Before the Gorillaz and Deathklok, there was Mondo Vanilli (and before Mondo Vanilli, there was Silicon Teens, but that’s another story). Now the band, consisting of Scrappi DuChamp, R.U. Sirius and Simone Third Arm has released its 1993 album for free online.

David Pescovitz writes at Boing Boing:

In 1993, cyberculture prankster/provocateur/publisher RU Sirius, founder of Mondo 2000 magazine, composer Scrappi DuChamp, and performance artist Simone Third Arm, recorded an album for Trent Reznor’s record label. They had met at Reznor’s Los Angeles rental home, the house where the Manson Family killed Sharon Tate and others. Tim Leary had brought RU along to a housewarming party there and RU gave Reznor a demo tape of his band, called Mondo Vanilli. Reznor quickly signed the band to his then-nascent Nothing Records. Unfortunately, this great work of curious and quirky synth-industrial-pop, titled “IOU Babe,” never made it to the record stores. Almost two decades later, Mondo Vanilli has officially released “IOU Babe” for free online. A CD with bonus material is coming shortly.

Some of this was streaming on Revolting.com in the 90s, and somewhere along the lines I downloaded a couple MP3s of the band’s music (I don’t recall where from), but I think this is the first time the full album has been made available.