DEVO on The Films & Videos of DEVO)
Hey everyone...in honor of our upcoming 100th episode (!!!), I'll be re-releasing a few of my favorite past conversations on Tuesdays.
This one was a lifelong dream for me: getting to talk to DEVO's Gerald V. Casale about their body of work--a band whose musical and visual identity showed teenage me that it was o.k. to be different, weird, and skeptical. Jerry does not suffer fools gladly, so I was quite nervous going into the interview, but once he realized I wasn't going ask about the flower pot hats, we both relaxed and took a serious deep dive into how he and DEVO altered the world forever, as well as how lonely that could be for them. Episode 35 originally aired on May 9th, 2024.
The original podcast show notes:
This week, the one that started it all for me, Devo’s Jerry Casale, joins me on the podcast to talk about Devo’s film and video legacy. We discuss the origin story of their first short film, the films that influenced Casale and Devo’s aesthetic, their early jobs and the pressures of Ohio, how ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ influenced the 'Beautiful World’ video, meeting collaborator Chuck Statler, where Rod Rooter’s dialogue came from, Club Devo and the difficulties making their merchandise, Jerry tells the plot of the Devo feature-length film script that never got made (including one that was going into production with Francis Ford Coppola & one with William Friedkin), how they directed their conservative looking extras and General Boy, meeting their idols, how they constructed their live shows, phone calls from the video Commissioner of MTV, censorship, working with Soundgarden, Bruce Connor’s ‘Mongoloid’ short film, transgressive art, people being scared of Devo, Kent State & the Vietnam War as the antecedents of Devolution, crawling out of the basement, the communal mindset of the members of Devo, the antagonistic nature against Devo from interviewers, having fun with the audience while rubbing their nose in it, the groundbreaking & primitive ‘Oh No It’s Devo’ tour, making ‘The Men Who Make The Music’ and having your own action figure made of you.
So...peek-a-boo...let's all get devolved together on this week's Revolutions Per Movie!
JERRY CASALE (videos, action figures, music, art):
https://www.geraldvcasale.com/
DEVO:
REVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:
Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.
New episodes of Revolutions Per Movies are released every Thursday, and if you like the show, please subscribe, rate, and review it on your favorite podcast app.
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THEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'
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