The name is from the Richard Brautigan poem entitled All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace. Richard Brautigan was a San Francisco beat-era poet and author. He is quite obscure, but his works are beginning to become popular once again. Click Here to read the poem.

in 2000 before the band’s breaksup the name changed to “The Machines”. Quote from Vocalist Scott Benzel: “I feel like there’s a lot of baggage with the old name and I always had a hard time saying it.” – Scott Benzel in 2000

Quote from Vocalist Scott Benzel: “I feel like there’s a lot of baggage with the old name and I always had a hard time saying it.” – Scott Benzel in 2000

Mike is a classically trained cellist and was interested in working with electronics and film soundtracks. Scott was into Hardcore music until he discovered Wax Trax! records and discovered the art of sampling. Ray Riendeau has a jazz background, and David has a jazz and hard rock background (in addition to his Stabbing Westward days). Specific people listed as influences are Edgard Varese, SPK, the Beatles, Modest Mussorgsky, Einsturzende Neubatten.

All of the videos were in rotation, but never for very long. Butterfly Wings had a good run on MTV’s old show ‘Alternative Nation’. Mike Fisher stated that MTV never played the Richest Junkie video because they objected to a shot in which an old man was touching the ass of a mannequin.

The demo made by the band was actually released by Mammoth Records as their first album since the record company felt that it did not need any polishing up.

The Band M.E covers the song ‘ButterFly Wings’ from Machines of Loving Grace. You can check this out and listen to the track via Real Audio by clicking here. Also a band known as the Hover Conversion covers a few Machines songs including “Weatherman”, “Lipstick 66” and “Golgotha Tenement Blues”.They’ve recorded all 3 versions, but the band’s leader thinks “Weatherman” is the one they are going to release.

Another thing mentioning is the band SFB is very influenced by Machines of Loving Grace.

The Crow, Hackers, and Mega Man but beyond those three, I personally haven’t heard of any others. Mike Fisher was uncertain, but thought that Weatherman might appear in an indie film, but couldn’t remember the title.

David, the drummer on Gilt replacing Brad Kemp, was the drummer for Stabbing Westward’s first album Ungod, but apparently left the band during the tour because he didn’t feel that the band was going anywhere. Since playing on Gilt and touring with the band in late ’95 and early ’96, he has also played drums on the new Seven Red Seven album. He was also apparently a member of a band known as Skinny (who became Verbow), a Chicago based band who an album in Spring ’97 entitled ‘Chronicles’ with Sony. He also has other numerous side projects with many other groups. Check the Side Projects Section for more.

Melchionda is the last name of one of the people that has been given a special thanks on every MOLG album, Tom Melchionda. He is not listed as a member of the band, but may be a close friend of the band and occasional co-writer. He toured with the band since Concentration as a guitar tech and roadie.

The band started out as Scott Benzel, Stuart Kupers, and Mike Fisher, but they soon added Brad Kemp on drums. Between Concentration and Gilt, Stuart and Brad left the band, and Ray Riendeau, David Suycott, and Tom Coffeen joined the band. Apparently Tom Coffeen isn’t actually a band member, but he will probably continue to work with them. He has never toured with the band. in 2000 right before their breakup most of the band left except for Scott and he changed the band’s name to The Machines. Within the same year Scott and Co. decided to hang it up permanently.

According to Scott Benzel, it was originally supposed to be entitled Gilt After Tris, but the band felt that it was too long and shortened the name. It is an alchemical reference which was supposed to convey a purification ritual such as a trial by fire.

Serpico was written shortly after one of the fathers of one of Scott Benzel’s close friends killed himself and is about the experiences the two of them shared in that time. Tryst and The Soft Collision are about difference phases in a romantic relationship, in Tryst, it is the relationship that is gone, sort of turned into an unmoving thing, and in The Soft Collision, it is about a break in it. Richest Junkie Still Alive is about someone who has unlimited power and doesn’t know what to do with it. Apparently Scott Benzel liked the ‘tabloid’ quality of the title.

It isn’t exactly a perfect description of the song, but the song does center around a relationship concept. It has been suggested that the title is a play on the KISS album of the same name, but this is probably just a coincidence.

First off, the term “Slaughterhouse Five” is apparently the title of a book by Kurt Vonnegut (Published in 1966. ISBN: 0-440-18029-5) about the firebombing of Dresden during WWII. In the book, American prisoners are kept in Slaughterhouse Five just outside Dresden. Some of the atrocities about prisoner life in Germany, such as candles made out of human fat and hunger and such. The main character of the book jumps in and out of events of his entire lifetime, including his capture by the Tralfamagorians, and alien race that sees fourth dimensionally. The actual slaughterhouse was also one of the few things left standing in Dresden after the bombings. Also, take note that the term ‘suicide king’ is often applied to the King of Hearts in a deck of cards because the picture on the card looks like the King is sticking his sword through his own head.

Well a possible explanation can be found from Canto I: Convocation of the Twelve Apollonius, the Adept’s description of a performance of “The Janid,” the sacred history of the Gianae of Sardinia. Check out the site at http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/J/ and check under Canto I: Convocation of the Twelve Apollonius. It states “…And so became the Twofold Godhead, famed Throughout the world, and still in no way shamed.”

Thanks to Josh Segall.

The actual sample is from the last hour at Jonestown, Guyanna prior to the mass suicide of a large religious cult. One of the church members had a microcassette recorder and actually captured Jim Jones’ final speech to his ‘flock’. The tape has been circulating underground for some time. The audio quality is very poor, but the important events are understandable. Towards the end of ‘Serpico’ there’s another sample from the same tape in which Jones says ‘Hurry my children, hurry. No more pain, no more pain.’

Grotus sample the loop in their album ‘Brown’ on track 9 (‘You Fit The Suit’). This could have something to do with the fact that they toured in the past with the machines.

Also, there is apparently a Concrete Blonde song with a similar segment.

Further the band Acidbath also used the same sample from the jonestown massacre. Its used at the beginning of the song ‘Diab Soule’ from their album ‘Pagan Terrorism Tactics’. Acidbath has since broken up due to the death of their bass player, Audie (RIP). they released only two albums
Thanks to FaithNoMan@aol.com.

The Jim Jones sample at the beginning of Serpico can also be found in the song “Mao Tse Tsung Said” by a group called the Alabama 3 (or A3 as they are usually listed) off their album Exile On Coldharbour Lane. They actually use quite a bit of the speech, if not all of it. It’s kind of oddly used cause the song is more bouncy than Serpico making it weird to juxtapose how the quote was used by MOLG. Anyways, the band is fairly good, basically making gospel/blues/country music but adding techno beats to it.

Thanks Goes Mike Benkovich for submitting!

Finally the “I’ll fight” sample is also used by the band The Orb has a song on the Pomme Fritz EP called “More Gills Less Fishcakes” which has a lot of thi s sample. It has a really freaky effect on it, and the song is a really eerie ambient 8 mins.

‘a hurricane started by a butterfly’s wings’ is an example that Lorenz used to compare/combine/create meteorology and chaos theory.

Bikini Atoll was the site of a number of very important US nuclear tests during Operation Crossroads in the mid- to late- 1940s. These were the first tests done since the end of the Second World War. The tests were aimed at ships and other captured goods which the military placed in the Atoll’s large lagoon. It is also rumoured that there are still large amounts of plutonium and residual radiation in the area. The Atollitself is located in the Marshall Islands which are in the Pacific Ocean. The first test was carried out on July 1, 1946, followed by a second on the 25th.

The quote in the song that is being referred to is: “If the doors of perception were finally cleansed” The similarity of this quote to one by the poet named William Blake is quite uncanny, especially with respect to a number of other lines in the song. The couplet of lines by Blake is from one of his more famous poems called ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ The originally quote from William Blake is: “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.”

In case this question strikes you as odd, the first album and Concentration both had a song entitled Content. Well, to be more precise, the first album’s was entitled ‘Content’, and the one on Concentration was ‘Content?’. Looking at the lyrics of each song reveals that they are completely different. According to Mike Fisher, the band was just having fun with BMI’s radio play tracking system.

Albert Speer was the Armaments Minister for Nazi Germany during World War II. He joined the National Socialist Party in 1931 and quickly became a member of Hitler’s small circle of intimates. After the war, he was sentenced to 20 years in Berlin’s Spandau Prison for War Crimes, and unlike his codefendants, readily accepted responsibility for the crimes committed by a government he helped lead. However, he also insisted that he knew nothing about the death camps until the trials, “Of the dreadful things, I knew nothing”. Speer was apparently a frustrated romantic whose reciprocated love for Hitler, a sublimated, nonsexual, but homoerotic devotion, blinded him to the dark realities which he chose not to see, hear, or believe. Albert Speer died at the age of 76 in 1981.

On “Concentration” there is a passage between “Content?” and “Trigger for Happiness” with this guy rambling, and also in the middle of the song “Shake,” there’s another segment of it. These segments were BOTH taken from the same scene in the movie “Slacker”. The scene is towards the end with a guy driving a big gas-guzzling car hooked up to a sound system with megaphones. The driver was talking (even growling) into a mike that fed into the megaphones and speakers.
Thanks to Pop Burmp.