Indie/Rock/Jazz quartet
New Machines, who split members between Toledo and Cincinnati, play the Southgate House in Newport on Saturday. The show is the band's first Greater Cincinnati gig since the release of their third album,
Welcome to Metropolis. Wussy, The Lab Monkeys and The Villains are also on the bill.
Saxophone use in contemporary Rock music is always a tricky proposition, but the Machines' Sam Krall leaves the Kenny G-like fluttering to the Dave Matthews Band and goes for a more art-school, '80s No Wave approach, becoming an integral part of the New Machines sound. Whether providing rhythmic support, broad atmospherics or riffing between the grooves, Krall's sax adds a jazzy bite to the band's spacious Art Pop in much the way Dana Colley did with the late Bostonian trio Morphine. The group is refreshingly open-ended but never unwieldy or excessively meandering, drawn back to its core by Eric Bair's unique songwriting, which has the sort of blunted melodicism that made the Talking Heads' earlier albums sound so nervous and wired. The group's solid rhythm section is incredibly adaptable and their versatility provides a backbone more musical than most timekeepers, flowing tightly with Bair's jerky-to-airy writing vision.
Opening track "Outta My Skin" grinds on a bluesy backbeat while Bair yelps with the bug-eyed intensity of Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh. "Metropolis" bustles with a punkish energy and features the best melodic hooks on the record. "Blow-up" dives deepest into the Jazz pool, mixing a swingin' shuffle and barrage of jazzy chords with a Men At Work-like chorus, while the playful Pop of "Little Girl Big Head," another of the disc's best cuts, feels like something off of one of They Might Be Giants' children's albums (and that's a good thing). By including several live tracks of dubious sound quality, the album is spotty and inconsistent, shining a light on Bair's thin and occasionally less-than-spectacular vocal talent (although, more often than not, his singing style befits the restless nature of the songs). Not having a staunch focus is part of New Machines charm but, at the same time, the varying quality of the material and the recording becomes distracting. A full-on studio effort would have made for a better listen, but Welcome to Metropolis gives a fairly good representation of a truly original band that operates in its own creative universe, devoid of trend-hopping and blatant homage to their influences. (myspace.com/newmachines)
Rumors, Lies and General Misunderstandings
· Top Cat's in Corryville presents a night of female-fronted Metal and Hard Rock bands on Saturday. "A Night of Venus Envy" features locals Strange Eden, Wicked Intent, Hallows End and Dead Flowers. The event is the debut show for Strange Eden, which features former members of '90s local band Grimlock and singer Andrea Simler-DeGolier (also of Soul Casket). The group claims influence from PJ Harvey and Black Sabbath and says their sound is best described as "Experimental Rock."
· Friday, The Newbees, For Algernon and Screaming Mimes team up for a post-Valentine's Day love fest at the Southgate House. The show is a benefit for Cincinnati-based Rivers Unlimited, a statewide collective of organizations dedicated to protecting and cleaning up Ohio's flowing bodies of water. The $8 cover goes to the organization (as do raffle proceeds), and reps from Rivers Unlimited will be on hand to talk about the cause. (riversunlimited.org)
· Celtic/Roots band The Flock welcomes former band member Jen Shepherd (also of Shepherd's Pi fame) back for one gig, this Saturday at the Courtyard Café on Main in Over-the-Rhine. The singer/mandolinist/flutist, who recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest, has also been recording with her old Flockmates while in town. Music starts at 10 p.m.
· The monthly "Rivertown Music Club" original music series -- which raises money for a variety of local charities -- returns to the Rhythm and Blues Café Saturday for a showcase featuring Hyde Park Outrage, Cleveland's Roger Hoover and the Whiskey Hounds, RTMC founder Kelly Thomas and her Fabulous Pickups and Graham Weber, an Ohio native who now works out of Austin, Texas. Proceeds from the 18-and-up show go to the Red MacCormack Recording Grant Fund, which annually awards money to local musicians for recording projects. (myspace.com/therivertownmusicclub)
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen(at)citybeat.com
