84. Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm a Machine (2004)
Genre: Dance Punk
Turn It Out
Romantic Rights
Going Steady
Go Home, Get Down
Blood on Our Hands
Black History Month
Little Girl
Cold War
You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
Pull Out
Sexy Results
Well I think it's time to depart the metal train to painsville for a little bit and explore the other genres I've learned to accept and to some extent actually enjoy over the years. Punk and I have always had a turbulent relationship, on some days it treats me right with warm and loving coos while gently massaging my temples and on other days it takes a steak tenderizer to my ass. While I've never had much of a problem with the music, the fanbase it has spawned has always annoyed me to some extent because they remind me of metalheads, yet they haven't come to terms with their inherent geekiness, and continue to try best each other. Not only that but the hypocrisy I found in their ideals was more than enough to turn me off, however unwilling to turn my back on an entire genre because of a bunch of cu*ts I secretly went back... under the cloak of darkness.
Death From Above 1979 was a band I got into solely for a girl at high school I fancied during my sophomore year. She was one of those rare hot punk girls that
everyone drooled over. Punks, emos, jocks, nerds, metalheads, it didn't matter whether you were lawful good or chaotic evil, she was the girl you wanted to fu*k. Unfortunately she knew this and played us all, however in my time being played I did learn a few good bands, and DFA1979 was one of those bands. I saw she was wearing a pin of their only album and immediately went out and bought it, listened to it, and memorized as much trivia as I could for talking points the next time I would be her little ego boost amusement toy. Normally I'd never say or think this, but this was one of those rare occasions where peer pressure may have actually been a good thing.
You're A Woman, I'm A Machine is very different from any of the other punk albums I ever listened to. By the time I got it I was well versed with The Clash, Sex Pistols, Richard Hell, and Stiff Little Fingers, but nothing could prepare me for the kind of fuzzy electro sounding garage punk that made me want to shake my booty. Coupled with the aggressive and often intelligible vocal delivery of punk,
You're A Woman, I'm A Machine surpassed all previous expectations of punk music.
The music unique aspect of the band was that they scoffed the traditional aspects of punk in favor of simplicity through using only two instruments, drum and bass (with the odd synthesizer). Not only that but drummer Sebastien Grainger took up vocal duties, one of the few drummers I can name that has actually done both drums and vocals. The exclusion of more spotlight stealing instruments (ahem, guitars) allowed the band to focus on creating a fast and fun rhythm, which made the sound fun to manipulate. I use to remember going to a school dance and trying to get the local DJ to play "Romantic Rights" to no avail.
That said though the album isn't perfect (if it was it would be number 1 wouldn't it?) and as innovating and unique the sound is, problems are present on the album. Minus a few really good songs, the rest just feel like filler or unfinished. Specifically "Cold War" and "Pull Out" which just end a little abruptly for my liking. The titular song "You're A Woman, I'm a Machine" and "Little Girl" just kind of meander around, going nowhere and really adding anything to the album as a whole. I use to always skip over the fourth track "Get Home, Get Down" because it just sound bad, even now I cringe slightly when it comes on. After you take away those songs all you're left with is 6 songs from an 11 song album, which makes me feel like the album would be stronger as an EP. Even though there's a lack of songs that really grabbed me, none of the songs are bad enough to really skip (except "Get Home, Get Down") and most of them are short so they feel more like a minor inconvenience than an actual nuisance.
All in all
You're a Woman, I'm a Machine opened up my eyes to the fact that there can be more than the traditional style to punk music. That punk can be more than talking about societies ills (often poorly) and can be turned into a rhythm based fun music that can get your body swaying. It's just a shame the band pretty much folded a year after the album was released because I feel like they could have added more to this style of music. So if you're after something different, yet slightly familiar then I would highly recommend this album.