Tin Machine
| Tin Machine | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Genres | Hard rock |
| Years active | 1988–1992 |
| Labels | EMI, Victory Music |
| Members | |
| David Bowie Reeves Gabrels Tony Sales Hunt Sales |
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Tin Machine was a hard rock band formed in 1988, famous for being fronted by singer David Bowie. The group recorded two studio albums before dissolving in 1992, when Bowie returned to his solo career. Drummer Hunt Sales said that the group's name "reflects the sound of the band," and Bowie stated that he and his bandmates joined up "to make the kind of music that we enjoyed listening to."[1]
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[edit] History
[edit] 1987-1988: Band genesis
The Never Let Me Down album and subsequent Glass Spider Tour had left critics unimpressed,[2] and Bowie was aware of his low standing. Eager to return to making music for himself rather than the mainstream audience he had acquired following the Let's Dance album,[3] Bowie began collaborating with Reeves Gabrels (who pushed the singer to rediscover his experimental side)[4] and multi-instrumentalist Erdal Kizilcay on new material in 1988 (although Erdal Kizilcay would ultimately not join the band). Bowie and Reeves met through Reeves' wife, who was part of the press staff for the North American leg of Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider world tour. Reeves' wife had given Bowie a tape of Reeves' guitar playing, and after listening to the tape, Bowie approached Reeves so they could work together.[5] The first fruits of this came with a new version of Bowie’s 1979 song "Look Back in Anger", performed at the Intruders At The Palace benefit concert on 1 July 1988.[5] Bowie, who had run into Tony Sales in Los Angeles at a wrap party for his Glass Spider Tour, convinced Tony to call his brother Hunt so they could work together. Tony recalled that Bowie was "thinking about getting a band together - something together. He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he wanted Hunt and I to meet Reeves and maybe we could all write together, come up with something."[5]
Bowie himself was surprised with how things came together with the band, stating:
I'd never wanted to be in a band until we got together. And as we were getting together, it wasn't really occurring to me that this is what I wanted to do. It took a week or so of actually being in the studio and working, and then I think we fully realized the potential, musically, for what we were doing and wanted to stick with it. I was quite happy to go off and make a solo album. I was quite excited about a couple of things I was doing, which I brought into the band and which were irrevocably changed. But that's the nature of the band.[6]
The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for their own expenses.[7] Bowie also clarified that "the band will cease to exist the moment it ceases to be a musical experience for any of us. None of us wanted to get into the kind of situation where you find yourself making albums because you're contracted to."[7]
The Sales brothers moved the tone of the sessions away from art-rock and more towards hard rock, and Bowie looked to one of his favorite bands at the time, The Pixies, for inspiration. The Sales brothers heckled Bowie into greater spontaneity, with most songs recorded in one take, and lyrics left unpolished, thus giving the band a ragged, punk rock edge similar to the Pixies.[8]
The band claimed their musical influences were Gene Krupa, Charlie Mingus, Jimi Hendrix, Glenn Branca and Mountain.[9] Reeves described the roots of their sound as coming from bands like Cream, Hendrix and the Jeff Beck Group: "No lifts of licks. Those are just our roots."[5]
The group chose the name Tin Machine after one of the songs they had written.[3] Reeves Gabrels elaborated on the name choice:
[The band's name] worked on a a number of levels for us. The archaic - the idea of tin, which is still everywhere: tin cans, when you go to the supermarket; when you walk down the street you find rusting tin. It's such a supposedly archaic material, but it's everywhere. Sort of like the idea of us playing this music and not using drum machines and sequencers and things like that. There's a point at which it connects. At least for us. And the final thing, for lack of a better name.[3]
The group set up allowed Bowie a certain level of anonymity, and to that end Bowie stipulated that all four members divide interviews equally between them and that in the cases where he was interviewed, that another member of the band be present as well.[6] He made a point to clarify that he didn't invite the others to join "his" band, rather, "the band literally came together."[6] Also according to Bowie, the group decided when they formed that they'd play from album to album, and that "if we were still getting on with each other - which was the priority - that we'd continue."[10]
[edit] 1988-1989: First album and tour
The band’s self-titled first album was recorded in late 1988 and early 1989. It produced mixed but generally positive reviews[2] upon release in May 1989, picking up favourable comparisons with Bowie’s two more recent solo albums. Commercially, the album initially sold well, reaching #3 in the UK Albums Chart, but sales quickly tailed off. Gabrels claimed in 1991 that album sales from the first album were "ten times better" than he had anticipated.[11] The band undertook a low-key tour in small venues between 14 June and 3 July 1989, before further recording sessions in Sydney, Australia. During these sessions Tin Machine contributed to a surfing compilation album, Beyond the Beach, with a new instrumental song titled "Needles on the Beach".
[edit] 1990-1991: Hiatus and second album
The group then went on hiatus while Bowie conducted his solo Sound+Vision Tour. In December 1990, Bowie split from EMI. Hunt Sales said that EMI "kind of freaked out a little bit at the strident, single-less Tin Machine debut", which partially explained why Bowie switched music labels.[7] In March 1991, the group signed to Victory Music,[12] a new label launched by JVC and distributed worldwide by London Records and Polygram, and recorded more new material. This was combined with tracks from the Sydney sessions to form Tin Machine II album. In late 1991 Bowie reiterated that he was still happy being in the band during that time, stating "I'm content. ... I'm deriving a great deal of fulfillment from working with Tin Machine",[13] and band-mate Gabrels agreed, saying "we're doing exactly what we wanted to do."[11] During press performances for songs on the album, Gabrels famously played his guitar with a vibrator and on another occasion (when banned from using the vibrator on BBC's "Top of the Pops"), a chocolate eclair.[14]
[edit] 1991-1992: Second tour
From 5 October 1991 to 17 February 1992, the group undertook a larger tour, known as the It's My Life Tour. The band was joined on this tour by guitarist Eric Schermerhorn,[15] who would go on to play with Bowie's friend Iggy Pop.
[edit] 1992: Live album and dissolution
Tracks from this tour were released on the July 1992 album Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby. As early as 1990, Bowie knew he'd be going back to solo work, although not because he disliked working with the band. He said "I have very definite ideas of what I want to do as a solo artist, which I'll be starting on probably late next year (1991), again completely different, hopefully, from what I've done before." [16] Shortly after the release of Oy Vey, Baby, Bowie returned to solo recording with his single “Real Cool World”, and despite intentions to return to the studio with Tin Machine in 1993 for a third album,[17] the band dissolved.
[edit] Band legacy
Despite some reports that Bowie was unhappy working in the band,[18] Bowie stated multiple times over his years with Tin Machine that he was happy working in that medium.[6][13][17]
Bowie used his time with the band as a way to revitalize himself and his career,[4] (which he would later call a "lifeline"),[19] citing Reeves Gabrels as a source of his new-found energy and direction:
Reeves took me aside and spent many hours explaining it in very simple terms. 'Stop doing it' was, I think, the key phrase he used. 'Stop doing it.' 'But you know, I've got all these shows I've got to do, and I hate having to do these hits, and ...' 'Stop doing it.' That was essentially the reasoning, which I found extremely complicated to understand at first. And then it dawned on me--he meant stop...doing...it. And I did.[4]—March 1997
The band itself, despite earning mixed reviews[2][20][21][22] during its existence, has, in later years, often been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed.[4][19]
[edit] Personnel
- David Bowie – Vocals, guitar, saxophone
- Reeves Gabrels – Guitar, vocals
- Tony Sales – Bass guitar, vocals
- Hunt Sales – Drums, percussion, vocals
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
- Tin Machine – 23 May 1989 (UK #3, US#28)
- Tin Machine II – 2 September 1991 (UK#23, US #126)[23]
[edit] Live albums
- Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby – 27 July 1992 (Did not chart)
[edit] Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart[23] | US Modern Rock | US Mainstream Rock | |||
| 1989 | "Under the God" | 51 | 4 | 8 | Tin Machine |
| "Heaven's in Here" | — | 12 | — | ||
| "Tin Machine"/"Maggie's Farm (live)" | 48 | — | — | ||
| "Prisoner of Love" | 78 | — | — | ||
| 1991 | "You Belong in Rock n' Roll" | 33 | — | — | Tin Machine II |
| "Baby Universal" | 48 | 21 | — | ||
| "One Shot" | — | 3 | — | ||
[edit] References
- ^ "March 1989" Rolling Stone Magazine, 14–28 December 1989, page 61
- ^ a b c Barton, David (8 June 1989 1889), "David Bowie puts career on the line", Journal-American: D5
- ^ a b c Levy, Joe (July 1989), "I'm with the Band", Spin magazine 5 (4): 35–36
- ^ a b c d Pond, Steve (March 1997), "Beyond Bowie", Live! magazine: 38–41, 93
- ^ a b c d "Tin Machine - Bowie's Latest Vehicle" by Liz Derringer, The Music Paper, August 1989, pp 16 & 17
- ^ a b c d "David Bowie Music Interview" by George Varga for The Star Entertainment Weekly, 1–7 January 1992, pp 2 & 10
- ^ a b c di Perna, Alan (1991), "Ballad of the Tin Men", Creem 2 (1): 50–59
- ^ Pegg, Nicholas, The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 2004, ISBN 1-903111-73-0
- ^ "June 1989" Rolling Stone magazine, 14–28 December 1989, page 96
- ^ "David Bowie Interview", Q magazine: 60–70, April 1990
- ^ a b "Rock 'n Roll notes", Rolling Stone magazine, 1991
- ^ Varga, George (1–7 January 1992), "David Bowie Music Interview", The Star Entertainment Weekly (Lynnwood, WA) 2 (5): 2,10
- ^ a b Cohen, Scott (September 1991), "David Bowie Interview", Details magazine: 86–97
- ^ "In Tin Machine, David Bowie is just one of the boys in the band" by Gene Stout, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 20 December 1991
- ^ "Bowie, Tin Machine offer what may be rock's new frontier" by Cary Smith, Journal-American, December 1991
- ^ "Watch that Man" by Tina Clarke, Music Express magazine, March 1990, page 12
- ^ a b "Bowie's Wedding Album" by David Wild, Rolling Stone magazine, 21 January 1993, page 14
- ^ Sandford, Christopher (1997) [First published 1996]. Bowie: Loving the Alien. Time Warner. pp. 278. ISBN 0-306-80854-4.
- ^ a b Sprague, David (February 1997), "After a decade of missteps, David Bowie reinvents himself again ... and this time he's on target", Pulse! magazine (156): 34–37, 72–73
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r20239
- ^ http://www.blender.com/guide/back-catalogue/53982/tin-machine-ii.html
- ^ "Tin Machine II Album Review" by Adrian Deevoy, Q Magazine, October 1991, page 105
- ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 560. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
[edit] External links
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