Today there’s yet more protoDEVO coming our way. Spudophiles may already know about the “Art Devo 1973-1977” boxed set coming in September [more on that later…] but today we got notice of the latest issue of Electronic Sound having a reproduction of the obscure “Mechanical Man” EP that was issued in 1978 by Virgin Records as a fake bootleg to drum up interest and notoriety for the upcoming debut album that changed everything. So that means that, yes…it’s the 50th anniversary of DEVO this year. The fact that they were right about everything must not give them much succor.

This EP was something unknown to me until I started poking around on Discogs a while back and the story goes that Virgin Records issued hand-stamped covers on a variety of paper colors of this EP on the bogus “Elevator Records” label. The contents of which were as shown below.

DEVO: Mechanical Man – 7″ – UK [1978]

1. Mechanical Man 3:20
2. Blockhead 3:08
3. Blackout [Clockout] 3:11
4. Auto-Modown [w/Space Girl Blues – unlisted] 3:51

Copies of this one are up there at two to three solid figures. Since I’ve never seen one, I’ll assume that tracks one and four were the same versions that surfaced on the “Hardcore DEVO” volumes. “Clockout” and the mistitled “Blockhead” were on their second album, “Duty Now For The Future,” but I’d imagine that these were again, the earlier self-financed recordings as on the “Hardcore” volumes. Though I can’t find any mention of an earlier recording of “Blockhead” making it endemic to this EP.

The Electronic Sound facsimile comes this time in an industrial yellow card sleeve instead of the cheap paper stock of the original. And it won’t set you back $68.00. The magazine and EP are the usual £13.99. That’s another good one from Electronic Sound, who seem to be honing their curation of 7″ singles into something that might be worth a full subscription for. Though each issue with record comes in close to $30/each for Stateside fans. The magazine also boasts a look at the early history of DEVO from the long-term principles Gerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh as well as an interview with Creep Show; yet another fine Stephen Mallinder/Benge project that I still have not heard! If you are a beautiful mutant, then you know what to do.

-30-