Fear this....

[dvandom]

While shopping at Target today, I saw something with such promise of mind-mangling wrongness that I HAD to get it.

Disney Presents Devo 2.0

Five perky teens performing songs written by Devo (I'm not enough of a Devo fan to know if any of these are new songs written explicitly for Devo 2.0, but they ARE all Mothersbaugh et al).

Tracklist: That's Good, Peek A Boo, Whip It, Boy U Want, Uncontrollable Urge, Cyclops, The Winner, Big Mess, Jerkin' Back 'N Forth, Through Being Cool, Freedom Of Choice, Beautiful World, Girl U Want.

I haven't listened to it yet, not sure it can possibly live up to my expectations of wrongness, though. The liner notes are five "pages" of pictures of the band, plus track listing, webpage flogging and legalese. You are encouraged to go to the webpage for lyrics. But while I have linked to the webpage, I'm not going there myself. :)

Update: On closer inspection of the packaging and some googling, I find that Gerald V. Casale, an original member of Devo, came up with the Devo 2.0 idea.

Another update: I'm watching the performance "videos" on the bonus DVD. These are not teenagers. They're tweens. The lead singer girl, fortunately, has hit her voice change and has a decent alto, though.

Yet another update: Disney selected these 10-13 year old kids in a national talent search. They all do seem to be able to play their instruments, but according to the credits of the DVD, the original Devo performers did the instrumental tracks there. Might be pulling a Monkees, launching with other people (Devo in this case) playing the instruments on the album, but trying to get them up to snuff in time for a tour so they can play in front of audiences.

Defanging of lyrics update: Turns out that Motherbaugh and Casale decided to do the lyric rewriting, in consideration of their target audience of 5-8 year olds.

Comments

[scavgraphics.livejournal.com]

ah...I heard primal screams about this on one of my music video boards.

[ezrael.livejournal.com]

Holy fucking shit, Disney has lost their minds. These are the guys who were inspired by Oscar Kiss-Maerth and Jocko-Homo Heaven Bound and they're repackaging them for kiddies?

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

As I watch the documentary, I'm starting to get the impression that Devo has infiltrated Disney like a virus, and is using Disney's resources to reproduce themselves....

[tvsgrady.livejournal.com]

...my God...

[j-anderson123.livejournal.com]

Could be worse... it could be an album of Metallica butchering Devo songs.

Though Sheryl Crow doing a GNR song and Layne Staley butchering Pink Floyd were the 2 worst covers I ever heard...

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. In the song "Freedom of Choice," the original refrain is:

Freedom of choice
Is what you got
Freedom from choice
Is what you want.

In the 2.0 version, "Freedom from choice" is replaced by "Freedom of choice".

Hmmmmm.

[polkatrip.livejournal.com]

I'm torn - yes, it's a bastardization of Devo, but on the other hand, I'd rather kids be listening to bastardized kiddie Devo than most of the other teeny-bopper crap that gets marked to kids these days!

Besides, at least they're not l'il Guns'n'Roses.

(Now, if Disney put out a kiddie Velvet Underground, THAT'D be cool!)

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

And it's a bastardization of Devo BY Devo. Well, mostly by Devo. I expect the "freedom from choice" excision was Disney-driven, much as the many changes to "Through Being Cool" for the Sky High soundtrack probably were. Haven't listened to the 2.0 version of that to see if it's the same bowdlerization as TMBG's cover yet, though.

No WAY is Devo 2.0 gonna be covering Mongoloid or Jocko Homo, though.

[zqadams.livejournal.com]

Or "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA" or "Some Things Never Change" or "Goin' Under." For the record, I believe that "Cyclops" and "The Winner" are new songs (at least they aren't on any of the albums, including the B-sides added onto the Infinite Zero rereleases of "Duty Now," "New Traditionalists" or "Shout", the Ryko compilations of stuff they did before Q&A, the Interstate 82 OST or the Rhino two-disc anthology. They could be from other soundtrack work the guys did post-96 though, since pretty much anything Mothersbaugh scored has at least one new Devo song that I haven't heard. (The fact that I didn't know this even existed until your post shows how much my Devotion has faded in the past 10 years, I guess)

Anyway, I'm really shocked that they put "Big Mess" on here, given that it's basically a letter some whacked-out Texas DJ sent the band admitting that he was stalking someone set to music. But all in all, this seems like exactly the kind of thing Gerry and Mark would come up with--after all, this is the group that licensed "Beautiful World" to Target for ads where everyone moved in unison, dressed alike etc., then turned around and mocked them for completely missing (and unintentionally reinforcing) the point of the song.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Yep, Cyclops and The Winner are new for this album.