Mechanical Man

Mechanical Man is an EP released by Elevator Records (a sublabel of Virgin Records) to promote DEVO's debut album. It contains five demo tracks recorded by the band before the release of their first single.

Writing & Recording (1972 - 1976)
The earliest written song on this EP is Auto-Modown which was written in 1972 by Gerald V. Casale prior to the official formation of DEVO.

A majority (3/5) of the tracks were recorded in 1975 before drummer Jim Mothersbaugh was replaced by Alan Myers. Mechanical Man and Space Girl Blues are from 1975, whilst Blockhead and Blackout (Clockout) are from late 1976 and feature the then (1978) contemporary lineup of the band.

Release (1978)
Since 1974, unauthorized tapes of DEVO's live performances have circulated between fans. By 1978 the band was reaching new heights of popularity, but still had no album released. As a result, an influx of bootleg LPs of performances and home demos began to appear on the market. Virgin Records saw this and attempted to cash in on these bootlegs in a very experimental way; by releasing their own.

And so, on the world release of Are We Not Men Elevator Records released the Mechanical Man EP. Some copies were sent to radio stations and journalists, and others were included sealed within copies of the band's debut album. The intent was to make it seem like a bootleg, with a simplistic artwork, the song 'Clockout' intentionally miss-titled as Blackout, and 'Space Girl Blues ' completely uncredited. By 1979 the EP was out of print, and remains so to this day. But in 1990, four of the EPs five tracks were included on the demo compilations Hardcore DEVO volume 1 & 2

Track Listing

 * 1) Mechanical Man (3:13)
 * 2) Blockhead (3:01)
 * 3) Blackout (3:05)
 * 4) Auto-Modown (1:58)
 * 5) Space Girl Blues (1:45) (uncredited)

Credits

 * Written & Produced by: Mechanical Man