The first glimpses of Daft Punk are out and it’s strangely appropriate as a freaked-out club video. The movie shows so little that it’s a strangely satisfying introduction—appearing like a voyeur into a club that we all have yet to see, but are expecting to sometime soon (often referred to, *as the future*). The mystique is building for the album while its doggedly chatted up on the message boards and in the broadsheets (Simon Reynolds talking about Daft Punk, *cough*, I mean Current Dance Music, at the time of my writing). Here is the essence of viral-marketing with little glimpses of the spectacle forming. But, sticking to what I got, I’m going to base my entry today on the genius of “Robot Rock.”

Bruce Haack– School For Robots

“Here is your robot music / Do not rest until you can move to it”

With Haack pounding on his chest with a little reverb, it’s hard not to hear some of the fascination with creating robot voices (and robot dances) that he shares with Daft Punk. But Haack is teaching a more explicit lesson. Like a drill instructor gone haywire, Haack understands we’re all robots and addresses the lesson accordingly. Taken from Haack’s Wayout Record for Children (recorded in 1968), I can only dream of an alternate universe that Donna Haraway listened to Haack growing up.

The ingenius tweaking of robot voices are pretty crucial, and “Robot Rock”’s lyrics are so embedded into the riff that it only becomes apparent how unified the song is by the 3rd or 4th listen. And the song’s joke plays directly off the album’s name, Human After All, and is beginning to look as tongue-in-cheek as Haack’s “When you hear this sound (*BBBBLEEP*) move one leg.”

[visit Haack’s website here, buy Haack material from Forced Exposure here]

The Mountain Goats– The Sign (Chicago Feb 20, 2004)

Although I’m only a recent “convert” to the holy ‘Goats, John Darnielle has still been Last Plane to Jakarta for me. I have a lot of friends who’d daydream about being Darnielle’s groupie and I really can’t blame them after hearing “The Sign.”

“…And I said I gotta play that song / I done never played that song / I gotta play it / There’s something that rings with every-BODY / I gotta a new life / You’d hardly recognize me, I’m so glad…”

The song’s loose conversational tone with the crowd giggling and cheering him on, reminds me how incredibly different Boards of Canada’s bootlegs can be from their studio versions. Rambling along, Darnielle plays into the immediacy that is amplified with the audience, materializing just how direct performer and listener can be—like Ian Mather’s last week post of David Byrne’s live performance of “Once in a Lifetime.”

“Clive and the rest of his posse said…/ No, YOU WILL TOUR TO SUPPORT THE FUCKING ALBUM. GET YOUR ASSES BACK IN THE BUS”

Eurodisco transformed back into the 4/4 kick-drum choruses, one memorable riff, and I’m not sure if I really ask for anything else. While Daft Punk is going human, well, so is Ace of Base (as formed by John Barryman, Jenny Joker, Lynn and Buddha).

[visit The Mountain Goats’ website here, buy Mountain Goats material from Forced Exposure here]

Jason Forrest– 10 Amazing Years

Played against the four-minute mark into Jason Forrest’s “10 Amazing Years” and in the flurry of the drum solo, Daft Punk’s straight-faced introduction makes Forrest sound prog next to Daft Punk’s relentless one-riff cock-rock. Even the though the tweaking “10 Amazing Years” might be the bombastic ending to The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash, it still plays nicely off the first glimpses of Human After All. In terms of imbibing rock into electronic music, Forrest sounds scatter-brained to Daft Punk’s single-mindedness.

I’d also like to point out the anxiousness that supposedly disappeared because of these types of music leaks seems something like a joke. The leak of “Robot Rock” is like exploitation film promoters trudging through the towns a week before their movie stops by to rile up the crowds.

Consider me riled.

[visit Jason Forrest’s website here, buy Jason Forrest material from Forced Exposure here]