Athens, GA Surf Punk act The Nice Machine spent close to a year recording Jack Cousteau in guitarist Chris Vanderford’s basement. It was a very old-school scenario going to 8 track tape, and then to digital for mixing.
Working with tape meant getting good takes without any punches. This coincided with the band’s residencies at Hendershot’s Coffee Bar. The band had a Sunday night slot at the old Tallassee gas station version of the venue. The Nice Machine worked interactive themes into the sets including Thereoke, where any audience member could join the band on Theramin at any time. Also, Super Nintendo screens are set up to allow audience members to play video games during the set. There was also the factor that Hendershot’s liked for bands’ to perform a couple of sets to fill up the evening with entertainment. Prior to this, most Nice Machine sets were about 20 minutes long, so this required stretching in the form of covers by the Ventures & Booker T, but also small pockets of improv jams.
Shaping this stuff live and spending forever recording it paid off as some of these tracks became permanent parts of the Nice Machine sets. On a personal note, this recording was exciting for me because it was the first time I wrote material with the Nice Machine trio. I weaseled into the band after they had existed as a duo for many years, so this is the first one with my creative stamp.
Hear the studio album below in addition to a rare live recording of the CD release party at Hendershot’s.
Chris Vanderford: Guitar, Keys, Theramin, Trumpet
Eric McDowell: Drums, iPad, Emcee (Riled Up), Cover Artist
Steve Abercrombie: Bass
Live recording courtesy of Kurt Strickland
