It must be nice to have Devo as your first client. Mother LA, an offshoot of the Mother ad agency, got just that opportunity—and has hit the ground running with the cult band, getting Mark Mothersbaugh and company to change the very way they operate creatively. With the band set to release their first album in 20 years, Mother pushed to make it an inclusive affair, running a series of crowdsourcing experiments on ClubDevo.com to get input from fans on everything from color selection to song mixes.
"In the past, Devo was very insular," Mark Mothersbaugh says on the band's site. "This time, I became intrigued with the idea of having people who understood Devo actually work on the songs, and to do to our songs what we did to 'Satisfaction' on our first record. Don't put any boundaries on their production style, let them bring what they needed to make Devo be what it should be after waking up from suspended animation for 20 years."