The Machismo’s – Share One With A Friend – LP (2016)

Labels: self released
Review by: MH

This is the new LP by The Machismo’s and it’s more of their brand of lo-fi noisiness but whereas we had some long lost recordings and rerecordings of old songs on their last few releases, “Share One With A Friend” sees a whole batch of new songs from the band in its current form – essentially the first set of new songs by the band in almost 2 decades. They kind of flit between a more laidback sound and far louder, grooving moments that are reminiscent of drummer/vocalist Sam Marsh’s previous band, Jacob’s Mouse. If you liked Jacob’s Mouse as much as I did then this should be very good news (the guitar sound on both “Vrrrm!” and “Rise Again” for starters really remind me of latter-day Jacob’s Mouse). There’s also weirder, quieter moments like the minimalist, bedroomy “Bad Dreams” that make this an interesting and varied record, even bringing in a reggae beat on “When You Know It’s Real”. Some of these lo-fi moments make me think of Beck. “Rise Again” deals with erectile dysfunction and has the rowdiest riff I’ve heard from The Machismo’s since “Machismo’s Last Stand”. It also features finger clicks and might be the best song on here. The punked-up “Belvia” is another standout.I still struggle to find comparisons when it comes to The Machismo’s. The obvious one would be Jacob’s Mouse who were similarly hard to pigeonhole but that’s part of the beauty of this band for me. Back in about 1991 the music press used to compare Jacob’s Mouse to World Domination Enterprises who I couldn’t find much about at the time but Jacob’s Mouse eventually did a 7inch with a couple of covers by that band (one of which also made it on to their Peel session and themed many of my paper rounds) and some time about ten years later I found digital files of the original World Domination Enterprises tracks on Soulseek. I digress but what I’m trying to say is that The Machismo’s are similarly hard to pigeonhole.

On another note, if you buy this record you get two copies – so a spare one to give to a friend. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that done before. The note explaining the reasons for this that comes with the records is brilliant. My brother will be getting my spare copy. I’m delighted this band is still around and still writing new songs.