DEVO
Miracle Witness Hour CD
Digipak
Includes:
CD
Gatefold digipak sleeve with die-cut window and changeable cover
Booklet with rare images of the show
Liner notes by Gerald V. Casale
In 1977 Devo played an intimate show to an eager handful at biker bar turned total dive The Eagle Street Saloon in Cleveland, Ohio. Unbeknown to those canny onlookers, they were to testify to the healing power of Devo. But what of us now? Beautiful mutants fear not, Futurismo are here to rectify your late party syndrome. Televised through the antennas of time we give you Devos’ most intimate unreleased live record Miracle Witness Hour.
Released for the first time on any format, this remastered document of de-evolution is finally given the attention it truly deserves. A rare glimpse into the embryonic stages of the groundbreaking band, the Miracle Witness Hour boasts primal versions of the bands most recalled avant-pop songs such as ‘Jocko Homo’ and ‘Mongoloid’ moments before Brian Eno got his hands on them, juxtaposed against some of their rarer experimental gems. Seemingly fitting for the kind of off the wall experience that would have Devo’s dehumanised art house sci-fi set against the backdrop of Eagle Streets’ dingy and ruptured old world interior. Synonymous with innovative ideology, it was only a few months later that David Bowie would declare them “the band of the future!” but it was at the Miracle Witness Hour that Devo were already proving that the future was already happening. Like surrealist preachers transmitting a challenge to the preconceptions of pop music, it’s the playful live imperfections in this recording that genuinely make this an original and intimate experience, so intimate you can make out individual handclaps of the sparse crowd.
Futurismo revitalises this event with artwork and packaging that enforces the bands forward thinking approach to the aesthetics that shaped the following decade before it came. The outer sleeve comes die-cut revealing the booklet, which can be swapped over to change the front cover. The booklet contains rare images of the event as well as brand new liner notes by Jerry Casale.
Tracklist
1. Be Stiff
2. Uncontrollable Urge
3. Mongoloid
4. Timing X / Soo Bawls
5. Polyvinyl Chloride
6. Jocko Homo
7. Huboon Stomp
8. Praying Hands
9. Secret Agent Man
10. Smart Patrol / Mr. DNA
OUT OF PRINT