New York-adopted band The Secret Machines is coming to Shanghai’s Mao Livehouse this Saturday, thanks to Icon Promotions, within the framework of their first China Tour. Flares of thick, hypnotic music will act as a welcome party to spring. You don’t want to miss it…
A quick glance: The Secret Machines took shape in 2000 in Texas and, after a shift in the earlier formation, the band is now composed by Brandon Curtis (vocals, bass, keyboards), Phil Karnats (guitar) and Josh Garza (drums). The decision to move to New York proved to be pivotal and, thanks to an outright devotion to music, in a short time they released three successful full-length albums: Now Here is Nowhere (2004), Ten Silver Drops (2006), and Secret Machines (2008). These gained them recognition worldwide. They count U2 and David Bowie as fans.
The music of The Secret Machines has often been associated with the spacey soundscapes of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Flaming Lips, and Spacemen 3, but it also displays a unique taste for gritty sounds and restless beats that may recall some post-grunge hints. Best served live.
In a word, expect to get what you came for: Good music, unconditionally.
Layabozi caught up with drummer Josh Garza, who provided insight into the band’s core features and inspirations, and gave us rocking songs for you to listen to while you read. The first one is a single from 2008, “Dreaming of Dreaming”. “Like I Can” and “Terrible Light” are their two newest songs, released just this year on a singles album. “Like I Can” will be free for you to download until this Sunday, the day after the concert.
Layabozi: ”Secret Machines” must have secret ignition devices… we don’t ask you to unravel them, but perhaps you can give us some clue about what is it that got you started and that keeps fueling the sonic grandiosity showcased in your works…
Josh Garza: A love of music is what really inspires us… we feel a need to contribute to the great works of music that exist and try not to add any more “bad” music to the world. “Bad” meaning music made with a lack of desire or not being a true soulful statement from the heart. We do this because we love to do it.
LYBZ: Is there any artist that did somehow cast an influence over you and that, most likely, no one would ever think of?
JG: We are big fans of country music (Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt), golden oldies (The Flamingos, Doo Wop) and Motown (the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye). We could make a list of about 200 bands that are very influential and not likely or obvious. I recently began listening to a Chinese group called the Hanggai Band, they are amazing! They are my new favorite band. I am hoping to meet them on this China tour.
LYBZ: You moved to New York at the early beginning of your career and managed to make a neat breakthrough in short time, what have been the propelling factors? Which the deterrent ones?
JG: One cannot live in NYC and not be motivated. The city itself kinda makes you either fight or flight. It’s a buzz that never sleeps but that can also be a major deterrent. Most people can’t handle the pace and get run over. The best thing is to use the energy and channel it into the music.
LYBZ: To what extent, and in what fashion is your Texas legacy still interwoven with the New York inspiration?
JG: Being born in Texas means it never leaves your heart. I will always have a fondness for Texas, but slowly over the years the influence has eased back a bit because of distance. Living in NYC for ten years has become a bigger and more immediate inspiration. One is a product of their surroundings and Texas has become a chapter from our past. It’s hard to quantify exactly how much of it still exists in our music but I can say that it hasn’t disappeared completely. Our music is still as big and vast as our first album, but now we are more conscious and aware of the rest of the world. It’s called “getting older”.
LYBZ: With increasing confidence over the years, your music keeps venturing into mighty sound cascades where lunar, psychedelic echoes are cleverly interlayered with the rougher pulses of the urban flesh. Is this creative process intentional or it’s just the natural outcome of an innate urge common to all the band-mates? Has it changed throughout your career?
JG: We don’t try to sound a certain way or be too methodical about the direction of a song, but yes, we do have particular tendencies as musicians. Sometimes we try and let the songs tell us what to do and it’s hard to stay out of the way because we might not all see the same purpose of a song. Sometimes a song is only chords and a beat and we have to “feel it out” and see if it sounds better as a ten minute epic or a shorter 4 minute rocker. Just like everybody else we go through different moods and our sound evolves with time. We rely on each other to help guide what emotions we want to express musically and this is something that changes with each song, if not daily.
LYBZ: Many of your tracks (“The Fire Is Waiting”, “The Walls Are Starting To Crack”, “First Wave Intact”…) feature this epic, majestic allure, like you were knights who embarked on some unspoken battle against all the nuances of paranoia post-modern society is imbued with. Yet, and for the best, some sarcasm is detectable in the overall attitude… How seriously do you take this battle? Is it out of self-irony or of far-sightedness that you admit to be “a graveyard of hopes”?
JG: We definitely don’t try to take ourselves too seriously but that doesn’t mean we don’t take music seriously… The best part of our music is that it allows for various interpretations. Obviously there is a “story” for each song but that specifically belongs to Brandon and his lyrics. It wouldn’t be fun to explain it all away and confirm or deny some type of opinion that somebody has about us. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a sense of humor and a light-hearted touch with our songs either. All our songs would be 10 minutes long if we really felt that righteous about ourselves. At the end of the day it’s only a rock ’n roll band having some kind of fun together.
LYBZ: The Secret Machines have been out and about for quite a while already: extensive tours, festivals, movie soundtracks, support acts for artists like U2, Interpol, Blonde Redhead, Spiritualized… can you highlight some unforgettable moments that stand out when you look back? And when you look ahead…?
JG: One of the greatest moments in TSM history was when we supported U2 in Mexico. We played two shows in Mexico City and one in Monterrey. The two shows in Mexico City are remarkable because we played at Aztec Stadium in front of 100,000 each night. The Monterrey show is significant because my parents are from this city and I had tons of family at the show. Right now we are very excited to be going to China. To play there is an honor and we all feel lucky to have the chance to do what we do in such a far and exotic place.
LYBZ: China, the homeland of piracy (DVDs for 1$!)… It may have all started here but nowadays movies, music and to a certain extent culture in general can sometimes spread more easily as control-free traveling files than as original hard copies. Is this endemic and almost institutional new way of music diffusion detrimental for record labels in the end? Now that you have your own (TSM Recordings), do you notice any difficulties in staying afloat?
JG: The problem with a lot of labels is that they didn’t see the Internet as a tool initially. It’s a different story today, but in the mid-90s, not a lot of label execs gave much thought to the Internet…who did? Labels were too busy ignoring the potential and this did lead to them having problems dealing with downloads and how to use them. Blogs and web-zines are the norm now and labels are having to play the game or risk falling behind the times. The Internet is very “band-friendly” and it is a sure way to stay connected to fans and have a platform to exhibit new material and other items that may or may not be music-related. It’s hard to stay afloat as an artist these days, but I think the Internet is a strong ally to have.
LYBZ: How do you picture the audience and the experience of the upcoming tour in China? With the exception of few cases of “erudites” who already know the band and the lyrics, most of the audience is not quite as mature and will probably enjoy the show mainly based on the live performance. How do you feel about it, pressured? Challenged? Reminiscent of the band’s earlier stages…?
JG: It’s exciting to be playing in front of a “new” crowd. Definitely like the earlier days where nobody knew the songs and we had to “rock” or else be forgotten. Fortunately, we aren’t a “new” band so maybe the fans that do show up can kinda give it a buzz type of atmosphere. I think that all bands should be able to perform well in a live setting and it’s always a challenge for us. We don’t assume anything at a show. It’s a time to deliver on the promise that rock ‘n roll can change your life.
LYBZ: So tell us, what is the flaw that makes you perfect?
JG: We carry our heart on our sleeves. It makes us vulnerable but at least we remain honest. It’s a pretentious answer but…
“Expressionless War” begins and ends; this is the premise put forth by the Nanjing-based band Fading Horizon on their album Name it Yourself. An interesting concept: expressionless war. It goes on all the time, perhaps without the knowledge of many. Wars between the rich and the poor, city folk and country folk, the underground and the mainstream are ever-present and often covert. The interesting thing about Fading Horizon is that they proclaim these wars have a beginning and an end. It is a peculiarly optimistic stance from a band that sounds so damn bleak.
Just like the horizon divides earth and sky, Name it Yourself hovers in a no-world of shifting questions and polarities. This album has such an all-encompassing aesthetic that it is hard to differentiate between the tracks. Just know that all of the songs are equally dramatic, tight, well-produced, and depressing as hell, in a good way. This album is a lyrical kick in the privates to the bands that play around onstage here in Shanghai sometimes. It is a journey to the place where music matters, where expression is an art form, and where we don’t all have to windmill guitars with plastic smiles pasted to our faces. No one has to sing along, but you will be going for a ride, like it or not.
A few notes about the overall production of the album: First, it’s really accomplished. Miniless Records should be proud of what they have done on this album, LAVA|OX|SEA’s The Next Episode…, and others. What I like about the production on Name it Yourself is that it reflects the overriding theme of dirt, death, and destruction. The sounds appear to be encased in a layer of grime that adds to the negative atmosphere, polluting it even further. The bass guitar is way up in the mix, which makes the sound more heavy. The drums are also well-recorded and on point. Guitars run the gamut from straight-forward rocking chords to layers and layers of ungodly noise. One of the songs, “Rust”, features the effect of the rhythmic panning from one speaker to the other, over and over again. This is disorienting, but that’s the point. “Rendezvous” offers an apocalyptic radio voice decaying throughout the length of the song.
This is an album that will inspire strong opinions, one way or the other, the mark of a good album. I would rather listen to something that seriously disturbs me than an album I feel nothing for. This offering affects me in an adverse way, which, paradoxically, is what I am looking for. It means I am still feeling. I am alive and pissed off about some things.
I can’t, in good conscience, recommend Name it Yourself if you are currently contemplating suicide. However, everyone else is enthusiastically encouraged to get ahold of this album and blast it through your headphones like a virus inserted into your central nervous system. It will not uplift you, but it might wake you up.
I can’t believe this is the first Chinese album I am reviewing.
That’s not to say in any way that Muscle Snog’sMind Shop is not a good album; quite the opposite, actually. However, I have lived in Shanghai for almost five years now and that’s quite a long time to go without voicing some opinions on local recorded music in your area. I have been doing a bit of study and I will have more thoughts in the future, but I’m happy this is the first one.
Mind Shop is one of my favorites from the Chinese rock albums I have been listening to recently, mainly because it marries two of my favorite things in music: noise and pop.
The album starts off rather clumsily with an off-brand ode to tone poems. It is an interesting precursor to the album in that it sets the tone for the noise to come later, but I am more interested in where the noise and the pop intersect.
This is what happens in the second song, “Mind Shop is on Sale”. This is an interesting play on words that I find all the more hilarious because this album is barely on sale. I had a hard time getting it, although that also may be due to my laughable dearth of connections and my even more laughable level of Chinese linguistic proficiency. However, one wasn’t popping down to the local DVD/CD emporium to pick this album up the day it came out because one couldn’t. I picked it up at a show at MAO Livehouse from one of the 0093 boys. They have pretty good stuff, in case you’re interested.
Anyways, if “Mind Shop is on Sale” blew my hair back a little; “Fuzz Rabbit” damn near scalped me. I really enjoy the interplay between the rollicking bits and the eerily, quiet bobs.
“Happy Dreamer on a Sad Bed” is a good counterpoint to “Fuzz Rabbit” as it is, well, dreamy. The singer’s voice is so dressed-up, made-up doll (if that makes any sense). Not to make comparisons, but this song really reminds me of the best Blonde Redhead songs, but without all the wired tension.
“A Specimen of Bad Chicken” is just weird. I don’t recommend anyone listening to this song if they are pregnant, have heart conditions, or are vegan. Just don’t do it.
“Call it a Pop Song”? Don’t mind if I do; and I mean that in the best sense possible. It’s just a pretty straight-ahead rock song with solid drumming, cool keyboards, and a really simple riff. It sounds like the kind of song that would be great live, unfortunately, I don’t even think this band is together anymore, so that will never come to be. Isn’t it strange? These guys have this great album and now what happens to it? We need to carry on this Muscle Snog torch.
By the way, can we decide once and for all what “Muscle Snog” means? Is it two muscles kissing or just a really forceful snog? I like to think about my bicep and my deltoid kissing. Kinda sensual. No? OK, back to the review.
Speaking of sensual, “The Reverse Cowgirl”: It’s not just a fantastic sexual position anymore; it’s also a truly strange backwards sound piece by Muscle Snog. It sounds like a guitar trying to describe its life from back to front after it’s been smashed to smithereens.
“Cat” moves like a possessed feline in heat. It’s the heaviest song on the album and it has its share of noise.
Moving into “Think and Shit”, we have another rock song, but a less straightforward one than “Call it a Pop Song”. The guitars are allowed to feed back more here, and there is recorded gibberish going on in the background. The riffs are still pretty big, though.
“The Boy with Burning Legs” is a song I like, but I can’t really describe why. Its drone-y guitars seem kind of restless, but the kind of restlessness that is held inside. It reminds me a bit of MONO, but this time with singing. The song gets more and more frenetic, until the final, cathartic outburst. It reminds me of a tortured soul moving from quiet psychotherapy into a visceral regimen of primal scream therapy.
The closer, “A Day in the Life”, a Beatles cover, disappoints. It’s built around eighth notes on the guitar and the singer’s voice, but it devolves rhythmically in the middle to the point that it sounds amateurish. It’s the only time in the album when the tone becomes melodramatic and contrived. It finally ends with a whimper, which is not what you want from the last track of your album.
Although it’s kind of bad on the ends and rad in the middle, Mind Shop is an overall great listen. It sets a high bar for the Chinese albums that I will be listening to and reviewing in the future.
Boys Climbing Ropes is an emblematic Shanghai band. They are a representative sample of the local bestiary, as is their sound. The characters behind the band have continued to grow in the wilderness of Shanghai’s indie music scene. You should not overlook this as a minor detail. It’s a great asset for these punk beasts.
Except for the Darkness is the second EP from the band. At first glance it may seem irrelevant that this is an EP, but to me it’s not. There is a certain care behind it, including a pinch of timidity and maybe a lack of resources (money, or free time out of their daily jobs), but I believe it includes strategic thinking. We are in a strange environment where it is not so complicated to go into a studio to record an album for a relatively cheap price you can record one thousand copies of a new album. After all, we are in a paradise city for CD and DVD copies. That’s why it’s not strange in China to get albums of new bands that haven’t been out playing a lot. But then, if you want a decent album with proper sound engineering, and a solid musical proposal, the story is different. So definitely, there are stories behind the EP concept for bands in China.
Boys Climbing Ropes have enough experience and stories to tell about their musical trip in China and, even though they have been around almost five years, they are as young as the local indie music scene. This means their development is linked to the local scene; they are becoming more confident while the scene is growing and empowering. They are becoming more creative while the scene becomes more solid. They are becoming better while the scene is becoming bigger and more popular. So, whether you love or hate rock, they are local treasures.
Last Saturday night at YuYinTang (another Shanghai cultural treasure) the first chords of the Boys Climbing Ropes’ Except for the Darkness release show sounded at 11 pm and those chords excited the atmosphere in a blink. It was already crowded in front of the stage, but with these magical chords it got even more so. People were running to the hall, chords calling them, and more bodies pushed for space to dive into the audience, looking for a spot to rock and, of course, to mosh. Every person that had to be there was there to celebrate the greatness of the moment. The show was perfect, the sound was awesome, the mosh was memorable. In summary, it was a great celebration for music.
On the tiny free spaces of these moments of music in China, I can never avoid wondering how the future will remember this one because in my world these are the spots “that build structures in places that they taught us never exist,” (as BCR say on their “Whale Song”).
The album Except for the Darkness displays with accuracy Boys Climbing Ropes’ best sounds to date. “Little Person”, the opening song, reflects well the initial call, the battle cry of the band when onstage. Even though the entrance comes at the ears aggressively, once inside, there’s a certain warmth that keeps you with it comfortably, and that goes on all through the album. As it evolves, this dark warmth becomes more palpable and clear. This characteristic could in time prove itself as the band’s identifying mark. For now I can say this punk music has room for you to be in it, which to me is the biggest accomplishment of BCR. This comes from a tighter coalition in the band, and a better musical direction. It’s about practice, practice, practice. How much do we appreciate Shanghai bands that are actually an effective team?!
As the songs go on, Jordan’s riffs mark a path through the album. The guitar sounds dirty and when it meets his voice they crash and match in a sour and rusty combo that moves the air around the speakers.
Little Punk’s voice gets always along with Morgan’s bass. They share a clandestine joy for playing with silences in between chords. Sometimes I lose the bass in the whole of the sound, but I believe it must be there because my instinct tells me that’s what’s keeping everything together. When it comes in again for a space, I breathe.
On every song there’s confusion mixed with rage and, strangely, with innocence too. Little Punk’s voice is always coming from the shadows and, with Jordan’s, either battling or agreeing on every other corner, having their own private discussion on what is transcendent and what is not. One could feel like joining the argument. Personally, I’d rather listen, but the situation is interesting and keeps me hanging in there, absorbing.
The simple set of four notes on keyboards can be part of that innocent sound heard all over, and it could also be read as a leitmotiv of the album. Because of the repetition from song to song or because of its simplicity, it comes to me as a flawed device. Instead of innocence, I think of lack, although creativity can happen in black and white, or only with squares and circles. Art is in the use of the elements.
The drums by Devin are a whole different artistic subject, the discussion of chaos against order in action. We know that on live sessions when the drums see Devin come, they (yes, the drums) pray for long, courageous roots to fix them to the ground. On Except for the Darkness the drums are well content, still on the front, but not as notorious as when I think of them in the live setting. I figured this could be the result of the sound engineering under Brad Ferguson, so I had to ask about it. Brad:
“I don’t want to give away any secrets… but the production of the drums was one of the most difficult parts and it’s obviously different from their live sound but it was what the band, and I, felt was best for the album. First of all drums are difficult to record well in general, and in Shanghai, there aren’t many good places to do it. Then, as you said, he’s a very powerful drummer, so I started by recording him playing in Juju’s studio, we did several takes of each song and then I went back and edited the drum parts using some samples of his drum hits and other drum samples to rebuild the drum parts. I just wanted a steady rhythm at a level that worked for the intensity of the songs. They’re very intense live, but for the album I was thinking more indie-rock, more jangly guitars, reverb vocals, etc. In the end, we all sat down and listened to rough mixes several times, adjusting them to sound how the band wanted. They wrote the songs, and they have the vision for the songs, I just did my best to capture their vision.”
The result is a well-developed and well-presented album, strong and solid in its simplicity, that brightly instigates curiosity in what will come after.
The CD kindly includes the lyrics, for which I’m thankful. If you are like me, then you’ll give also one more point to BCR’s new EP for this. I believe rock must have a big mouth, and often it’s difficult to understand what’’s being said with all the yelling and the funny accents. When rock says something good the power grows bigger and faster. It’s important to understand what is being said. And Boys Climbing Ropes have many things to say.
I applaud this album because it builds tensions, and produces energy that moves, not only to mosh, but to pay attention, too. I didn’t get to listen to them before Little Punk joined them, but I’ve seen them evolve with her the last two years, the evolution has moved faster the last months. And now with this album they’ve moved even further.The six plus one songs flow smoothly, but every time I end up on the last song, the hidden one (no title for this one), the same ideas appear. I thought if this was a preview of what could come next, it sounds like an interesting prelude. Funny, when talking with Brad, he whispered to me that actually this is an old song Jordan and Devin wrote. They recorded it on the spot.
I’m listening to the last hidden track again, at the end, either as a reminder of the past or a preview of what is coming next. It establishes a range of sounds coming from Boys Climbing Ropes. This is the one that brings the change on the sequence of the six songs, and the one that raises the question: Are they going to explore further, to expand and extend their creative potential? … I can imagine them answering “We just finished this one…” However, they created the question with this album.
There’s so much music going on! Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do could help you this weekend.
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Layabozi is a web magazine about music in Shanghai today, with a sprinkle of the extra-mural and a tart sassiness—without ever being cloying. We take our inspiration from the snack which is both exotic (to us) and down home, and from which we take our name: Spicy Duck Necks.
The songs posted in this website are for analysis purposes only. We, the contributors, love - deeply - music and we work to support the artists we love by promoting and purchasing their work; it is our policy only to post what we own or what the artists/owners have authorized us to publish. Through this site, we're simply sharing music with others hoping they will also support these artists and appreciate the quality of their work. We encourage everyone to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel deserve your money and energy. If you own the copyright to one of the songs posted on this website and would like it removed, please let us know we'll respond fast as a the wind. We do not keep an archive of our songs. And we do take obsessive care of our records, cassettes, cd's, dvd's, videos, books, autographs, photos and old tickets to concerts we loved.
Feel free to contact us if you are a band, label or distributor and think we'd be interested in your music. Same goes if you're playing a gig in either Shanghai, China, Asia, Gaia, or outer space and want us to come.
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