*Debut album released November 2006 on Fading Ways Records and distributed across Canada by Scratch Records & Distribution
“(After My Misspent Youth) is packed with 13 sharp and witty tunes very much in the style of the band’s primary Britpop influences…able to channel all the energy of the early Kinks or The Jam.†Jason Schneider, Kitchener-Waterloo Record
THE MACHINES are a rock and roll trio with a combined age of 82 and a total weight of 420 pounds, making them one massive senior citizen that you best not fool with, Jack. The three Machines all reside in different cities but they rehearse in Kitchener, Ontario (in Helix’s old rehearsal space!), which makes that their hometown.
Formed in early 2005, THE MACHINES were born from the demise of The Candidates, a band that counted Machines bassist/vocalist Neil McDonald and guitarist/vocalist Steve Parkinson as founding members. Together in The Candidates, Neil and Steve toured Canada many times, saw their albums chart in the Canadian College Top 50 and found themselves playing at festivals and clubs across the land with many a top rock and roll act of the day (including Sylvain Sylvain of The New York Dolls, The Walkmen, Hot Hot Heat, The Sadies, Death From Above 1979 and Brian Jonestown Massacre).
After the Candidates divorce, Neil and Steve joined forces with one Rick Andrade, guitarist and singer for longtime Kitchener-Waterloo scenesters The Everyday Faces, who switched back to his first love, the drums, to round out THE MACHINES potent starting lineup.
THE MACHINES have been plenty active since performing their first show in February 2005, with an East Coast Canadian tour already under their belts in addition to numerous shows in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and around Southern Ontario. The band has also performed in Vancouver as part of New Music West 2006 and had their song “What Have I Done†featured on CBC Radio 3’s podcast #50.
THE MACHINES debut CD "After My Misspent Youth" entered the Canadian College Radio Top 50 at #28 in January 2007, receiving airplay on numerous stations around the country (including a #2 chart placing at CJAM in Windsor, Ontario).
In addition, THE MACHINES have also performed with such fine rock and roll bands as Sloan, The Marble Index, The Golden Dogs, The Ride Theory, Luke Doucet, The Diableros, The Yoko Casionos, Elliott Brood, Clothes Make The Man and Galore.
And now, with an arsenal of catchy and energetic new material, a shared love of rock and roll sounds from British Invasion to power-pop to old-tyme country and all manner of sounds in between, these three gents are ready for a new beginning. For it is a new age we enter now. The age of…THE MACHINES!
“The tunes positively burst with youthful energy and big joyful choruses. This is not music that laments, it’s music that rocks and rolls, and Ray Davies probably wishes he’d written it…a supremely confident record.†Patrick Finch, Echo Weekly
