About

Please support DEVO and buy all official releases that you can, such as the truly unbelievable Art Devo: 1973-1977 or career-spanning 50 Years of De-Evolution. This stimulates more and better releases.

Booji Boy’s Basement has not, does not, and will not ever distribute any DEVO recordings that are currently commercially sold or streamed .

Booji Boy’s Basement is a not-for-profit distribution service for non-commercial DEVO and DEVO-related recordings and videos. Nothing is ever for sale. Our goal is to allow every spud and spudess around the world to explore the history of Akron’s de-evolution band. 

Around 1996, the DEVO Bootleg Archive was born. Mike Watters, mastermind of operations, offered spuds a tremendous opportunity by providing access to a great wealth of rarities from their favorite band. Mike and other loyal spuds would sit and make manual audio and video cassette dubs for fans around the world. Many original DBA tapes still reside in the homes of DEVO band members. A few years later, as real-life responsibilities took over, the operation collapsed.

Fast forward to 2003. Pals Rob Lee and Thom Chiki began discussing what a shame it was that the DBA had been out of commission for so long, depriving fans of the wonderful service. The idea to bring the DBA into the age of CD-Rs was born. Thom talked to Alex Brunelle via AOL Instant Messenger about the idea of reviving the Archive, and they began contacting many various DEVO fans to obtain rare material.

By April of 2004, enough material had amassed that Booji Boy’s Basement opened. Emails from DEVO fans poured in, all in search of DEVO rarities. CD-Rs and DVD-Rs were burned and sent in the mail quite frequently. Generous spuds from all over the world donated things missing from the collection, which has since grown to be fairly authoritative.

In 2005, the website got its first facelift from spudess Rachel Anderson, who created “version 2.0” of our website, which remained online until 2020. Her work and years of web hosting have been absolutely invaluable to the service. She remains one of our distributors, helping to ensure fans are linked to their requests in a timely manner.

Though the Basement remained strongly in service for a number of years, real-life toil began to crowd what free time the distributors once had and operations of the Basement effectively ceased around 2011.

In 2016, we made all of the audio content available for download, moving into a more modern form of distribution, and providing a bit of fresh breath into the operation for the first time in years.

In 2019, dedicated spudess Shelby Gonzales stepped up to design and build what we had been sorely needing for years: An appealing, database-backed website that is easy to use, but most important, easy to maintain. You’re using it right now! We want the Basement to operate for years to come, and we now have the tools to do that.

This website heavily references the DEVO Live Guide, an exhaustive and comprehensive reference guide to DEVO’s live history. Mike Ziegler, a great friend to the Basement, began building this guide in 2003, and still maintains it today.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this service over the years. You’ll notice many repeated names in the “Contributor” area of our offerings. These kind spuds are responsible for what we’ve been able to do. Special thanks also to Grant Charney for the Booji Boy image that stares at you wherever you go.

Remember this, spuds: we are here to serve and educate. We do it all for you.

-Alex Brunelle
archivist in residence, Booji Boy’s Basement