The Secret Machines

Discussion regarding other bands, movies, etc.
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Hokahey
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The Secret Machines

#1 Post by Hokahey » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:15 pm

They take Pink Floyd psychedelia, Led Zeppelin stomp, and The Who-inspired choruses and charge them full of big-rock beats, atmospheric keyboards and all kinds of electronic whooshes." — Rolling Stone
I know I've mentioned them before, but at Pandemoniums suggestion I finally downloaded their third album and have just been blown away. I was a bit worried because one of the vocalists and founding members left before this album, and I loved the first two so much I didn't want to be disappointed, but my god..they just went even more experiemental and pschedelic and in turn made their best album.

These are albums in the classic sense. You need headphones, a joint, and a full hour to sit down and play them from start to finish. You know, just like the best albums you've ever heard?

I am such a massive fan of this band and cannot recommend them more highly.

Recommended listening:

"The Walls Are Starting to Crack" - Must, must listen, and must hear the whole song. It's epic.

"First Wave Intact"

"I Hate Pretending"

"Alone, Jealous and Stoned"

"Now You're Gone"

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SR
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Re: The Secret Machines

#2 Post by SR » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:20 pm

Is the 3rd....10 silver drops?

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SR
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Re: The Secret Machines

#3 Post by SR » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:22 pm

The Walls are Starting to Crack is no where on itunes. Which album do you think for first listen?....Pan or Hoka...

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kv
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Re: The Secret Machines

#4 Post by kv » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:25 pm

no that's the second the 3rd is where they fell off imho

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Re: The Secret Machines

#5 Post by kv » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:31 pm

"now here is nowhere" is their first they had an ep before that but start with this one..i loved their drummer

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Re: The Secret Machines

#6 Post by Pure Method » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:34 pm

kv wrote:"now here is nowhere" is their first they had an ep before that but start with this one..i loved their drummer

I love their september 000 ep. guess i should dig in more. peeps should also check out school of seven bells/tripping daisy.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#7 Post by SR » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:44 pm

DL'ing Now Here is Nowhere......the samples sound great.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#8 Post by Hokahey » Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:03 pm

kv wrote:no that's the second the 3rd is where they fell off imho
I was scared I'd feel the same way, which is why I put off listening to it for so long. I couldn't disagree more though. I think they more embraced the side of them I like best on it. It's darker, moodier, and more experimental.

They write about love loss like no other band too. Very pained, emotional music sometimes if you really listen to the lyrics.

Now You're Gone:
Hold on be still
Every now and then
Love bleeds truth in

We were right here
Born together at last
And when I dream you
You're close to me still

Now you're gone it's too late
Now you're gone it's too late

Another victim of a cold way
I felt you leaving I remember the day
It was the early part of winter on a saturday night
I was holding onto nothing staring into the light
Would it be alright
When the world it started to spin
And I shake so empty and thin

Will you recover or fall into ruin
Like stones scattered onto blanketed ground
But theres been way too many lost to understand why he left
No point remembering what we promised back then

Alone Jealous and Stoned:
Must have lived so long with covered eyes
When did you say good-bye?
Only just waking up

To all the joy that you've outgrown
Memories I can't break
Alone, jealous and stoned

Idle kids with idle hearts
Some of them went too far
Some still waiting there

Sitting at home, what am I doing?
Boy waiting by the phone
Alone, jealous and stoned

I waited for you
I always waited for you

Can't have been too late
As I was still warm
Fighting off heavy eyes
Still thinking you would call

Echoing words, voices, thoughts
Remembering what you forgot
And I was just hanging out

Sitting at home, what am I doing?
Boy waitng by the phone
Alone, jealous and stoned

I waited for you
I always waited for you

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Re: The Secret Machines

#9 Post by Hokahey » Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:06 pm

SR wrote:The Walls are Starting to Crack is no where on itunes. Which album do you think for first listen?....Pan or Hoka...

I would at least listen to it on Youtube. It's off of their 3rd, self title album. The last couple of minutes are so tripped out, epic and amazing.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#10 Post by kv » Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:16 pm

hokahey wrote:
kv wrote:no that's the second the 3rd is where they fell off imho
I was scared I'd feel the same way, which is why I put off listening to it for so long.
ya we are from different schools of thought i don't get people that put off or won't listen to something they once liked...like some here who never listened to tega how the fuck do you just not listen? if it sucks it sucks if it doesn't it doesn't lol

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Re: The Secret Machines

#11 Post by Hokahey » Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:25 pm

kv wrote:
hokahey wrote:
kv wrote:no that's the second the 3rd is where they fell off imho
I was scared I'd feel the same way, which is why I put off listening to it for so long.
ya we are from different schools of thought i don't get people that put off or won't listen to something they once liked...like some here who never listened to tega how the fuck do you just not listen? if it sucks it sucks if it doesn't it doesn't lol
I get really weird about music. I get nervous about hearing new stuff by a band I love. Jane's was different. There's only one Jane's. I HAD to listen. But with a band like this, a band that most people have never even heard of...it's like they're mine and what was good was so good that I almost just want to freeze them there for fear they'll be like almost every band and disappoint me.

You know what band has never disappointed me though, and keeps cranking out amazing albums? Dinosaur Jr. They seem like such a major exception to every rule about amazing rock bands.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#12 Post by Larry B. » Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:40 pm

Downloading. Wouldn't hurt to discover a good band.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#13 Post by jptm » Thu Aug 16, 2012 2:09 pm

Pure Method wrote:I love their september 000 ep. guess i should dig in more. peeps should also check out school of seven bells/tripping daisy.
Ben Curtis was the drummer for Tripping Daisy at the end; on their last 2 albums, "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb" & 'Tripping Daisy'.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#14 Post by kv » Thu Aug 16, 2012 2:34 pm

hokahey wrote:
kv wrote:
hokahey wrote:
kv wrote:no that's the second the 3rd is where they fell off imho
I was scared I'd feel the same way, which is why I put off listening to it for so long.
ya we are from different schools of thought i don't get people that put off or won't listen to something they once liked...like some here who never listened to tega how the fuck do you just not listen? if it sucks it sucks if it doesn't it doesn't lol
I get really weird about music. I get nervous about hearing new stuff by a band I love. Jane's was different. There's only one Jane's. I HAD to listen. But with a band like this, a band that most people have never even heard of...it's like they're mine and what was good was so good that I almost just want to freeze them there for fear they'll be like almost every band and disappoint me.

You know what band has never disappointed me though, and keeps cranking out amazing albums? Dinosaur Jr. They seem like such a major exception to every rule about amazing rock bands.
agreed jay m and lou barlow are just magic in whatever they touch

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Re: The Secret Machines

#15 Post by Lokus » Thu Aug 16, 2012 2:58 pm

The timing of your post is interesting because I was listening to the Road Leads EP yesterday for the first time in about a year and I was thinking I should finally get around to checking out their other stuff (I bought that EP shortly after it came out in 2005 and have never got anything else since).

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Re: The Secret Machines

#16 Post by Pandemonium » Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:42 pm

kv wrote:"now here is nowhere" is their first they had an ep before that but start with this one..i loved their drummer
The only time I was fortunate to see them in 2006, drummer Josh Garza had probably the closest live sound and feel to John Bonham of any drummer I think I've ever seen. Really powerful, solid style.

BTW, they actually have released 4 EPs - the first one predates the debut album and is called "September 0000" and featured a host of guest musicians. Here's a couple songs from it:





The 2nd (and most known) EP is "The Road Leads Where It's Led" released on the back of the debut album and includes their cover of "Money. The 3rd EP is a 6 song live set (from what I think was the show I saw in LA) "Morning Becomes Eclectic" from their 2006 "Ten Silver Drops" tour. The 4th EP is also live and an iTunes download from the '06 tour as well.

I've heard a lot of conflicting rumors over the last few years that they did record a 4th album a couple or three years ago that was never released. The last thing they did that's seen any sort of official release is a few songs for the terrible "Across The Universe" movie with Bono doing himself no favors on vox:



They did do some shows in 2009 with the new guitarist but that's it afaik. I guess the drummer has a new band called Cosmicide that's gigging on the East Coast.

BTW, this is the pre-Secret Machines band from the last 90's, Captain Audio...:


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Re: The Secret Machines

#17 Post by Hokahey » Fri Aug 17, 2012 8:26 am

They said in 2010 they were recording a new album called The Moth and the Lizard, and even released a single from it that I haven't looked for yet. Since then nothing.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#18 Post by ant » Fri Aug 17, 2012 5:25 pm

I love their version of Dylan's 'Girl from the North Country'. There's a studio version I think but it doesn't compare to a bootleg I have and my memory of seeing that song live. I didn't realize they had a new record.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#19 Post by feathers mcgraw » Wed Aug 22, 2012 1:49 pm

Ordered the 3 studio albums on the strength of recommendation here and the song 'Nowhere Again'.

Ten Silver Drops arrived today, going to give it a spin tonight/tomorrow.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#20 Post by Essence_Smith » Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:08 pm

Ok ok ok...all the buildup...this better be good people...

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Re: The Secret Machines

#21 Post by kv » Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:57 pm

prob not gonna be they aren't THAT great tbh lol way too much build up years after the fact lol


good band yes ...major life changer no

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Re: The Secret Machines

#22 Post by Pandemonium » Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:33 pm

kv wrote:prob not gonna be they aren't THAT great tbh lol way too much build up years after the fact lol

good band yes ...major life changer no
Agreed. Good though the 3 albums and other music is or was, I really felt they had a lot of unfulfilled potential.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#23 Post by Essence_Smith » Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:35 am

Pandemonium wrote:
kv wrote:prob not gonna be they aren't THAT great tbh lol way too much build up years after the fact lol

good band yes ...major life changer no
Agreed. Good though the 3 albums and other music is or was, I really felt they had a lot of unfulfilled potential.
Yeah it was a decent listen...good not great, but I have certainly seen worse recommended here, lol... thanks... :wave:

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Re: The Secret Machines

#24 Post by Hokahey » Thu Aug 23, 2012 10:20 am

I think they're amazing. But taste is taste. I wouldn't say theyre life changing, but how many bands are?

I will repeat this isn't a band you can hear some clips or a song or two and have an opinion on. This is an album band.

You also have to have a taste for melancholy. Much of their best work has a rather sad undercurrent. I mean, they have a song called Alone, Jealous and Stoned. :lol: Sums up many of their best songs IMO.

I think people hear the Bonham drums and swirly electronics and want something this band isn't, a modern Zeppelin. That's where the "unfulfilled potential" comes in. This is often very introspective music. Something to listen to through headphones alone.

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Re: The Secret Machines

#25 Post by feathers mcgraw » Thu Aug 23, 2012 12:31 pm

Sat in the dark with a spliff and the headphones on and listened to Ten Silver Drops last night. Absolutely fucking brilliant.

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