Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! by Devo (1978)

As the story goes, Devo created a bidding war of sorts when David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Robert Fripp and Brian Eno all got a hold of their demo tape. Money was less the currency here than aligned creative vision, Brian Eno 'won', produced Devo's debut in Cologne, got some help from Bowie on the weekends while he was breaking from filming 'Just a Gigolo' and the rest is history.

Except that wasn't it — the recording sessions were massively frustrating for Eno and Devo. He found the band unwilling to experiment or deviate from the sound of their demo recordings and after conflicts bubbled over, Bowie was brought in to remix the album.

Critics had no idea what to make of Devo's entirely unique and 'emotionless' sound. Of course in retrospect, Devo's 'lack of emotion' was a trademark of countless legends of the era (Wire, Gang of Four, Joy Division) but the robotic edge that Devo carried through the rest of their (much weaker unfortunately) career set them entirely apart.

Lead Mark Mothersbaugh famously took his unique sound to Hollywood, scoring Peewee's Playhouse, Rugrats (unimpeachable theme) and Happy Gilmore before becoming emerging savant Wes Anderson's go to choice.

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