Alli's Articles
INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, CULTURE PIECES, MUSICAL RAMBLINGS.
Before I say anything, I just want to make it clear that I believe music is universal. With the unlimited access we have to any type of genre you can dream of in this day and age, it's super easy, as well as valid, for any type of person to like any type of band. The thing is, knowing my usual music interests, and my circumstances as a 17 year old all-girls catholic school-attending suburban New York-residing teen, I'm just slightly confused as to why I'm finding myself deeply immersed in a hardcore, glitchy, punky, electronic rave band. Californian drum-and-bass duo The Garden, which I brushed on briefly in my "Faves of 2018" post, recently wrapped up a crazy U.S. tour. I couldn't go to the Brooklyn show in December, so I looked up clips on YouTube to increase my FOMO even more. I couldn't find any of the Shears twins themselves, but I managed to stumble over the entire set of one of the openers- Machine Girl. I didn't have any strong assumptions of what MG was going to sound like before I pressed play; Since they were touring with The Garden, I assumed they would create music that mirrored them in a way. They were an opener, so they were probably chill. The words "machine" and "girl" combining set them up to be a electronic-and-soft-indie clashing band in my mind. Well...all I can say is, sometimes our minds guide us in the wrong lane. This time, I was on the wrong HIGHWAY. The performance started with a song that I now know is called "This Is Your Brain on Dogs." It started out with some periodically spaced-out single drum beats, then, next thing I knew, my entire computer screen was vibrating with the moshing crowd's power, glitchy melodic beats that sounded straight out of a Nintendo 64 adventure game, and a kind of voice modifier that I have never heard before. I was shocked. But....in the best way possible. I was scared, but nothing about the music was the cause of it. I just knew that my 5'8", 120 pound body would have been chucked across that crowd in the first 5 seconds. I've never been one for metal (...or noise, trance, something with a -core at the end, whatever you want to call it. I'll just label everything in this category as "metal" to make things clearer). I've just had too many pre-conceived notions surrounding it. Despite this, I slowly began to notice that the exact things that normally push me away from listening to this genre were fascinating me through this set. The screaming. The controversial lyric subjects. The repetitive and crazy beat patterns. What I usually shunned from other acts, I couldn't get enough of in this situation. Something about the way Machine Girl went about with their performance made me want to hit the repeat button before it even ended. "Maybe I'm just secretly a metal fan? Maybe I need to understand and appreciate it more?" I pondered after finishing the 50 minute video. So, I experimented. I found an "Old School Metal" playlist and cranked it up for the hell of it, but nothing was standing out. I didn't feel compelled to go back and explore songs like I did with MG. Of course, classic metal like "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath will always stand by me, through all the family barbecues, car commercials, and basketball games, but besides the nostalgia aspect of it, there was no spark. "Maybe I need to listen to more modern metal!" I thought, so I searched for acts with a more 8-bit noise drum'n'bass aesthetic. I found many cool songs with the same qualities as many of the songs Machine Girl preformed. Zany samples from various sources of entertainment, different rhythmic units, the virtual reality sound effects. But at a point, all of the bands I was discovering all started to merge together. MG was the only one standing apart from the rest. They just seemed to be a little more over the top than all the rest. More unique and fun. Crazier. Willing to do anything, to play anything, or say anything they felt. That's when I knew that I wasn't destined to be a metal fan....there was just something about these guys I was attracted to; Not just as amateur music journalist, but a general fan as well. Although I'm sure it was nothing compared to actually being at the venue, watching their performance at Elsewhere Hall in Brooklyn on YouTube also helped build my opinion of them. It allowed me to see the cool look they had about them. Not really a flashy setup, it was just a simple soundboard and a drum set, and two dudes rockin' out. A wig flew (no literally), the purple sweatshirt that accompanied purple sweatpants came off, and the beams that held the whole joint together were climbed upon. It was outrageous, but in the best way possible. It was how many musicians want to put on a show, but are too afraid, or don't even have the upper-body strength to do it. Like seriously. Those beams did not look that easy to climb and lay on. After watching that video, I went on to save MG's newest album, The Ugly Art and even ANOTHER album of theirs, ...Because I'm Young Arrogant and Hate Everything You Stand For on Spotify. My favorite song by them is probably "Dumbass!!" or "Status." I have to admit, through my new-found fan-man-ship of Machine Girl, I've learned many things. You don't have to be a total metal-head to enjoy a metal band. Metal fans, and even the members of metal bands, could be anyone, not just the heavily-tattooed bearded guys in their 40s that used to come to mind for me when I thought of that genre. Also, just because songs are fast-paced and you can't necessarily UNDERSTAND the lyrics at first listen...doesn't mean you can't learn all the words to jam out to them. I can't say you can catch me head-banging to Metallica after this, but discovering Machine Girl definitely did have an impact on me. If a band out of your usual sphere of interest sounds interesting to you, go ahead and listen to them! You never know what cool bops you can dig out of the rich, plentiful dirt that is the internet. I'll be here, enjoying my new niche obsession for the next three months...and while I'm at it, scrolling through the official MG Instagram because their tour pictures are amazing just like they are.
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