Recombo DNA: The story of Devo, or how the 60s became the 80s

“Kevin C. Smith’s rigorously researched book digs deep into the cultural and historical context behind Devo and its genesis, providing the most detailed account of this influential band yet. Beginning against the backdrop of late ’60s Kent State, Recombo DNA deftly probes the links between urban industrial history, avant-garde art, dada, experimental film, punk, krautrock, instrument technology, and pop culture ephemera that spawned the Devo aesthetic.

Smith’s impressive book is as much a history of the 70s as it is a biography of Devo, an illuminating chronicle of that decade’s dramatic transformations, and the emergence of the new wave movement.”
-Theo Cateforis, author of Are We Not New Wave? Modern Pop at the Turn of the 80s and The Rock History Reader

“Kevin C Smith’s excellent, diligent book represents the first fully committed acknowledgement that Devo’s other-worldview was always too conceptually knotty to be compressed into a mere soundbite.” – Record Collector

“Another angle, borne out by Kevin Smith’s catalouging of Casale’s and Mothersbuagh’s offbeat obsessions in Recombo DNA, is that in actively seeking out wrong-ness, these young spuds were equally seeking to appal themselves, shock themselves out of the American Dream … a probing analysis.” – The Wire

“This book is almost as out of this world as ‘the band who fell to earth’. Almost. An in-depth look at a seminal band’s evolution in one of music’s most important decades ever.” – Vive Le Rock“

For Smith, the Devo story is mainly what led up to their recording career, rather than what came after. … Since Devo are anything but your typical rock band, a book about them should not be your typical rock book. … My advice is to simply read the book, it is excellent.” – Blinded by Sound