Devo's Bob Casale is dead

A friend of mine alerted me to this news. For the moment, I won't discuss the undercurrent of the dueling announcements that follow in this post.

Oddly enough, I had been reading about the late Alan Myers recently. Now comes word that another member of Devo, Bob Casale, has passed away. Publicly identified as the engineer for the band, this Bob (or, for that matter, the other Bob) wasn't as well known as the other members of Devo, but he was clearly an integral part of the band.

Mark Mothersbaugh offered these comments:

We are shocked and saddened by Bob Casale’s passing. He not only was integral in DEVO’s sound, he worked over twenty years at Mutato, collaborating with me on sixty or seventy films and television shows, not to mention countless commercials and many video games. Bob was instrumental in creating the sound of projects as varied as Rugrats and Wes Anderson’s films. He was a great friend. I will miss him greatly. “

-Mark Mothersbaugh

Bob's brother, Gerald Casale, obviously had some thoughts of his own:

Very sad news to report today.

Bob Casale of Devo. Born: July 14th, 1952 . Deceased: February 17th, 2014

As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning. He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got. He was excited about the possibility of Mark Mothersbaugh allowing Devo to play shows again. His sudden death from conditions that lead to heart failure came as a total shock to us all.

Gerald Casale, Devo founder.