Biography
Eric Blair, handling vocals and guitar, watched his initial studio effort grow into a standing ensemble by June 2000. Influenced by the punk and new wave currents of late-1970s New York, he started crafting original songs and laying them down on a four-track recorder in 1998. Saxophonist/vocalist Sam Krall lent help on several pieces and performed on the self-titled debut CD that appeared in fall 1999 through Blair’s Garage Tapes label. With no drummer or bassist available, Blair tracked most of the instrumental parts himself. He and Krall had first met around 1997 in the Toledo, OH cover group Tito Slack. They soon parted ways with other people’s material to concentrate on writing their own. After finishing and self-releasing that debut, they brought in drummer Jay Thomas, also known as Jayant, during February 2000. Thomas and Blair had crossed paths while pursuing graduate degrees at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH. Two auditions for bass produced Henri Bouchard, whose eagerness to play proved strongest. Once Thomas and Bouchard joined, the New Machines completed their shift from recording project to performing band. Live sets moved beyond the two-minute pop songs of the first album into extended improvisations. Orchard Records heard about the group and reissued the self-titled debut. That summer the New Machines appeared at the Green Grass Festival in Wooster, OH and opened for the Crown Jewels in Toledo. February 2001 found them beginning work on new tracks at Thomas’s house for a second album. Bouchard exited the next month, right before a scheduled stop at Morseland in Chicago. The remaining three-piece kept the date anyway, supporting Silo the Huskie and Quasar Wut-Wut without bass. Back in Ohio they added Jim DeGregorio, a bassist from Thomas’s other outfit Lloyd Wred. Blair moved to Cincinnati, OH later that summer yet kept driving to Toledo for rehearsals with the rest of the New Machines.
Albums
