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Devo, currently on a mini tour of North America including Toronto tonight and tomorrow night, were known as much for hits like Whip It as their unusual outfits which included yellow hazmat jumpsuits and red energy dome hats that resembled upside down flower pots.
Singer Mark Mothersbaugh said he and bassist Gerald Casale, who met as art students at Kent State University, were mainly responsible for the band's unusual aesthetic.
"We collaborated on visual projects before we did music together and so we just always designed the choreography, the outfits, the merchandise, the ad campaigns, the album covers. We shot our own films. We were always like the Little Rascals of the art world and we did it all ourselves."
Mothersbaugh explained the red energy dome hat was inspired by the '20s and '30s European art movement.
"The red hat came from looking for something that made Devo look more a machine with five working components to it, rather than being like Kenny Loggins and the Morning Dew, or whatever his band was called, or Prince and The Revolution," he said.
"Long before there was a Blue Man Group, we thought of ourselves in that way, as the individuals in the band were less important than what we were trying to convey. And I think the red hats, like the yellow suits, they took us out of the real world and helped build a theatrical vision."