Before scoring a record deal in 1978, Devo had already helped shape what would eventually become the major source of promotion for music in the 1980s: the music video. Devo’s initial work in film was a reflection on their creative virtuosity. They were less musicians and more all-around art students that experimented in print-art, films and even built their own instruments for several of their early recordings. 

Here’s a list of Devo’s five best music videos:

1. Jocko Homo
This is where it all began. The Jocko Homo video was actually the second segment of their 1976 film “In the beginning was the end: The truth about de-evolution.” This song is the Devo anthem. It lays out the driving philosophy behind the band—the human race is no longer evolving, it is de-evolving. Like most of Devo’s early work, the video sets a weird post-apocalyptic tone that rides line between creepy and fun.

Devfits, a side project from Pinback singer Rob Crow that mashes Devo and Misfits songs with videos of his children acting out Devo videos, turned out to be weirder and more meticulously prepared than expected last night at the Blank Club.

Crow was the sole member of Devfits. All the music was pre-recorded and he sang the songs karaoke style while wearing a skin tight silver outfit and a creepy serial killer mask reminiscent of the the human-skin mask Anthony Hopkins’s character wore in the famous scene from the Silence of the Lambs. He sang and danced to the music with a silly swagger, which in contrast to the emotionless mask, was downright scary.

The instrumentation was a jumble of Devo and Misfits snippets, cut and pasted to create new, vaguely recognizable songs even to die-hard fans of either band. The lyrics and melodies, best I could tell, were approached the same way. The end result was a handful of offbeat dance-punk pop songs that were interesting and unique.

There were a few videos of his kid reading a semi-familiar Devo script that he was obviously too young to understand. It was hilarious. But most of the footage that played during Crow’s songs was a combination of weird archival film and new videos of Crow dancing and playing different instruments along to the music. The degree of effort Crow took to prepare this performance crossed the line from eccentric to uncomfortable.

Mid-way through the set, Crow moved out of the way of the screen so the audience could watch a nearly five-minute long interlude video of Crow sitting down in a chair with his face covered in bandages. A nurse slowly removed them, one bandage at a time, over a bed of foreboding music, which revealed Crow wearing a brand new, sci-fi mask—black nylon stretched over his head with fake eyes and a large silver collar covering the back of his head. Moments later, Crow emerged with the same motif on stage.

Devfits played a relatively short set of 30 minutes, which seemed like nothing compared to hour-long set from openers Sleeping People. Nonetheless, my hat is off to Crow. It’s not easy to create a live show this far off the beaten path.

Rob Crow is known for doing pretty much whatever he wants. Besides his long tenure in the popular indie band Pinback, this includes bands that only the hippest of the hip have even heard of, and for all most of us know, may or may not have existed in our own space-time coordinates: Heavy Vegetable, Optiganally Yours, Physics Thingy, Other Men, Goblin Cock (okay, the last one actually plays some pretty entertaining doom metal).

So when Crow says “I’m going to start a band that mashes up Misfits and Devo songs, and show videos of my kids recreating famous Devo videos in the background,” no one feels the need to say “that’s nuts.” It’s more like, “When do you want to tour?” And thank god, because now we have the DevFits, Crow’s band which debuted at the end of last year, and does exactly that.

Pinback fans know that the San Diego-based Crow has long been enraptured by Glenn Danzig’s siren songs of punk-horror—the last time I saw them at Bottom of the Hill, they covered “Astro Zombies,” and I’m sure he’s done many more. The question of how he’ll mash them up with Devo’s herky-jerky New Wave makes this show can’t-miss for fans of either band.

The DevFits play Wed., Aug. 1 at the Blank Club in San Jose, 9pm; $5.