Devo

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we're joined by two founding members of Devo: Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale! The band kicked off their farewell tour in 2023 – and it's still going strong with new tour dates added. When the band joined us they talked about how the band was founded and what it was like playing shows in their hometown of Akron, Ohio. Plus, they get into having one of their most popular songs used in a commercial for a cleaning product. A version of this interview originally aired in 2010.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorne is a production of Maximumfund.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:25.6	It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorne.
0:27.6	What is Divo?
0:36.6	It is a band, of course, founded in Akron, Ohio in 1973 by Gerald and Bob Cassali, Mark and Bob Motherspaw.
0:42.6	And if you're around my age, maybe you grew up watching the music video for Whip It on VH1.
0:44.1	Shape it up.
0:45.6	Get straight.
0:47.2	Go forward.
0:48.7	Move ahead.
0:50.3	Try to detect it.
0:51.7	It's not too late.
0:53.0	To whip it.
0:54.9	Whip it good. When a good time turns around
0:59.0	You must whip it in here
1:00.0	Before the video comes on
1:01.6	A host would call them like nerd rock or something
1:03.9	I guess because they had glasses
1:05.7	Some of them
1:06.9	But Devo isn't nerd rock
1:09.2	Whatever that means
1:10.1	Put on a Devo record, you will hear some
1:12.3	elements of New Wave, Power Pop, Punk Rock, Art Pop. In 1977, David Bowie called Devo the Band of the Future.
	...

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