Mississippi Records presents an Evening of Restorations and Rarities from the Vault with Gerald V. Casale (DEVO) and restorationist Peter Conheim in person! (80 minutes plus discussion and Q&A)
Formed in the wreckage of the Kent State shootings in 1973, where co-founders Gerald V. Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh were students during the massacre, and still blowing the horn as America approaches its semiquincentennial, Akron’s DEVO would take their subversive pop-art to staggering mainstream success. And all the while, they considered themselves filmmakers as much as they were a “band”. From their first film onward (1976’s The Beginning Was the End: The Truth About De-Evolution), they fused their love of dadaist image making with their constantly shapeshifting music, confounding their record label by plowing their meager advances into companion films for songs. This program unveils sparkling new restorations of much of this pivotal work (including Satisfaction, Freedom of Choice, Whip It and much more) alongside a host of rarely (and never)-seen live footage, encounters with hapless interviewers and other spud ephemera, curated specially for Mississippi Records and the Hollywood Theatre by archivist, Peter Conheim.