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Devo has now gone 16 years since their last proper studio album, 2010’s Something for Everybody. While the new wave pioneers remain extremely active with a number of projects, it seems new music isn’t on their schedule presently.
Instead, they’ve been touring, including an ongoing series of dates with fellow new wavers the B-52’s. The pair recently added more dates to their Cosmic De-Evolution outing that will begin Sept. 17 in the Chicago area suburb of Tinley Park. August will also find them sharing the stage with Billy Idol.
The continuing road work has made Devo a favorite of not just the old school fans, but also, additional generations of younger listeners. So much so that cofounder Gerald Casale joked that they’ve become the “new wave Grateful Dead.” It’s nice work if you can get it and they’re getting a lot of it thanks to that unexpected generational cool factor.
READ MORE: The B-52’s and Devo Announce New Tour Dates
Why Devo Hasn’t Released New Music
Casale is blunt though when it comes to the reason that Devo — long known for using their music as a platform to address issues, both political and otherwise — isn’t working on new songs. “You’re preaching to the converted here. Tell Mr. [Mark] Mothersbaugh,” he told journalist Lyndsey Parker, when asked about the possibility of new music.
Pressed further on the subject, the bassist could only add, “If you find out, let me know,” as Parker presented possible options for the musical silence, wonderig if Mothersbaugh was simply more focused on other things.
But There is New Music From Casale, for Devo Fans
With the open space for creativity, Casale has recorded Wetiko, an upcoming solo release, as he shared in the interview, which you can watch below. “It’s about a 300-year-old Native American belief about the absolute psychological sickness of Western culture. At the basis of Western culture, they think, is a cannibalistic virus where the brain’s infected with insatiable greed and selfishness,” he explained.
“They believed this then, and they described it then in terms of their more mystical terminology, but it’s been there forever,” he continued, regarding the solo album, which is expected to arrive in October. “They even drew a personification of this monstrous sick force that’s in humans, a beast called the Wendingo that is basically a hideous large bird, like a crow, but featherless with a big cowl and as big as a dinosaur, just grabbing babies and eating them.”
Wetiko features fellow Devo members Josh Hager and Jeff Friedl playing on all of the tracks, according to Casale. Additional guests include Oingo Boingo alum Steve Bartek on three songs as well as longtime Billy Idol collaborator Steve Stevens, who brings his guitar skills to four tracks.
READ MORE: The Strangest Concert Devo Ever Played
Watch Gerald Casale’s ‘Just Do It!’ Video
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The First Single is a ‘Finger-Snapping Ditty for Fascist America’
“Just Do It!” is the initial offering from the upcoming record and he says that it’s an outlier compared to the rest of the material, though there are other examples that are topically unvarnished. “There are plenty philosophically that attack the problem with the duality of human nature,” he told Parker. “[But] there’s no other song like that.”
The seeds of “Just Do It!” go back to 2016. “It’s just a finger-snapping ditty for fascist America,” he detailed. “I knew this was where it was going 10 years ago. When [Donald] Trump came back, my heart sunk into my tender gut. And as much as we wanted to be wrong about everything that we were warning about, as canaries in the coalmine, it goes beyond our worst fears. It’s a horror show.”
Devo’s next round of tour dates will start Aug. 7 in Scranton, Pennsylvania with Billy Idol. They’ll join up with the B-52’s in September as mentioned and are currently set to wrap up their 2026 touring with a concert on Halloween in Palm Desert, California.
Watch Devo’s Gerald Casale With Lyndsey Parker
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