Daydream Machine

When The Sun Hits is proud to premiere Daydream Machine's new single + video, "Alone." This Portland, Oregon-based project has been blowing our minds with their trippy tunes since their first release in 2013, when they unleashed their first trio of songs via Bandcamp. Soon after, they signed to Picture in My Ear Records, one of our favorite labels, and released their debut LP, Twin Idols, in 2014. Expansive, layered and psychedelic, the album was quite an achievement. We’re thrilled to share their new sounds with you.

“Alone” will be featured on Picture in My Ear's Volumes 12-inch maxi-single LP, which is set for release in a few short weeks (pre-order available here). In addition to Daydream Machine, the compilation will feature New Candys of Venice, Thelightshines of London, Stay of Barcelona, Chatham Rise of Minneapolis, and other excellent artists. - When The Sun Hits

Not the Beatles’ song, this track from Twin Idols, the debut LP by Portland’s Daydream Machine, sails a dream ship through dense nebulae of reverb, suggesting Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” interpreted by Love & Rockets or Shriekback, with dollops of trippy flute and piano (calling Ray Thomas and Rick Wright).

Daydream Machine is Jsun Adams (vocals, guitar), Matthew Strange (vocals, guitar), Josh Kalberg (bass, guitar), Cat Hoch (vocals, percussion), and Jonathan Mono (guitar, synth, noise); for this song they are joined by Peter Holmstrom (The Dandy Warhols, Pete International Airport) and Collin Hegna (Federale, The Brian Jonestown Massacre). - The Big Takeover

Daydream Machine's sound is hard to categorize. A marriage of various genres and influences, ranging from post-punk to early 80s New Wave, it combines lush sounds of shoegaze, space rock, neo-psychedelia, indie, dream pop, etc. Started by Jason Adams (guitar and vocals), and composed also by Matthew Strange (vocals and guitar), Josh Kalberg (bass and guitar), Cat Hoch (vocals and percussion) and Jonathan Mono (guitar, synth and noise). Their debut album "Twin Idols" was released on March 20th. 2014. Daydream Machine's next show will be on March 17th at the Star Theatre in Portland.

www.facebook.com/daydreammachine - Newscastic

I’m proud and pleased to present the exclusive Big Takeover premiere of this great video from Daydream Machine’s excellent new album, Twin Idols!

I’ll be playing “Spacement” on my radio show next week, and Twin Idols is among my Top 40 reviews in upcoming Big Takeover issue #74. Here’s the text of that review, also exclusive to Bigtakeover.com!

‘The prompt attraction in Jason Adams‘ Portland, OR, ensemble is how many subgenres they ingest in elongated, coherent pieces, in an era where too few attempt such intriguing mélanges. Their fuzz and reverb may procure them dreamy aesthetics, but their linear epics take time building, inveigling with every getting-louder, looping repetition, consuming space rock, mood rock, art rock, soundtrack music, neo-psychedelia (that Collin Hegna of Brian Jonestown Massacre and Peter Holmstrom of Dandy Warhols appear makes sense), glam (“Spacement” is more T-Rex than Jason Pierce), Hunky Dory Bowie, and Daydream Nation Sonic Youth (yes)—somehow like Young Galaxy covering Love & Rockets. “Gimme Shelter” and “Sympathy For the Devil” Rolling Stones and “Tin Soldier” Small Faces are older molds, too—full on with the femme soul backing vocals, including the telltale “Hoo Hoo”s! the Dandys also grafted onto “Bohemian Like You!”—plus The Velvets’ “Venus in Furs.” A daydream machine…without fail.’

Buy Twin Idols on vinyl, CD and digital downloads from Picture In My Ear. - The Big Takeover

The music of Daydream Machine is exactly what it claims to be: a factory of imagination, an industry of cool. Conceived of by musical mastermind Jason Adams in a Portland, Oregon basement, the band draws upon such disparate influences that it becomes impossible to untangle them at times. Instantly the band's name recalls Sonic Youth's seminal album Daydream Nation; however, the songs found here recall the work of such varied groups as The Cure, New Order, and even Bowie at times. Twin Idols is as earnest and authentic an indie rock effort as one could possibly hope for in the year 2014, especially given that the "genre," if one can even call it that, has become so inundated with frauds, imposters, and saboteurs of every stripe that it no longer can recognize its own face in the mirror at the end of the night.

While Daydream Machine is Adams' baby at its core, the album is rounded out by some very cool contributions from some familiar faces, especially within the Portland-area music scene. Take for instance the prominent contributions from Peter Holmstrom of the Dandy Warhols and Collin Hegna of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, to name only a few. Charlotte Engler of The Whole Wide World fame rounds out the sound, providing angelic harmonies to soften this otherwise male-dominated affair. Her vocal range is immense, and recalls Lana Del Rey, only with pitch-perfect precision. Indeed, the defining characteristic of Daydream Machine's sound is the lack of a single lead singer, instead favouring a three-part vocal arrangement consisting of Engler, Adams, and Matthew Strange (formerly of Hawkeye).

With respect to the instrumentation and musical arrangements on Twin Idols, there's an overarching "anything goes" vibe to every single note played on this album. Fuzzed-out guitars drenched in torrential feedback coexist with synth leads and flute melodies to create a beautiful cacophony of noise. There's some pretty heavy rockers on this album (see "Spacement"), but there are also some beautifully-twisted acoustic numbers, like the cleverly-titled "Queen of the Gas Station," which unabashedly channels "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones, with a little extra psychedelia thrown in for good measure.

Twin Idols is the perfect album title for a band that are clearly swimming in a sea of their vast and varied influences, and Daydream Machine is the perfect name for a band that literally hold the patent on indie-cool. Anything goes on this album, and almost always does, so why not throw on your headphones, close your eyes, and see where you end up? -

Daydream Machine’s music is the perfect mix between spaced-out guitar-led droning and the guitar-jangling fun of an all-in percussive approach to rock. Authentic, inventive and an organised cacophony of musical, literary and cultural influence, Daydream Machine is reminiscent of a dozen different genres. Referencing none too strongly and not taking themselves too seriously, it sounds like having fun while making music is Daydream Machine’s main goal.

“It is for me,” says vocalist and guitarist Jsun Adams.

“At this point, if I don’t enjoy it, I’m not going to continue and inversely I don’t expect others to.”

The band have had several line-up changes (including three drummers) in the year and a half since their formation, but Daydream Machine’s line-up is currently Portland-based, and their debut album Twin Idols draws heavily on heavyweight collaborators from the local scene, such as The Dandy Warhols’ Peter Holmstrom and The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Collin Hegna.

“We are all very proud of our respective catalogs,” Adams says.

“Plucky [Jason Anchando] on drums and Josh [Kalberg] on bass are amazing artists too, and their performances are always world class,” he adds.

“Jonathan [Mono] is a whiz kid mixing. He really had a tall task with the recording happening in more the six locations and studios over eight months and line-up changes. He really glued it together with a sonic wave that is tasteful and interesting, while remaining musical and fluid and the same time. I really dig his work ethic, ear, and attention to detail. “

Comparing band life to a line from The Perks of Being a Wallflower (‘Things change and friends leave, life doesn’t stop for anybody’), Adams stresses the importance of empathy, vision, shared tastes, compromising and healthy relationships to a band’s success and the ability for “something thorough and beautiful” to occur.

As versatile sonically as their line-up is personally, and as imbued with literary and cultural references as Adams’ manner of speaking, Daydream Machine has just released their debut album, Twin Idols. The perfect single-track introduction to Daydream Machine, Twin Idols is kicked off by >Sounds Like AnesthesiaQueen of the Gas StationSpacement< lately,” Adams says.

Having been quite prolific in their touring in the last year, Daydream Machine have already played with Asteroid #4 and Joel Gion and the Primary Colors in San Francisco, Spindrift in Joshua Tree, and at the Echo, Satellite and Los Globos in Los Angeles.

“Some of the other shows that stand out as highlights so far in our short career as a band are with Elephant Stone, Besnard Lakes, Vietnam, Federale, The Prids, The Features, and Tamaryn,” adds Adams.

As a Portland-based band canvasing the wide realm of the alternative genre, it’s probably not too surprising but still undoubtedly impressive that Daydream Machine have already collaborated with The Dandy Warhols’ Peter Holmstrom and The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Collin Hegna.

“They’re the greatest,” Adams says.

“Seriously, Pete is the best guy on Earth and pretty much my favorite guitar player and Collin Hegna is outright gifted. To get to work with those guys, I’m pinching myself each time. Collin’s Revolver Studios is perfect and I’ve done a lot of work there the last few years for this and the last Upsidedown record. Having them both as friends that I can bounce ideas off of or collaborate with makes me feel like the luckiest guy in the world. Not to mention, I’m a huge fan of Jonestown and the Warhols. I have gotten to work with both of them before in Pete International Airport and I love the album that came out of that.”

And the Portland music scene is apparently still buzzing, twenty years after The Dandy Warhols rose from (or into?) the alternative Mecca.

“There are a lot of great bands in Portland right now,” Adams says.

“I’m really into Tender Age, Souvenir Driver, Modest Mouse, Soft Shadows, Paradise, Rick Bain, The Vernor Pantons, Federale, Miracle Falls, The Dandelyons, The Shins, and Fathead [The Dandy Warhols’ Brent DeBoer]’s Aussie band Immigrant Union.

With psychedelic music making yet another popular resurgence in the British, Australian and American rock scenes, Daydream Machine seem almost off-beat with their appropriation of indie rock’s widest stimuli, but Adams says he is not fazed by this.

“I love music and I’m not really into one thing,” he says, citing recent musical enjoyments as wide-ranging as the new releases from Tame Impala, Damon Albarn, The Black Angels, and Beck.

“I don’t worry about at what angle the taste pendulum is swinging. Overall, I like what the Mary Chain’s Jim Reid says about it all, something to the affect of: ‘You just have to do your work, if you have an audience for your work, then you’re one of the lucky ones, but you still just have to do your work.’ “

Twin Idols is out now - Britpop News

Imagine numa banda com membros do The Upside Down, Warlocks, Music for Headphones e Hawkeye, pois então esta super banda do submundo dos bons sons existe e atende pela alcunha de Daydream Machine.

Desnecessário dizer que a viagem aqui é ácida, por vezes caindo para um lado mais pós punk, em outras o shoegazer sobe um patamar em outras o folk apocalíptico entra em primeiro plano mas sempre com a tendência psych permeando todo o clima criado no debute Twin Idols lançado no ano passado.

Twin Idols é uma odisseia permanente de delírios e alucinações criada por mestres em um momento único.

A estreia do Daydream Machine não é um disco é uma obra prima.


***** Interview with Daydream Machine *****

Q. When did Daydream Machine started, tell us about the history...
As this name, Jsun, Matthew, Josh and I got to together days after I moved back to Portland from my exile in Philadelphia, October of 2012. In thee last few months, Cat and Bob have joined Daydream create a new origin and simultaneously cementing a very old one; Jsun, Bob, and I were all founding members of the Upsidedown.

Q: Who are your influences?
I can only speak for myself, but what I hear in Daydream Machine is Galaxie 500, Spiritualized, New Order, Love and Rockets, The Stone Roses...as well as some darker things like Swans, and Sisters of Mercy.

Q. Made a list of 5 albums of all time…
Clearly, this one is all mine, tonight anyway:

Jesus and Marychain- Darklands
Spirtualized- Pure Phase
Sisters of Mercy- Floodland
The Cure- Bloodflowers
Mazzy Star- She Hangs Brightly

Q. How do you feel playing alive?
When its all going right, there's hardly anything as special.

Q. How do you describe Daydream Machine´s sounds?
Swirly, pulsating, dark, psychedelic, gazey, hazey, true.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
Our debut album, Twin Idols (2014, Picture in My Ear), was recorded over the course of a year in nine total spaces, from our rehearsal basement to various kitchens, living rooms and ultimately Collin Hegna's (Brian Jonestown Massacre, Federale) Revolver Studios.

Q. Which new bands do you recommended?
I'm digging Hookworms, Bonfire Beach, Burning Palms, Magic Castles, Elephant Stone, LA Witch... Jsun, Cat and Matthew are all way more caught up on new music than I. Honestly, I spent most of 2014 listening to the Pet Shop Boys first two albums and more recently I've had Fleetwood Mac's Rumors on repeat.

Q: Which bands you love to made a cover version?
Well, we still love doing our version of Frankie Vallie's "Dawn." I'd love to do something like the We Five's "You Were on My Mind".

Q: What´s the plans for future....
2015 is starting to shape up pretty quickly with some amazing shows locally, planning a west coast tour, constantly demoing and getting ready to record our follow up.

Q: Any parting words?
Rulers make bad lovers, you better put your kingdom up for sale...
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