"Talk Talk" (1966)

58. Music Machine, "Talk Talk" (Dec. 10, 1966, #15)

Well, here it is again, hiding in plain sight as usual. Do you know this song? Late in 1966, it topped out at #15 on the charts—I can vouch for that, knowing it almost exclusively from AM radio play. Most of the members of the Music Machine went on to various other '60s psychedelic work, most notably a couple of Curt Boettcher projects, including the Millennium, whose work is worth tracking down (particularly Begin). The Music Machine's main man, Sean Bonniwell, later appended his own name to the band, making it the Bonniwell Music Machine, but never saw much success. Basically all we're left with is this, a dense and compact two minutes flat of sonic pleasure, led by a rumbling Farfisa, some handy guitar licks, and Bonniwell's grumbling vocals, which typically enough give with a lot of generalized grousing. "I'm up to here in lies," etc. But it's altogether a spectacular flourish, one that stands up well to repeated listening at ever-rising volumes. The one comparison I'm tempted to make is to another band of its time, now perhaps far more well known but decidedly obscure in 1966, the Monks. Both bands offer a hard, stripped-down approach that obliquely anticipates the Velvet Underground, Stooges, and maybe even the Ramones before any of those bands quite had it together, or even existed. The Velvets obviously were not far behind, but had much more tendency already to stretch things out and go all arty-noisy, where the Music Machine and the Monks are all business, short blasts that pulse with sharp rhythmic edges and pounding attacks. It was probably luck that got this to the radio, but you know what they say about that—sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. And this is clearly both.