Smooth Noodle Maps

The album title refers to a kind of discrete mathematical system—a noodle map—which may exhibit chaotic behavior, similar to the standard map. The adjective smooth refers to the lack of kinks or discontinuities. This is referenced in the song "Devo Has Feelings Too," which includes the lyric, "snake through the chaos with a smooth noodle map."

The front cover of the record (and the fold-out of the CD version) featured the members of the band emerging from a strange circle. The liner notes from the "Post Post-Modern Man" single revealed that the circle is actually a computer simulation of the planet Jupiter. This image of Jupiter was provided by Philip Marcus and Nicholas Socci.

Smooth Noodle Maps was also issued on limited edition red vinyl by the Dutch East label.[7]

Two videos were made for the album's second single, "Post Post-Modern Man." The first, which was directed by Devo co-founder and bassist Gerald Casale and was never officially released, saw the band driving a Lincoln Town Car along the desolate Interstate 10 in Southern California. According to Casale, when the finished video was delivered to Enigma, they demanded the video include March 1990's Playboy Playmate of the Month, Deborah Driggs, in order to make it more marketable. After acquiescing to Enigma's demands, MTV then rejected the video because it used the "Macro Post Modern Mix" of the song instead of the "college alternative track" they wanted to market, as featured on the original album. This resulted in a second video directed by Rocky Schenck, which featured Devo in a spoof of the Home Shopping Network, selling various Devo-related merchandise.[8]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
Robert Christgau	[10]

Similar to Devo's two previous albums, critical reviews of Smooth Noodle Maps were largely negative, with Village Voice critic Robert Christgau even awarding the album a "Dud" rating,[11][12] which meant he did not write a review to accompany it. In retrospective reviews, AllMusic's Steve Huey noted that while the album was "inconsistent, especially in terms of subject matter, the band does try some new ideas in its arrangements."[13] Similarly, Mark Prindle noted that the album "features newer synths and an attempt to incorporate dance elements into Devo's late-period faceless boring dance-pop, but it's just as hookless, generic and dated as its two predecessors."[14]

All tracks are written by Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, except where noted.

1994 Restless Records CD reissue bonus tracks

• The "Post Post-Modern Man" mixes contain samples of "It's More Fun to Compute" by Kraftwerk.

2019 Futurismo Inc. "Deluxe Edition" bonus disc[3][15]

Tracks 8–14 previously unreleased.

Like the Total Devo tour before it, the Smooth Noodle Maps tour saw Devo scaling things back and presenting a very basic set with no complex visuals. The band wore plain white Tyvek shirts and shorts with the Jupiter image from Smooth Noodle Maps on the left breast of the shirt. As in earlier tours, Devo removed their shirts later in the set to reveal solid black T-shirts emblazoned with the band name on the front.[16] The three songs performed from the album were "When We Do It," "Post Post-Modern Man" and "A Change Is Gonna Cum". Prior to the Smooth Noodle Maps tour, Devo had performed "Post Post-Modern Man" and "A Change Is Gonna Cum" as early as October 1989.

Due to poor ticket sales and the bankruptcy and dissolution of Enigma, who was responsible for organizing and financing the tour, the Smooth Noodle Maps tour had to be cancelled part way through. The final concert of the tour took place at Perkins Palace in Pasadena, California on March 23, 1991. The concert featured a different setlist than other shows on the tour, omitting "Going Under," "Happy Guy," "Post Post-Modern Man," "A Change Is Gonna Cum," "Satisfaction," "Jocko Homo," "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA", and adding "Here to Go" from 1984's Shout (the only time the song was ever played live), as well as older songs "Blockhead" and "Be Stiff." This gig also marked the last time Devo played "Be Stiff" until the 2009 Freedom of Choice re-release tour as well as the final performances of "When We Do It" and "Somewhere with Devo". The concert saw Devo don a new look, eschewing the aforementioned white Tyvek shirts and shorts and replacing them with multi-colored leisure suits (as seen in the artwork for the album) as well as red pompadours for the encore.[17]

In an interview for their 1996 computer game Adventures of the Smart Patrol, Mark Mothersbaugh stated, "Around '88, '89, '90 maybe, we did our last tour in Europe, and it was kind of at that point, we were watching This Is Spinal Tap on the bus and said, 'Oh my God, that's our life.' And we just said, 'Things have to change.' So we kind of agreed from there that we wouldn't do live shows anymore." Devo would not perform again until a reunion gig at the Sundance Film Festival of 1996.

Devo

• Mark Mothersbaugh – lead and background vocals; keyboards; guitar; digital editing
• Gerald Casale – lead and background vocals; bass guitar; bass synthesizer; keyboards
• Bob Casale – guitar; keyboards; mixer; sampling; backing vocals
• Bob Mothersbaugh – guitar; backing vocals
• David Kendrick – drums; percussion; drum machines

Production team

• Devo – producer
• Jeff Lord Alge – mixing
• Bob Casale – engineer
• Ryan Moore – digital programming

• Smooth Noodle Maps at Discogs (list of releases)