The groundbreaking feature documentary DEVO, chronicling the pioneering New Wave band’s profound 50-year career, is now streaming globally as a Netflix Original, arriving alongside the announcement of a new companion album, Energy Dome Frequencies: Songs From The DEVO Documentary, set for release on October 31st, and a major co-headlining tour with The B-52’s launching September 24th. Acclaimed filmmaker Chris Smith, renowned for Wham!, Fyre, and Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, masterfully captures the gloriously radical spirit of DEVO—a rare band founded not just on music but on a potent philosophy, a Dada experiment where high art met low culture, hellbent on infiltrating and subverting American popular culture. The film premiered to rave reviews at Sundance 2024, with IndieWire calling it “a zippy, zany, whip(it)-smart documentary,” Rolling Stone praising it as “a mix of commentary, irony, kitschy collages, and oddball optimism — in other words, it’s maximum Devo,” and Variety celebrating it as “90 minutes of irresistible pop history and dazzlingly edited surrealist audio-visual candy” for devoted fans.
Through a treasure trove of never-before-seen archival footage and candid interviews with founding members Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh, and Jerry Casale, the documentary relishes in the surreal highs, profound lows, and incredible performances of their half-century journey, from their lo-fi beginnings as Kent State University arts students shaped by the political activism of the late 1960s to becoming pioneers of the music video during MTV’s early cultural dominance. The band’s origins were tragically forged in the aftermath of the 1970 massacre on their campus, an event that transformed their concept of cultural “De-Evolution” from satirical humor into an urgent form of social commentary; what began as subversive counterprogramming to the university’s 1973 arts festival evolved into a prophetic artistic mission that would go on to warn of, comment on, and reflect back the absurdism of the late 20th century, finding ironic mainstream success at the height of 1980s consumerism and influencing a 21st century they could have never imagined.
Accompanying the documentary is the companion album Energy Dome Frequencies, available for pre-order now and featuring unforgettable hits like “Girl U Want,” “Uncontrollable Urge,” and their platinum-certified anthem “Whip It.” The band is also gearing up for their next major chapter, uniting with fellow new wave icons The B-52’s for the 2025 “Cosmic De-Evolution Tour,” a 12-date co-headlining run that serves as a continuing concert farewell for both legendary groups, with special guest Lene Lovich opening the celebratory trek launching September 24th in Toronto and wrapping November 2nd in Houston. This monumental period celebrates a band that began in 1973, formed by two sets of brothers—Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and Gerald and Bob Casale—who, after an impromptu endorsement from David Bowie who declared them “the band of the future,” were whisked to Germany to have their debut album produced by Brian Eno, eventually achieving worldwide phenomenon status with their third album, Freedom of Choice, and continuing to define the aesthetic of the early MTV era before pursuing other legendary creative paths; Mark Mothersbaugh became one of Hollywood’s most in-demand composers for film and television, while Gerald Casale became a notable director in the MTV revolution, all while their message of devolution grew more relevant than ever, influencing bands from Nirvana to LCD Soundsystem and solidifying their legacy as one of the most challenging and subversive bands to ever emerge from the underground into the mainstream.
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