RECORD REVIEW: Machine Go Boom – Music for Parents – Collectible Escalators, 2007

– by Brian Koscho

Cleveland’s Machine Go Boom has been one of my own personal favorite bands for years. Music For Parents is their second album after 2004’s Thank You Captain Obvious, both were recorded by Paul Maccarrone at Cleveland’s Zombie Proof Studios. Machine Go Boom’s music is an audio sugar rush, with band-leader Mikey Machine’s voice ranging from a beautiful swoon to the tone of a small child on Christmas morning after twelve cans of soda and an entire birthday cake. Mikey and the rest of MGB make music that really is a breath of fresh air.

This album reads like a re-telling of adolescence from that sense of insignificance (“Small”), to love (“800 lb. Gorilla”, “Mummy”), and even to social awkwardness (“Elmers Glue”, “Oh My”). Music For Parents captures the band perfectly and shows the spectrum they cover; from acoustic ballads with clever lyrics and catchy choruses (“800 lb. Gorilla”, “Parents”) to short pop-punk masterpieces (“Build Me A Ladder”, “Gentleman’s Reply”) and even a huge swelling number complete with brass and strings (“Oh My”). The centerpiece for the album to me would have to be “Niagara Falls” which (like many other MGB songs) is so catchy you’ll feel you have heard it a million times before and it will still keep you whistling and humming for months.