From the New York Times:
“Mr. Casale told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Devo would never have reached the heights it did without Mr. Myers, whom he called the best drummer he had ever played with.
“We were mostly in basements and garages writing songs. It was Alan that brought everything to life,” Mr. Casale said. “That was the catalyst where everything clicked.”
“People watching him thought we were using a drum machine,” he added. “Nobody had ever drummed like that.””
I was gonna post this myself, but I was too lazy. Thanks, Peter. I arrived at college in 1978 with a homemade Devo t-shirt (plain black shirt with D-E-V-O separate letters on diagonals, just like ones they sometimes wore on stage). People had no idea what it even meant. Cutting edge to the rest of the college was Bruce Springsteen.
I too measure my hipness by my distance from those who thought Springsteen hip (see my upcoming NY Dolls comment).