MOG Music Network

2011/02/10

Where Have You Gone Secret Machines?


In this current hypersaturated music world, it's easy for past infatuations to fall by the wayside into an abyss of truly great bands you've forgotten about. There's too much coming at us now on a weekly basis, but every now and then, click on a particular year (preferably one with which you have fond musical/life memories),perhaps from when you were in college or high school and go back through the music that was soundtracking your life. For me, the years 2005 and 2006 were particularly formative for me as I stepped over the Maginot Line that once divided the jam and indie circles. These circles between hipsterdom and w00kdom are now more concentric than ever and bands like My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo, and the impetus for this writeup -- The Secret Machines -- helped encourage a number of fans like myself to cross the proverbial aisle (in more than a symbolic fashion a la this year's State of the Union b.s.) and embrace other worlds.

The Secret Machines were the perfect indie band to lure jam kids outside of the drum circles, fusing BIG psychedelic Pink Floyd progressions and wielding a Who-like largesse in their on-stage productions. The Dallas, TX trio had a short, but impressive output of material from their critically-acclaimed debut record The Road Leads Where It's Led from 2005 to their super-twisted self-titled third album under the name Secret Machines (dropping the the) in 2008. Arguably one of the finest live bands of the 2000s, it would be great to see Benjamin Curtis take a break from School of Seven Bells (albeit a solid band in itself) and return to play with his brother again down the road. These guys had something rare and special, so the moral of this post is basically...BRING THE SECRET MACHINES BACK!



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