Enjoy the buzzing wires and the rot inside

The Members, Working Girl
Bad Manners, Bad Manners
James Chance & the Contortions, White Cannibal
The Make-Up, Destination: Love: Live! at Cold Rice

Media Announcement: Adam Carroll, Justin Hilbun, Lil Ray Neal and avant-garde percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani all get the treatment in this week's Record Crate blog for 225.

"Working Girl" was the best song on MTV way back when


The Members, "Working Girl"

but have y'all heard their new-wave-reggae take on Kraftwerk's "The Model" before? Me either. For my money, "The Model" is not Kraftwerk's finest hour, but people sure like re-doing it, and the Members might be the best, as it were.

Bad Manners, for all the bluster of their ska image, or at least that of their front-clown Buster Bloodvessel, were sort of pop geniuses. For the record (sorry.) I like these kinds of videos very much.


Bad Manners, "Walkin' in the Sunshine"

James Chance is the opposite, a guy who unravels a pop song to display the buzzing wires and the rot inside. Enjoy! Here he saps all the irony out of James Brown's drug allegory.


James Chance & the Contortions, "King Heroin" + "Contort Yourself"

I want my band to sound like this all night long.


The Make-Up, "They Live By Night"