We Lenny Kravitz it up for the microphone here to good effect. For the extremely earnest lyrics about peace and universal brotherhood our tongues are, if not in our cheeks, somewhere in the back of our heads.  - Allan Morgan

The British/Canadian spelling of "colour" is done intentionally for affect.  - S.

Al: Lead & backing vox, keys, acoustic guitar
Sook: Percussion, call & response vox
Dave: Drums, bass, guitar, keys

This World Is Full Colour by Pop Machine

J'ai Un Valise Fourré Avec Dégoût (I Have A Valise Crammed With Disgust), or, if you will, A Suitcase Full of Hate.  (Due to a typographical error, our photo editor has published a photo of a suitcase full of HATS.  We apologize. - S.)  

In which I pick up the gauntlet inadvertantly thrown down by Mr. S.  After i had composed A Suitcase Full of Hate, he claimed to have written A Valise Crammed With Disgust.   Quite frankly, a concept such as this deserves to be taken the extra step, so I have taken the liberty of translating it into (undoubtedly fractured) French. 

Or: in which we find that the root of all things punk turns out to be Plastic Bertrand after all. - Allan Morgan

Al: Tambour, Vocals, Guitares


J'ai Un Valise Fourré Avec Dégoût by Pop Machine

Rolling Down

Hands up, everyone who has O.D'ed on classic rock radio growing up. I'm looking at you, Mr. S!

In all seriousness, here's a good song to kick off the weekend.  Even if it's Monday.  A rousin' rocker referencing the road, righteously rebellious (all right, all right, I'll stop. I'm not Stan Lee, after all), conceived by Sook and polished by Dave & the Pop Machine guys, it hums along nicely and will leave you doing likewise. Which Doobie do you be?  - Allan Morgan

Al: Vox, keys, drum programming
Sook: Bridge vox,percussion
Scott: Guitar
Dave: Lead guitar & bass


Rolling Down by Pop Machine

Ah, memories. This song dates from my early LA days, and has hung in there for quite a few years. Sook and I used to attend songwriter conferences and I submitted the original demo of this for judgement by B-level industry professionals (which was pretty cool, considering we weren't even D-level). Since it was a rinky-dink 4-track cassette demo recorded on a cheap keyboard, the reaction was mild at best. However, it got a big cheer when the title was announced...

This version was recorded some years later (about '95) and actually made it into an indie film, the name of which completely eludes me at the moment. (I believe it was David Schrader's "NoHo."  - S.)  This is a slightly less rinky-dink 4-track cassette version.  Mike occasionally mentions that he's come up with a bluesy arrangement for it that we could spiff up nice over at Dave's studio. Now THAT I'm up for...  - Allan Morgan

Al: Throbbing keyboards & whatnot

(NOTE: Mr. Morgan wishes to emphasize that the accompanying drawing is not a rendering of himself or anyone he has ever met. Thank you.)


Nice Guys Don't Get Laid by Pop Machine

As I sat in the studio tinkering I adopted the persona of a young singer-songwriter who thinks himself to be a latter-day combination of John Lennon & Bob Dylan and who writes songs that, though he's not sure what they mean, exude INTENSITY and IMPORTANCE, man! This rushed out...

I do not consider myself to be this person. I consider myself to be a latter-day combination of Thorstein Veblen, Moms Mabley and Pliny the Elder. Or Weird Al.

Note: "The Soft Addiction" is the latest band name I am enamored with, and hope to use it on future projects. Were I in 10th grade, I'd carve it on a desktop using my pen. Come to think of it, I might yet.  - Allan Morgan


Theme From "The Soft Addiction" by Pop Machine

If the Beatles could record Sergeant Pepper on a four track, why couldn't Pop Machine scale the same heights of greatness with their own four track?  Because Pop Machine was recording with a Tascam Four track cassette recorder and a $59 keyboard from Circuit City in a one bedroom Hollywood apartment with no air conditioning.  Also, they were The Beatles.  So, there's that.  But, in spite of all the danger, try to scale those same heights Pop Machine did, with this ode to...psychedelicness.   - Scott S.

Psurgery of Psaint Jude by Pop Machine

Pop Machine strikes again! We channel our mass dissatisfaction into one guitar-coated nugget for the ages. (This one'll be a featured track from our "2000s" album, once it gets compiled.) I give full lyrical credit to Mr. Hewitt and Mr. S. (though I do lay claim to the opening stanza), who really deliver in this tale of post-millenial disillusionment. It rocks, and it hits ya where it counts.... - Allan Morgan  

Al: Vox, Drums
Scott: Guitars
Dave: Bass


Square One by Pop Machine

Skateboard Phreak
(Wall-Hewitt-Morgan-Sookman)

Ever seen the Concord-New Horizons production of "The Skateboard Kid" featuring Dom Deluise as the voice of Rip, the talking skateboard? Well, if you haven't you should, as it has a nifty theme song by a conglomeration of none other than the guys from Pop Machine and Osmium, two of your fave bands. (Based on "Teacher in Traction", another perennial Osmium classic.)

I gotta thank our buddy Neil for the hookup. He helped set us the road to being an actual money-making venture, a road I would love to spend more time on...  - Allan Morgan

They say that everyone in Hollywood has a Roger Corman credit.  This is ours.  - Scott S.

Al: Vox
Scott S.: Backing Vox
Scott H : Guitar, Backing Vox
John: Guitar, Backing Vox
Dave: Drums, Bass

Skateboard Phreak

This was supposed to be a one-off psudeonymous side project, but eventually we recorded an E.P. and an entire album's worth of this glam rock/bubblegum/cartoon rock fest that only a pop culture damaged child of the 1970's could possibly conjure up.  In the tradition of The Sweet/T. Rex/Mud/The Glitter Band (I'm not going to throw Bowie in there, Bowie was too tasteful for this type of assault on good sense) crossed with the Bugaloos and The Hudson Brothers, let me introduce you one and all to THE CHEESEBURGERS!!!  - Scott S.

Junior Cheeseburger - Vocals
California Cheeseburger - Guitar
D, Lux Cheeseburger - Bass
Tex S. Cheeseburger - Keyboards
Production - Dave W.
Tambourine - Al
More Cowbell - Scott S.

Ladies And Gentlemen by The Cheeseburgers

Describe this track?  Okay, I'll take a stab.  Goofy white people pretending to sing a fake Mexican novelty tune?  I think that about covers it.

Donde Estan Mis Pantalones by Pop Machine

Founded in 1989, in Los Angeles, Pop Machine took a bit of indie pop, a slurry of rock, a dollop of satire, and a trainload of WTF, and shaped them into its current amorphous form.

FOR YOU IF YOU LIKE: They Might Be Giants, Blotto, Devo, XTC, Frank Zappa

Members:  
Al - Vox, Keyboards, music, lyrics
Scott S. - Lyrics, occasional vox, occasional keyboard, bass that one time
Scott H. - Guitar, backing vox
Associates:
John Wall: Guitar, backing vox, occasional lyrics
Mike Lawrence: Occasional keyboards
Dave Waterbury: Guitar, bass, keyboards, production
Steve Kanter: occasional bass guitar

Pop Machine

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