Anyway, I first saw the Modern Machines at Gilman sometime in 2002. I was shit-hammer wasted and traded them 75 cents and an AA chip for two of these tapes (Cancer and Feline Leukemia). The chip wasn't mine -- I found it outside the club -- but it was funny enough for a discount, apparently. No idea when I got the Huberty demo, but it's in here too.
These tapes are a bit uneven -- Huberty, in particular, is not so great (it's pretty clear from the recording and the liner notes that the band was just fucking around on this one). But Feline Leukemia got a lot of play in my tape deck. "A.N.I.A.O." is still a killer cut; the melodrama of "Pierce St." still works pretty good for me; and "Tight pants" still has a great hook.
As anyone familiar with the band knows, there's a lot of Replacements/Husker Dü worship going on here. But the songwriting is solid, and it's more than mimicry.
The Modern Machines were a pretty productive band, but I frankly lost track of their releases after these tapes (even though I ended up seeing them a billion times in Oakland and New York). Enjoy!
Three tapes by the Modern Machines (.zip file)
- Cancer
- Feline Leukemia
- Huberty
No comments:
Post a Comment