Today I'm going to talk about the arty new-wave band DEVO and the magnificent color poster which was shipped with their 4th studio Album, "New Traditionalists", along with a 7" single of "Working in the Coal Mine".
('Be Stiff' is an EP and actually a compilation of singles, so it doesn't count).
The poster shows DEVO in a defensive posture against various assailants emerging from the audience;
a housewife, a bible thumper, a punk rocker, a pirate and a hippie.
The audience is an otherwise undifferentiated mob of 'pinks'. A term used by DEVO and the Church of the SubGenius to refer to normies, straights or in other words conformists.
DEVO's defensive posture forms a scrimmage line between the non-conformist threats emerging from the audience, and 3 babies at the rear of the stage, dressed in DEVO gear.
The symbolism is clear. The 'New Traditionalist' DEVO is protecting the future generation from contamination by subcultural forces. The bible thumper probably represents wrong religions, such as charismatic baptist or other such overly demonstrative faiths. The housewife possibly is meant to mean undue influence of mother figures. As it would be hard to take her as a feminist symbol. Though there is that possibility as well. The Ionic column which the babies are frolicking near also some interesting symbolism. It is of course easy to peg as a phallus. But it also represent Eurocentric traditionalism. And it's hard to miss that the white baby is perched on top of it, over the non-white babies.
At this point, if you are not familiar with DEVO and their absurdist aesthetic you might be under the impression that they were a right wing or fascist influenced act. Nothing could be further from the truth. The album New Traditionalists was released in August 1981. This was their artistic reaction to the recent election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency. And a shift towards social conservatism by lot of the American public.
The album is full on parody of neo-fascism. But being DEVO this is not terribly obvious at first. It takes several listens to Race of Doom, Through Being Cool and other tracks to unpack the intention.
It also helps to be aware that DEVO was formed while Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale were students at Kent state. Yes that Kent State. And yes they were students there when the National Guard shot students.
Next we have a vintage SubGenius illustration. The composition is almost identical in many respects. The same semi circle 'stage' which could just as well symbolize the world itself. The same audience with various threats emerging from it.
However this time our protagonist is one of these emerging threats. The central figure is JR 'Bob' Dobbs. The central icon of the Church of the SubGenius.
The illustration here shows Bob, aided by (from left to right) JFK, Krishna, Elvis, Buddha and Jesus with an M16. They are rallying an assault on a multitentacled beast. With aspect being 'Reagan or any president', 'Nazi hell creatures' as well as 'Pink boys and false prophets' among others.
Again the refutation of conformist pinks. Though in this case it's couched in a parody of cults and conspiracy theories. (Trilaterals and C.F.R).
