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IMMACULATE MACHINE,
No one ever said being in an indie band was easy. There’s
the total lack of money, the persistent time constraints, the organizational
nightmares, and the days and nights that are so long they turn into
a single, sleepless entity. For Victoria’s Immaculate Machine,
the impediments of being DIY are as trying as they are for every
other struggling Canadian act. They have, however, found a way to
solace themselves during their labours: getting silly on stage,
dancing, and up-staging Nardwuar.
"The most flattering thing is when we see all the people who
have just spent two hours glossing their hair mess it up by dancing
like fools at our show," laughs vocalist Brooke Gallupe. "Our
album is a real mix of slow and fast shows, but when we’re
playing live we filter out a lot of the slow ones to encourage more
dancing. We also get up and inspire the audience by sweating out
the music ourselves."
Along with their rug-cutting customs, out-of-the-ordinary vocal
harmonies, generous drums, and quirky keyboards, Immaculate Machine
also boasts the coveted achievement of making Canada’s plaid,
trash-talking treasure Nardwuar look normal in comparison with their
over-danced style. After a recent show opening up for Nardwuar's
band, The Evaporators, Gallupe says the band snapped a few photos
with the shrill-voiced notable, which created some alarming revelations
for them. "We got a bunch of photos with them and one of my
friends said that the photo with me and Nardwuar was the only one
in which she’d seen someone make him actually look normal
by comparison," he laughs. "Apparently, I look kind of
goofy to some people."
It’s that light-hearted sense of humour that has helped to
make Immaculate Machine an act notable to indie-pop lovers. Gallupe
says the band is "alternative enough to be called indie"
but "is fairly vocal-oriented like pop music," and that’s
what seems to get the cool kids out messing up their stylized haircuts.
While he admits the self-reliant path is a tedious, work-heavy one–the
band does everything from design their artwork to booking tours
themselves–it seems that all the sacrifice is worth it when
the kids come out and get into the goofy groove.
Saturday, May 8–Seedy’s
http://www.seemagazine.com/Issues/2004/0506/mus5.htm |
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