Daydream Machine

Daydream Machine began in vocalist/guitarist Jason Adams’ basement, a well-used room that seems like it’s held together by band posters, flyers and stickers—a record of the history of the bands that share the space, the people they’ve toured with and their influences. This record stretches more than a decade as do the musical careers of most of the members. Daydream Machine is made up of the front people of other notable bands. Founding members Read more on Last.fm …read full bio

Daydream Machine began in vocalist/guitarist Jason Adams’ basement, a well-used room that seems like it’s held together by band posters, flyers and stickers—a record of the history of the bands that share the space, the people they’ve toured with and their influences. This record stretches more than a decade as do the musical careers of most of the members. Daydream Machine is made up of the front people of other notable bands. Founding members include singer/guitarist Jason Adams (The Upsidedown); singer/guitarist Matthew Strange (Hawkeye); guitarist/noise Jonathan Allen (Music for Headphones) Bassist Josh Kalberg and singer/flautist Charlotte Engler together form the folk-gaze duo The Whole Wide World. Drummer Jason (Plucky) Anchondo (The Warlocks). The dream machine for which the band is named is made from a cylinder with cut sides that throw out photons as the machine oscillates. The experience of looking, eyes closed, into the light can be quite intense but all you need to do to escape it is to open your eyes. Such is the music of Daydream Machine, which takes you, our gentle listener, to a place where magic, sedation and elation exist in waveform. The music combines light with dark through its tri-vocal harmonies. Jason Adams’ sardonic vocals play off of Matthew Strange’s hopeful tenor with Charlotte Engler lacing her soprano throughout the songs. The vocals don’t fuse, they work around each other sometimes coming together and sometimes floating apart. None of the vocalists is specifically “lead.” Each voice plays an integral part to the music—at times witty and at other times heartbreaking. Daydream Machine combines the lush sounds of shoegaze and neo-psychedelia with the jutting angles and dance beats of post-punk. Layers of guitars, vocals, flute and keyboards shimmer above the driving drumbeat. The results, like magic in fairy tales and Fantasia are unpredictable. Daydream Machine owes a lot to a lot of people. “Dawn” is a cover of a Frankie Valli song dragged through the Jesus and Marychain, the Ronettes and the Beach Boys. The guitars don’t follow the usual rhythm lead strategy. Strange’s winding leads overlay the rhythm and textured sounds created by Jason Adams and Jonathan Allen with his plethora of guitar pedals. In this, notes of Spacemen 3 scratch against the fuzzy backdrop of Galaxie 500. In May 2013, Daydream Machine signed to Picture in My Ear Records, and is releasing their debut album, Twin Idols, in early 2014 (TBR 3/11/14). Twin Idols includes contributions from Peter Holmstrom (the Dandy Warhols) and Collin Hegna (Brian Jonestown Massacre, Federale) and was partially recorded at Hegna’s Revolver Studios. Some of their early demo basement tracks can be found on samplers “The Psychic Underground – Vol. 5”, and “The Active Listener – Record Store Day 2013” and they have received airplay on podcasts such as Anton Newcombe’s Dead TV, “Sideways Through Sound” out of Sydney, Australia, KZME in Portland, and “When the Sun Hits” on Strangeways Radio. Daydream Machine started with momentum and does not plan on letting up any time soon. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

…shrink me down again