Rating: NNN
The Machines are a Kitchener-Waterloo-based band of ex-Candidates who are heavy into that late-70s power-pop Kinks- Jam vibe. Singers Neil McDonald and Rick Andrade share an enjoyable, self-deprecating sense of humour about the plight of aging, financially challenged rockers on songs like My Girlfriend Says and Snatching Defeat (From The Jaws Of Victory) that keeps them from slipping into banal rock basics. The production isn’t terrific, the vocals are needlessly high in the mix and the guitars are feather-light, zapping the juice out of the term “power trio.” Some advice for the sophomore: save your shekels and call Ian Blurton.
The Machines rev up the El Mocambo Saturday (January 27).
