Currently working on their first album of new material since 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps, Akron collective Devo have donated one of rock & roll’s most iconic costume items – the band’s infamous red conical hats – to a local museum. 

Nicknamed ‘the energy dome’, the red hats were used by Devo in their film clip to their worldwide hit “Whip It”. One of the hats is now in the possession of the Ohio Historical Society, the ‘80s outfit also donating band stickers, T-shirts, and other associated costumes.

According to singer Gerard Casale, the special hats aren’t just for Devo’s image, of course. The singer says they were “designed according to ancient ziggurat mound proportions used in votive worship,” Casale explains on the eccentric band’s website. “Like the mounds it collects energy and recirculates it. In this case the Dome collects energy that escapes from the crown of the human head and pushes it back into the Medula Oblongata for increased mental energy. It’s very important that you buy a cheap plastic hardhat liner, adjust it to your head size and affix it with duct tape or Super Glue to the inside of the Dome. This allows the Dome to “float” just above the cranium and thus do its job. Unfortunately, without a hard hat liner, the recirculation of energy WILL NOT occur.”

Devo’s name famously came from a anti-Darwinism pamphlet the members picked up while studying at Ohio’s Kent State University, where they formed the band. Devo toured Australia in 2008, most recently performing at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The band’s as-yet-untitled longplayer is due out in late 2010.