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SAND MACHINE – Porch & Space (Site)
Just so none of you regular Askew Reviews readers are confused, let me
start by saying that, whatever anyone might say about Sand Machine, you
could never say that they play punk rock. Okay? Personally, I’m alright
with that. There is plenty of room in my CD collection for a variety of
music. But I don’t want you pogo-crazy kids to get the wrong idea. This
is music with a brain, music with heart - most of all music that will draw
you in and hold your attention in a myriad of ways, and that will leave
you glad you took the time to listen. Combining the quirky vocal style of
the Violent Femmes with the even more quirky lyrical sensibility of They
Might Be Giants, along with a musical mélange of Neil Young, The Band and
mid-70s Kinks, Sand Machine are something fresh and interesting in a world
filled with imitators and duplicators. From the opening “ATM Song”
("I drive an ATM / It smiles when it sees me / It gets two miles to
the gallon / I always have to go back for > more") to the Ray
Davies-esque “The Woes of Edgar James” (which might be the funniest
song I’ve ever heard about suicide) you find yourself stepping into some
sort of through-the-looking-glass alternative universe. Along the way
you’ll learn to “leave your troubles on the far side of the bridge
over the creek” and go “floating in the air, over Copley Square.”
There are moments of uplifting joy, as well as fear and self-doubt. There
are songs that’ll make you want to get up and bop like a dirty Grateful
Dead fan, and songs that will make you pour yourself another shot of Jack
Daniels into that glass you haven’t washed in years. And although it
doesn’t sound anything like the Neighborhoods, this is yet another
absolutely fantastic piece of production work from the legendary Sir David
Minehan, whose work as a studio wizard is bested only by the fact that he
wrote two of the greatest songs in the history of pop music. BUY THIS
RECORD TODAY! - Brian Mosher
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