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The Machete Demos

by Justin Gracer

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cynthilla
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cynthilla pushes an edge that is in constant motion, friendship personified, Notes join uniquely in varied math rock ways that delight even jaded Headbangers. If you need your expectations in metal threshed; Machete has the pacing to level jungles with forest fire acumen and the lyricism to inspire new galaxies. Jimi Hendrix is bummed he missed this, don't you be. Highly recommend this gem. Favorite track: Go Tell It On The Mountain*.
Brandon
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Vinyldabber
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V.K.
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1.
Extension Of A Gentleman 04:20
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2.
Independency 05:45
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3.
Tsaturday Morning 03:30
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4.
Obstacle Course 03:03
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5.
Go Tell It On The Mountain* 03:17
info
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6.
Conclusions In Calcutta 07:03
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about

When I moved to South Florida in the late 90s, I was moving from a surprisingly thriving music scene (at that time) in Morgantown, WV, and when I got to Miami, I was hoping I’d get involved in another music scene as vibrant as Morgantown’s.

I was still a very young man at that time, at only 20 years old. I cut my teeth early in the bands Lincoln and Kukim, and before moving south I already had toured twice, played amazing shows, opened for likes of The Jesus Lizard, Archers of Loaf, Rites Of Spring, Brainiac, and several other legendary bands. The bar was set very high for me at that time.

When I first arrived in Florida I was seeing a lot of bands, but quite honestly a lot of them seemed like a joke to me at the time, amateur, dated sounding, and just not very skilled. All that changed quickly though when I saw some band perform at Churchill’s Pub one night at probably 2 am or so.

They were an odd looking bunch of kids, a drummer who looked a bit out of place, like maybe he was in the wrong band, and had accidentally wondered in from the sports bar down the street, a hip looking bassist with horn rimmed glasses, a guitar player with a mullet, a huge Gibson Explorer knock off guitar and a 5150 amp well before all that stuff was ironically ‘cool’, and a guitar player / vocalist who was oddly plain-in-dress wearing nothing but a plain white t-shirt, shorts, and a buzz cut. He had a plain white Stratocaster hiked nearly up to his neck, and a really weird amp. It was an old Univox with a huge PA bullhorn announcement speaker attached to the side, with some strange switching device that was obviously homemade which ran from the amp to his foot through some tube-like cable.

Seeing them setup piqued my interest. Within moments of the first song, I knew this was the stuff I had been waiting for. Finally I was impressed with a band in Miami! The band was called Machete. Their sound was unique and very cutting edge at the time. It took elements of punk, college rock, and even some prog and metal, but delivered it in an off-kilter, herky-jerky, complex and dynamic way. There were large instrumental sections, but when vocals were present, they were delivered in powerful pure hooks by frontman, Justin Gracer. This was was 1990s indie rock at it’s finest. Still to this day I think they were hands down the best band in that area at the time, and the music holds up incredibly well.

Machete played regularly in the greater Miami area throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, until Gracer left Miami for New York, then later settled in Denver.

That was over 20 years ago, but in recent years Machete have reunited on several occasions for shows. In preparation for one of those reunions, Justin Gracer took it upon himself to record 6 classic Machete songs, including one cover often played by the band. Gracer recorded all the instruments himself in his home studio in Denver, but he still managed to capture much of the magic the band had in the late 90s in these six blistering guitar fueled songs. Also, the nasal-y growl of that bullhorn on the side of the Univox is there in all it’s glory!

Having kept in touch with Justin over all these years, I’m honored to be releasing “The Machete Demos” here on Anthill Recordings. This music has a great deal of nostalgia for me, and has aged remarkably well. These songs will always be classics in my mind.

Justin has been releasing solo music since he left Miami and has tapped into genres such as electronica, jazz, pop, experimental, and R&B. However, The Machete Demos are pure guitar-driven indie rock at it’s finest.

- Demonic Sweaters

credits

released January 13, 2020

Justin Gracer - guitar, vocals, drums, bass
Cynthia Trullinger - backing vocals on "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (originally by Verses)

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Anthill Recordings New York

Anthill recordings is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, NY. Founded by Justin Wierbonski. If you're looking for old releases not on this page, most of them are located here archive.org/details/lunarflower

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