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Release Date: 1990-03-01, Audio CD, Peter Pan

This is it? Just two CDs devoted (snicker) to one of the great American bands? With the one-two punch of their mission statements "Jocko Homo" and "Mongoloid" from the early 70's, it's clear that Devo had it all figured out from the beginning. Theirs was a fight against the increasingly alienating modern world, a sort of "if you can't beat it, join it" idea. Devo would find more honest humanity by becoming less human. "Are we not men? We are Devo!" was their declaration, echoing the man-beast experiments in H.G. Wells's Island of Dr.Moreau. Devo were not just academic philosophers, or simple clowns. They could rock! Disjointed beats, Beefheart-worthy rhythms, and strange sounds combined with general outrageousness resulted in a great rock & roll band, and even a hit or two on the pop charts like 1980's "Whip It." The first of the two CDs on the Rhino compilation Pioneers Who Got Scalped goes down like butter, every song a classic. Two or three more CDs could have easily been culled from these same fertile years between their debut album and 1981's New Traditionalists. The second CD starts to lose the plot a bit as the members of Devo started going in different directions, primarily Mark Mothersbaugh's developing interest in movie soundtracks and scoring. But it does still paint the picture of Devo and where they were during what Jerry Casale, Mothersbaugh's writing partner, refers to as "the enigmatic years." Until someone steps up and releases the entire Devo recordings and videos together in one big box, this will have to do. And too many great things cannot be said about the 52-page booklet filled to the gills with info and photos. While completists will still be left wanting, this'll keep most spud boys and girls pogo-ing contentedly. --Steve Turner

I got into Memphis. So begins Dr. King's "Excerpt from Speech the Day Before His Death" at the start of In Search of Freedom. His arresting, mellifluous voice, heard eerily removed, as if coming through a bullhorn, retains all the splendid vibrancy of timbre and his singular gift for oration. His message is urgent: the stalwart journey into civil rights, civil disobedience, and the path of nonviolence has taken him all the way to "the mountaintop." On this disc these spiritual ideals are perhaps best understood in the lengthy yet clearly flowing "Address to American Jewish Committee," wherein King provides the reasons and constitution of nonviolent protest and the fruits achieved from its labors. Decades after his precious life was taken, King's language dances, resonating the very sanctity of living along with his Atlanta congregation, who affirm and encourage with "yes, sirs" and "amens." --Paige La Grone

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Release Date: 2001-10-16, Audio CD, Columbia River Ent.

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