Head Automatica - Tokyo Decadence

Daryl Palumbo is a man of many bands. His main gig has always been with Glassjaw but he's participated in several other groups and is also the leader of Head Automatica. HA are a little hard to peg as their best known songs could easily be called poppy or commercial and their Popaganda album is a little like a tribute to intelligent eighties rock like Elvis Costello or Joe Jackson. HA started completely different though, as it was initially a collaboration between Daryl and Dan The Automator. They got signed to Warner Bros. and started working on an album of poppier songs that could fit nicely on the dance floor. An album's worth of tracks leaked in 2003 and fans went gaga assuming it was the finished album. Then nothing. A year went by, the album, initially announced as Tokyo Decadence, had the Tokyo dropped, tracks were remixed without The Automator's involvement and Howard Benson was brought in to help produce two new tracks, Beating Heart Baby and The Razor. By the time the album was released in 2004, Dan seemed to be out of the group, although the reasons for his leave were never identified, and Head Automatica seemed to become a full fledged band with pop/punk leanings as opposed to the dance sound of their album. It was definitely a disappointment in some ways although the band continued recording and performing.

I like Head Automatica a lot, although I'm more of a Glassjaw fan, though if Dan had kept working with Daryl it would probably be the other way around. The promise of the tracks that leaked in 2003 seemed to indicate a party in the making, although it's pretty well documented this was a difficult time for both Dan and Daryl. Dan was working on the second Handsome Boy Modeling School album with Prince Paul for Atlantic, a project which wasn't nearly as successful as their debut and led to Paul's decision to leave the partnership, and Dan was also recording his would-be major-label solo debut, Omakase, which never saw release. Daryl was working with too many collaborators on too many projects, all the while dealing with the debilitating Crohn's Disease. On top of these issues, Warners was both ignoring the group and pushing for them to have the album tweaked for a more commercial sound. At one point they were selling a rough mix of Brooklyn Is Burning on iTunes and giving out limited 12" singles to members of their street teams, but how do you promote a song with no airplay, no video, no remixes and nothing else to go along with it? I guess it's no surprise why their collaboration fell apart.

HA's debut album, Decadence, features a lot of production work from Dan The Automator but, as mentioned earlier, there was a lot of additional work added to it later without Dan's participation, so while the finished product bares his mark, it certainly doesn't seem representative of his work. Luckily, the initial leak and more have survived and give a much clearer vision of Dan and Daryl's work together. Unconfirmed rumors circulated that Daryl may have leaked this material to gauge the opinions of fans. Regardless of the source or intentions, the various leaks paint a very different portrait of Head Automatica. Below are run downs of the details about each of the leaks and links to download each of the leaked reference discs. I've numbered these collection by the order in which they leaked, although that doesn't mean the first disc is the first produced from these sessions, and it's rather unlikely that there would only be three discs produced for Dan, Daryl and all involved to review. Nonetheless, it should give you an idea of what appeared and when.

Head Automatica - Tokyo Decadence (Reference Disc 1)
When these tracks leaked, it was generally assumed that this was the finished, unmastered album as the tracks all seemed mixed and flowed together rather nicely. Nine tracks made the final album with all but two of them later remixed or reworked. When this leaked it had a very strange list of song titles, sometimes referred to as codenames but who really knows. It was probably the work of whomever leaked the tracks having some of the names and not knowing what all of them were really called. The track list that follows below contains all the correct titles.

01 Brooklyn Is Burning
Close to the finished version but something is off about the horn samples.
02 Mondo Cannibal
03 Young Hollywood
This is almost identical to the finished album version except that it's a little longer and uses a clean set of lyrics.
04 French Television Dub
05 Solid Gold Telephone
06 Head Automatica Sound System
This is the other track that remained almost as is on the final album, although it was shortened if I remember correctly.
07 King Caesar
08 Irreversible
09 Dance Party Plus (feat. Tim Armstrong)
The chorus on this version is completely different from the final album version.
10 At The Speed Of A Yellow Bullet
11 Disco Hades
Despite the name, this is the same song as Disco Hades II.
12 198X
There is an alternate take of this track on the third disc but it was also re-recorded later on for the album.
13 I Shot William H. Macy
14 Sacramental Narcotics

Head Automatica - Tokyo Decadence (Reference Disc 2)
All of the tracks on this disc are identical to those on the first one with a few exceptions.

01 Young Hollywood
This is a much less completed mix than the version on the previous disc, although this one has the dirty lyrics.
02 Brooklyn Is Burning
03 King Caesar
04 Dance Party Plus (feat. Tim Armstrong)
05 198X
06 Solid Gold Telephone
07 Irreversible
08 At The Speed Of A Yellow Bullet
09 Disco Hades
10 Mondo Cannibal
11 Head Automatica Sound System
12 Sacramental Narcotics
13 I Shot William H. Macy
14 French Television Dub
15 Dry
This is a short song performed by Daryl on the piano. It's sometimes listed as the Piano Song.
16 Phone Messages
This was the track that got everyone talking, but not for the reasons you'd hope. It's a collection of phone messages from friends of Daryl's and associates of the Cardboard City label, all saying hi and telling him to get the record out. Cage Kennylz (sp?) left a message which actually made it onto the outro of the finished album, but everything else was left off. Too bad. There is some fun stuff here including some scratching from DJ Krazy Glue (sp again?).
17 Negro Spiritual
Another song from these sessions that didn't make the album. This one was re-recorded for the album but that version isn't included here.

Head Automatica - Tokyo Decadence (Reference Disc 3)
This disc was leaked in 2006 by the now deceased headautomatica.net fan site, so all credit and thanks goes to them. While I've updated the file names and tags, I've included the original .nfo file in this archive. Thanks guys! As for the contents, the songs are mostly the same but these versions range from early to late in the album's production status. There are some very early demo versions as well as notably advanced mixes of others. For example, a demo of The Razor is included here, although I'd always been under the assumption that it was a song written shortly before the album's release like Beating Heart Baby. It's inclusion here brings up questions about it's origin, but I refuse to think overly hard about it as it's a great song regardless of when it was written.

01 The Razor (Edios Glamour Mix, Demo)
As mentioned above, this is an early demo of The Razor. The song's structure is a little different but not by much.
02 Brooklyn Is Burning (Demo)
The beat, lyrics and vocal are all here but the horns keyboards and the bass line is either missing or near inaudible.
03 198X (Extended Intro, Alternate Structure)
This version is closer to the later re-recording. As noted, extended intro, alternate structure.
04 Sacramental Narcotics II (Automator's Teen Chat Line Mix)
Despite the title, this is the same song from the previous discs, although this is a slightly different mix.
05 Young Hollywood
06 The Church Of What's Happening Now
People knew this song was recorded during these sessions but no one had heard it until this disc was leaked. Simple but catchy pop-punk tune.
07 Irreversible
08 Mondo Cannibal
09 Disco Hades
10 Head Automatica Sound System
11 Dance Party Plus (Original Version, missing Tim Armstrong)
Not only is Tim not on this version, the track is a little rougher, but it's not a big difference.
12 At The Speed Of A Yellow Bullet (Demo)
Just a rough performance. There is actually an even rougher version of this song floating around online that sounds like it might have been recorded with a handheld tape recorder. This is clearly a professional studio recording.
13 French Television Dub
14 Dry
15 I Shot William H. Macy


As of right now, Daryl is working with the reunited Glassjaw and Head Automatica has a third album in the can named Swan Damage, although that album was apparently finished back in 2009 so who knows if it will see release or not. I've also got a ton of demos from Popaganda, many of which the band was asking folks not to trade when they leaked prior to that album's completion, but as it's been quite a while since then it might be the right time to share those, but I wanted to get these out first because as much as I love HA and Glassjaw, I love Dan The Automator and know I'm not the only one. So much love to all of them and hopefully we'll hear more from all three at some point soon. Actually, if you wanna hear some new Glassjaw you can buy their new EP, Our Color Green, at Amazon and iTunes, and it's well worth the five dollars you'll part with!