Description
Exciting news
the Dream Machine will be joining us in the shop on Thursday31st October for a Instore Session and signing starting at 12:30pm
This is a FREE entry event - First come first served on the day - feel free to order a copy of the album in advance here to pick up on the day .
Small Town Monsters, the second full-length album from The Dream Machin, is
set to be released this April on Run On Records/ Modern Sky.
If 2022’s critically-acclaimed debut album Thank God! It’s The Dream
Machine… was their first and most wild child, then Small Town Monsters is its
refined younger sibling. The psychedelia, euphoric choruses, flashes of surf
guitar and B-movie references are all there, amongst the familiar reflections of
life in their beloved and faded seaside town of New Brighton, but this time the
wilder elements are controlled, the songs packed into three-minute pocket symphonies.
Lead single Frankenstein is an anthem for the sugar-rush generation, an
infectious, rattling earworm that recalls everything from haunted rockabilly to the sun-drenched melodies of Blossoms.
Elsewhere on the album, the pulsating surf-stomp of Cindy’s Eyes, a small-
town story of unrequited love, has a chorus to fill the most cavernous arena.
Produced by The Coral’s James Skelly, the album was partially recorded at
The Dream Machine’s rehearsal space, then stitched together in Skelly’s Kempston Street Studios.
There’s a refined, more literary quality to singer and primary songwriter Zak
McDonnell’s lyrics; explorations of everyday life, teenage doom, B-movie
monsters, family turmoil, and coming-of-age tales in the familiar backdrop of life
in modern Britain. Small Town Monsters is the sound of a band breaking free from the small town into the big world.
Psychedelic pop with an anthemic punch, Wirral’s The Dream Machine hit their comeback stride with outrageously infectious single Frankenstein, out March
14th on Run On Records. The single is a precursor to their second full-length album, to
be followed by a summer festival run including Liverpool Sound City, and their own headline tour.
After 2022’s critically-acclaimed debut album Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine… a
host of Radio DJs - namely Steve Lemacq and Stuart Maconie – voiced their support
for the group. It led to regular plays on BBC6music and Radio X, then live support slots
with established big-hitters like The Coral, The Charlatans and The Mystery Jets,
before headlining their own run of gigs, ending the summer as The Lathums special guests at a sold-out Castlefield Bowl.
In a year filled with highs upon highs, the band made valuable use of time spent touring,
absorbing music to throw in the melting pot of new material, namely the wild energy
of Fontaines DC, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Blossoms, Arcade Fire and The War On Drugs.
Having grown up amongst the faded fairground glamour and beachfront arcades of their native New Brighton, Merseyside, they caught the ear of The Coral’s James
Skelly while still teenagers and has been a constant influence. Skelly stepped in on full
production duties for Frankenstein, recorded late last year in his own Kempston Street Studios.
Singer and primary songwriter Zak McDonnell explains Frankenstein’s weird and wild
origins: ‘Frankenstein is a confession of love from somebody disfigured by immaturity
and misery. A helpless tale of hope and anguish. Heart to heart, man to monster. It’s a
pulsing teenage freak show romance driven by desperation and despair. I wanted it to
sound like Phil Spector producing the Ramones in the 80’s or a twisted take on one of the songs from Fraggle Rock’.
All things considered, and with Frankenstein already garnering national airplay, 2024 promises to be The Dream Machine’s biggest year yet.
Tracklist
1. Frankenstein
2. Cindy's Eyes
3. My Father's Son
4. Holding On
5. Cathedral
6. Tonight, I've Got Heaven In My Arms
7. Posters Of You
8. Wind-Up Bird
9. The Horse
10. Wolfman
11. Bring Back The Wonder
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