The Men Who Make the Music combines concert footage from DEVO's 1978 tour with music videos and interstitials featuring a vague story about DEVO's rocky relationship with "Big Entertainment."
As for the bonus program, Butch Devo and the Sundance Gig, Jerry Casale says, "In January of '96, we closed Sundance Film Festival. We wore 20s style prison suits and dished out classic DEVO songs to an unsuspecting audience of Hollywood elite."
Lazlo's Thoughts:
The interesting thing about combining "The Men Who Make Music" from 1979, with "Butch Devo And The Sundance Gig" from 1996, is the difference between the performances.
"The Men Who Make Music" has a youthful intensity to the songs, and a fun avant-garde public access look to it. It was also making fun of the establishment, the industry, and "selling out" (which apparently is why the original VHS was shelved by Time Life, causing copies of the VHS to sell for big bucks in recent years).
Whereas, "Butch Devo And The Sundance Gig", had slightly slower, but just as entertaining versions of the songs, and was at the Sundance Film Festival which by '96 had already become part of the establishment (though they did sort of make a statement on that near the end of their performance that you should really see for yourself).
The only minor complaint I have is that during “Butch Devo...” there times where the audio & video do not sync up perfectly (the video seemed to be behind by a few seconds). It appeared to be an editing problem of the original recording, as it only occurred during certain parts, and not a defect of the DVD itself.
The bonus material on the DVD is meh (a rehearsal for the Sundance gig, and a couple of full song clips to promote other Devo DVDs). But then again, it is a “bonus”, the two film that comprise this DVD are wonderful.
