Devo 

Clearly having spent too much time inhaling the black smoke of the Goodyear factory and drinking from the black waters of the Cuyahoga had spiked the minds of this bunch of weirdos, who issued two obscure 45s on their own indie label, Boojie Boy, which were heavily imported into Britain through Stiff late in 1977.

Early in 1978, both the double-A sided Mongoloid b/w Jocko Homo and a hilarious electrified rendition of The Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction were re-pressed due to popular demand, the singles subsequently becoming minor chart hits.

After a third classic, Be Stiff, also hit the UK Top 75, the flowerpot-headed, potato-faced futurists secured a record deal with Virgin (Warner's in the USA) and continued to inject quirky humour into the usually po-faced New Wave movement. While other New Wave acts adopted jerky rhythms as a dance-stance re-working of punk's pogo, Devo presented such uniformity as a march-step life-track for the de-evolved modern human.

A debut album entitled Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (produced by Brian Eno) was released a month later to a confused but appreciative audience who propelled the record into the Top 20 in the UK and Top 100 in the US.

Their follow-up release, Duty Now For The Future (1979), suffered a slight backlash, with the novelty wearing thin without the benefit of a hit single. 1980s Freedom Of Choice would have suffered a similar fate but for a freak US Top 20 single, Whip It, which became a staple feature of the nascent MTV video. 

Sporting black shorts, polo-necks and red energy-dome flowerpot hats, the band cracked whips as a solution to society's ills as handsome cowboy couples swigged Bud and looked on, oblivious to their own de-evolution.

The band re-formed and toured in 2006 and 2007, paunchy, middle-aged, their ontological hectoring more terrifying than ever.