Making Flippy Floppy

I came upon it while shopping for clear plastic storage bins at Target. I wasn't planning on even cruising through the CD section, but it's bright white and red cover with its familiar iconography popped right out out at me. "DEV2.0" it said in huge bold letters underneath which was an illustration of some young teens wearing the trademark flowerpot hats. I scanned the song titles, all Devo classics. I slowly began to realize that this bizarre artifact was indeed a group of kids covering a dozen Devo favorites from the original era. I noticed the label: Disney. Curiosity was getting the best of me, but as much as I wanted to just impulse buy the thing, I couldn't get myself to do it. I mean, what if it was totally rotten, y'know? I shuffled off to the clear plastic storage bin department in a daze. When I returned home, the first thing I did was look it up on the web to make sure I didn't hallucinate the whole thing. The details began to fill themselves in: The music was produced and performed by Devo themselves and some lyrics were "sanitized" to make it more kid friendly. The band had held auditions to find five young guys (and gals!) to sing and pose as a band, thus "passing the torch" of Devo to a younger generation. I listened to some audio samples and knew right away that I should have picked up the CD. These are all songs I've loved for years and despite the odds, these kids actually lend some needed youthful rejuvenation to them. Singer Nicole speak-sings with a level of detachment and irony unusual for a 14 year old. Looking at the band bios, it's obvious these kids are no bunch of pre-packaged airheads. Most of them have great taste in music and are actual musicians that will be playing the songs themselves on their upcoming tour. Some may cry Sell Out, but I have to think that getting Disney to release an album of Devo songs for young spuds to belt out from the back of their annoyed parents' SUV is perhaps their most subversive act yet. Disney DEV2.O Official Website