Proving that America's most engaging and original artists do not have to come from culture industry hubs like New York and Los Angeles, Ohio's Devo crawled out of the Midwest industrial city of Akron to become one of the most well-known conceptual-art-rock outfits of the late twentieth century. Formed in 1972 by a pair of offbeat art student brothers and their drummer friend, Devo began making soundtracks for short films such as The Truth About De-evolution. Over the course of the 1970s, the group went from being an obscure Midwest oddity to, for a brief moment, one of New Wave's most popular exports. While Devo did adopt a more accessible sound at their commercial peak, they never toned down the "weirdness factor," something that may have alienated mainstream audiences once they ran out of ultra-catchy songs.

Devo was formed by brothers Jerry and Bob Casale (bass and guitar, respectively...