The Music Machine: An Appreciation

With the holiday this week, things have been a little crazy and we weren’t able to post last week. We can’t go too long without having a new one.

The good news is that we have been in contact with a member of another great band whose hits came mostly in the ‘60s. As we always say, we don’t want to jinx anything but it is not only band that had some big hits, but more importantly, was a huge influence to other bands.

The band member we talked to seems to be incredibly gracious and once it’s all done, we’ll announce who it is. Suffice to say, like the Standells, it’s a band that anyone who claims to be a garage rock fan will surely know.

This week, we wanted to post a short homage to one of the very groups that inspired our desire to have a blog like this, the Music Machine.

The Music Machine

Fronted by Sean Bonniwell, the Music Machine was a Los Angeles-based band who, like the Standells, had a number of great songs and even appeared on the pop charts. They were a bridge to the psychedelic era and an inspiration to many later groups in genres ranging from punk to goth.

While many people associate the ‘60s in America with muscle cars, California beaches and upbeat pop tunes, the Music Machine presaged a darker, more anxiety-ridded sensibility in rock. 

While the music wasn’t nearly as dark or angry as the MC5 and the Stooges would later prove to be, it did suggest a more serious and apprehensive tone than the girls-cars-Saturday Night themes prevalent at the time.

The band’s best known song (and in our humble opinion, one of the greatest rock songs ever) was “Talk Talk.” Mark Landon’s beefy guitar burst opens the song, and Doug Rhodes’ keyboards bordered on the sinister. Already, you had the brewing of a revolutionary – as well as a very cool -- song.

With the vocals of Bonniwell, which range in the song’s almost-two minutes from angry, to boisterous to depressed resignation, you ended up with a song that, even just banging out a description on a keyboard, sends chills up our spine. If the Music Machine had never recorded another song, “Talk Talk” would render them more than deserving of a hallowed place in rock and roll history.

Beyond the lyrics of their songs was the band’s appearance. Band members dressed all in black, all with long black hair, contrasting sharply with the more bubbly norm for rock bands at the time.

Bonniwell presented a searing intensity when performing. It may be a coincidence – though we highly doubt it here, but another lead singer of another Los Angeles band, Jim Morrison of the Doors, seemed to have much overlap with Bonniwell in both style and substance, with the rarely-smiling intensive gaze and occasional hints of anguish. There’s also more than a passing resemblance between Ray Manzarak’s keyboards and those of Doug Rhodes.

“Talk Talk,” which got as high as number 15 on the Billboard charts, was far from the only fine song the band recorded.  “The People In Me” would also chart. “Double Yellow Line,” “Masculine Intuition” and “Trouble” would also be fine examples of angst-ridden rock, very edgy examples of such for the time.

(Turn On) The Music Machine contains some of the finest ‘60s garage rock albums and a definite must for fans. That said, there are also a fair number of covers that maybe don’t display the band’s best qualities. The exception would be “Hey Joe,” slower and more seething than the Leaves original.

But the album demonstrates an evil that still plagues the music biz to this day – the more or less forced inclusion of material that neither the band nor their most loyal fans really feels is necessary.

 

The Music Machine’s reign would be short. Within a couple of years, the band would fall apart. Though many have reported that Bonniwell was generally a personable sort, apparently he and other band members didn't get along very well. There was another album, released under the Bonniwell Music Machine, with Bonniwell the only original member left. It would also contain some good songs, including “The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly” and “Astrologically Incompatible.” 

Clearly, though, there would never be anything else on the level of “Talk Talk.” The Music Machine was just another band had a good run, made some good music, then faded into that vast landscape of forgotten rock and rollers. Band members went on to other projects, and there was the all-too-familiar legal confrontations, ensuring there would be no kissing and making up or reunion tours.

But too many rockers grew up listening to the Music Machine for them to disappear completely. Like so many other bands, their inclusion on Nuggets and other such compilations turned on succeeding generations of musicians and fans. Bands from later waves of garage rock, such as the Satelliters and the Cynics, make no apparent effort to hide the Music Machine’s influence on their own music.

Sadly, Bonniwell died in 2011 of lung cancer. He dabbled in music, made some appearances here and there, but never quite returned to the force he was once. Drummer Ron Edgar passed on in Feebruary of this year. But the Music Machine is simply too much of a trailblazer to ever be forgotten.

Our hope is that our next post will be an interview with another very influential band who also had some hits around the same time as the Music Machine. This band was also very influential but is actually still performing today before fans all around the world.