Massive sing-along punk garage pop rock rock'n'roll anthems you can dance to.

28 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Punk, POP: Garage Pop

Show all album songs: Single File Songs


Details:
All the hard-to-find M.O.T.O. singles collected on one shiny lil' silver disc.. originally released between 1988 - 1994; back when "the punk rock Guided By Voices" was still mostly just Paul (Caporino) & Beck (Dudley) and yo, this is such good stuff here!! While Paul's weird pop obsession is still as focused as ever, the songs herein are where he pretty much established their rabid fanbase. Man-oh-man, M.O.T.O.'s two-minute pop songs are so darned catchy! - INTERPUNK.COM


Led Zeppelin may have their "Whole Lotta Luv" but M.O.T.O. have "Crystalize My Penis". Re-issue of all M.O.T.O. 45's 1988 - 1996. This album has so much good shit on it, it borders on the ridiculous! - CIQ


An acronym for Masters of the Obvious, this longtime puerile power pop band has ranged from Paul Caporino's solo effort to a duo and a trio to a solo effort to a... And, through all this time, Caporino has been the undisputed master of two-minute '70s AM radio-style pop. So, if Caporino is such a pop genius, why haven't they become more successful? After about twenty full-length releases, they haven't sold a single record at WalMart...

Perhaps it's the humorous adolescent lyrical content (approximately half the songs on MOTO's compilation Single File -- including "Dick About It," "It's So Big It's Fluorescent," and "Crystallize My Penis" -- are about Caporino's penis) that's holding them back... "Caporino wanders among the fields of sexual juvenalia and schoolyard scatology with an expert's eye;" said the Chicago Reader's Bill Wyman in 1990, "human genitalia and bodily functions are to him what haystacks were to Monet."

Note that Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot -- picking this release as one of his favorite local releases of 1997, called it "a treasure trove of rare or out-of-print singles reaching back to the '80s by Chicago's premier singles band: 28 pithy blasts of punk brio delivered by wiseguy Paul Caporino and toy-drum icon Beck Dudley." CMJ writer Robin Edgerton included it in her top ten list for the same year. - CENTERSTAGE CHICAGO


MOTO is one of our favorite bands here in Waveland, so it goes without saying that their new singles collection gets our highest recommendation. Seriously, folks, you just canât go wrong here. Buying this CD is like wrapping your willie in a Crown Condom....You know youâre getting quality.

If you loved the Kill MOTO full-length or the Spiral Slouch EP, hereâs your chance to go back, way way back, to the early days of MOTO. And this old shitâs just as awesome as the newer stuff! Single File collects 28 tracks from nine MOTO singles released from 1988-94, remastered for your listening pleasure. And unlike the majority of rarities/singles comps, itâs not just for diehard fans looking to complete their collections. Very little of whatâs included here can rightfully be called âfillerâ, and Iâd have no problem recommending this disc to people whoâve never even heard of MOTO before!

What does MOTO sound like? Imagine an American Buzzcocks with the Dickiesâ sense of humor, a â60s pop fixation, an eclectic sensibility, and a $50 recording budget. Even that description doesnât do the band justice, but it gets ya in the ballpark. Paul Caporino is one of the great under-appreciated songwriters of our time, and MOTO was one of the few punk bands still playing unapologetically melodic music back in the hardcore-dominated â80s. This discâs got all the old hits, including the priceless MOTO classics âCrystallize My Penisâ and âItâs So Big Itâs Fluorescentâ (Yes, that song is indeed about what you think itâs about!). âYoung and In Loveâ, âThe Turd That Came To Lifeâ, âDick About Itâ, âIâm Infectedâ, and âSheâs Not Readyâ, all essential cuts of lo-fi punk/powerpop, are refreshing bursts of energy that end long before you have the chance to get bored. And the retro Merseybeat stuff (like âLove Backâ and âThe Street Where Love Livesâ) is great too. I also like âStraighten It Outâ, which sounds like an old Beach Boys car tune gone punk.

In spite of the sloppy, off-the-cuff nature of MOTOâs music, itâs very hard to find fault with these songs---which are played with sheer joyful exuberance and loose, âgarageâ-style abandon. A lot of the tunes are hilarious and perhaps even a little juvenile---but not in a boneheaded, jockish way. Theyâre cleverly stupid. The best way to characterize this music is to say itâs likable, catchy, and totally fun. Itâs amateurish in an entirely good way. Caporino is a phenomenal talent, but he seems less like a pop star and more like a guy whoâd drink beer with you all night while you listened to old Replacements records. I mean, how can you NOT love a band that would play a song called âSatan Always Calls Collectâ?

It seems criminal that so few people know about MOTO. The release of Single File, Iâm sad to say, probably wonât make MOTO huge. But so fucking what? Let âthe kidsâ have their crappy emocore, watered-down new wave, and generic mall-punk. This disc blows away 99 percent of the mediocre shit that passes for âpunkâ these days, and itâs we oldsters weaned on â70s punk, old powerpop, and â80s college rock that will âgetâ it. Hell, Iâll be perfectly happy if just two or three people email me and say, âDude, you were right about MOTO!â - Josh Rutledge, NOW WAVE