Electric Tickle Machine

A short while back, Electric Tickle Machine performed live on the Morning Show with John Richards. Without even an album to their ridiculous name, the East Village quartet — Thomas Olivier (guitar, vocals), Ryan Renn (keyboards), Adam Kautz (drums) and Clark Phillips (percussion) — has been drawing crowds based solely on their three MySpace demos and their explosive live shows. Fans of lo fi psychedelic tinged rock of The Velvet Underground, The Dandy Warhols, and Brian Jonestown Massacre are sure to entranced by ETM’s bluesy, jangling, rollicking take on the genre. - The KEXP Blog

Electric Tickle Machine employ a whirlwind of telecasters, synths and percussion to introduce their own brand of American swagger. In their short time together, they’ve built a following throughout NYC on the merit of their explosive live shows.

Electric Tickle Machine is Tom Olivier, Ryan Renn, Adam Kautz and Clark Phillips. The boys met about a year ago and are debuting their first album, Blew It Again, on a 28-city tour, kicking off on October 7th in Philadelphia, and ending the run in Texas on November 20th. Of the 10 tracks, Blew It Again stand-outs include the clap-tastic Part of Me, title track Blew It Again and slightly darker Bones.

ETM shows tend to turn into one big party, blurring the line between the band and the audience, one pouring into the other. Although tame in comparison to past performances (which sometimes feature naked band and audience members), the band's show at Cake Shop this weekend lived up to the hype, with their wildly entertaining and high energy antics.

Front-man Olivier's soulful voice led the band, invoking free-spirited acts of the 70's with a modern twist. The fun, fast songs are feel-good rock anthems for a generation of kids caught up in loud music, late nights and the idea that they can have anything and everything they want, all the time. - ABC News Amplified

Too often with today's hyped-up party-garage-rock scene, those bands may put on a great show, and their crowds might go crazy, but on record, the music is found wanting. That's why it comes as such a shock, but a pleasant one, that Electric Tickle Machine can deliver on recording as well as live. The band is becoming well known for going absolutely nuts live (QRO live review) in their home of Brooklyn (and Brooklyn's already full of wild party-garage-rock bands...). And now debut Blew It Again brings that sound to your home.


Okay, Blew can't bring the wild antics into your living room, but still definitely stands on its own. As opposed to the lo-fi laziness that characterizes much of today's garage-rock, Electric Tickle Machine actually try adding & improving their music (though a likely limited production budget meant they couldn't go too far) - without losing the fun. The country-garage-road of the title track, "Ask Me Anything" and "Honest Injun" keeps the party going without feeling forced, while "Bones" and "Part of Me" go over-the-top in the fun, but brings the listener along.

Blew does have a few sadder songs, like the stripped "Find a Home" and the sweet "Fast Train", plus short remove-reverbed coda "Tongues of Fire", and it's good that Electric Tickle Machine doesn't stick to one just one script, especially as a marker for growth in the future. But it's the party where the band makes its name, on stage or now in your home. - QRO Magazine

If the workday drone is getting you down, check out Electric Tickle Machine. The name alone will make you smile, but the New York band’s self-released, vinyl-only debut album, Blew It Again (available now via tour sales and coming soon to Insound), will definitely cheer you up with its catchy, Ramones-esque throwback tunes, such as “Gimme Money” and “Part Of Me,” which you can download below. Plus, we’re thinking the album’s cover might make some of you very happy. Go ahead, Google it. - Magnet Magazine

The final days of summer are on the horizon, but Electric Tickle Machine wants to squeeze as much out of the remaining rays of sun as possible. The New York band will be self-releasing their debut effort, Blew It Again, on October 7th, introducing the world to their psychedelic-tinged, anthemic indie-pop. True to the tones of manic glee their name suggests, Electric Tickle Machine has earned a reputation for live shows punctuated by blasts of confetti and naked, dancing bodies, and it’s safe to say that sense of unbridled celebration shines through in some of their songs.

One of the tracks on Blew It Again is “Part of Me,” which begins with guitars, handclaps, and some upbeat vocal harmonies–a page from the same well-tread but always satisfying playbook that bands like Fountains of Wayne have turned to time and again. The verses are a slightly more restrained construction, riding on the undulations a quivering keyboard. Vocal harmonies abound throughout, both sung and shouted, and ETM’s band members take turns giving their respective instruments moments in the sun.

Beyond its more exultant musical moments, “Part of Me” is the best sort of love song: honest and lined with a hint of sadness and desperation. During the song’s hooky chorus, Electric Tickle Machine belts out “part of me dies when you’re not around.” It is a sentiment intentionally mismatched to its poppy accompaniment and prevents this from simply being another lighthearted romp. - One Track Mind

Dilapidated, majestic and ghostly, the Market Hotel is a possible set for Breakin III: Electrified Boogaloo: a zombie flick, in which the zombies have to make enough money to remake a decrepit building into a cultural institution by donating blood. In the process, they become humans who do not consume enough makeup to render Twilight useless, and instead they pair-triple-whatever up and do it a lot (with dancing). For those of you still unfamiliar with this venue, find a show you like and visit.

Although this missive is primarily focused on the culmination of the headliner act, Electric Tickle Machine, it’s very worth mentioning the curatorial job, (like a mom job but but wisely not gross), that led the evening.

The band that brought us in from the rumbling of the overhead train is Dream Diary who carry the hearts baton that Morrissey and Weezer have thrown around. They bass us along and with the exception of a few flat notes, do a charming set to inspire a bit of swaying and loud sighs. They remain just short of making the audience mouth the words, though in due time, this too may change.

The sound engineer and DJ played doo-wop while the North Highlands set-up. This put a new spin on the venue, as did the murals by Nicholas Kuszyk (a handsome robot creature), and one of a ghost vs. a tadpole boxing fight cheered on by pumpkins faded away, and the old sense of the space as a dance hall with twirling lollipop-shouldered girls and tougher-than-hair-gel-guys appeared. The Electric Tickle members were sharking around the dance floor, something out of Rumble Fish, but made with the Saturday Night Fever script, assessing the audience creating photo ops in the back and entertaining their friends, while North Highlands’ Molly Ringwald was setting up the keyboard on stage.

Wait, what Molly Ringwald?

I’m not the one to harp on likeness but there is something in the open face of Brenda Malvin that recalls the important safety of pushing boundaries over breakfast. The issues were not of school children murdering each other but yet still struggling to find the reasons for conflict.

The North Highlands set was energetic and musical, yet could have used more training on the vocals, (especially toward the later songs which used the duet as the fifth instrument on stage), or just put less emphasis on them. They made up for it with tight drums that included the first of two drum duets of the night.

Next DJ set brought along the first Anti-Pop Consortium release, Tragic Epilogue, timely on the release of the newest regrouping.

“Shark infested water
message in a bottle
No man is an island
Individual visual MC
Me I love life.” – Antipop Consortium

Zoos of Berlin did not maul anyone, instead they zig-zagged through their post-mod songs with clear-headed mastery, the audience swelled over the rapid fire drumming of Collin Dupuis and the just slightly throaty singing from Trevor Naud. They reminded me a bit of Squirrel Nut Zippers but without the annoying cache of being a redux. At first I thought that they would be more imposing if they wore simple black t-shirts or somehow otherwise employed the mark of fashion, other than the guy in the grey turtleneck, grey trousers mod combo. The bands name is excellent and the audience reacted by dancing (the night’s first real dancing?), so they are good on their way to enaging their subtleties with larger crowds.

At the outset the guys in Electric Tickle Machine provided the focused psychedelia-pop that makes the rapid ascendancy to pleasure possible, and without any psychotropics. (There are New Wave scents as re-imagined through instrumentals of Libertines under the guidance of Mick Jones). The set had enough serious material to bite into that it was easy to miss the fact that those on the stage are already in a full performance. The guitar flew around the lead singer Thomas Olivier’s vocals supported by the drive of Adam Kautz on drums. At the nimble hands of Clark P (who dashed off the stage and into the crowd a few times), the tambourine became a snake that you, too, had a hand in charming. Keyboardist Ryan Renn added the bass-heavy camera shots in which you saw the concrete abstractions you made together with the them.

They lack the unnecessary self-indulgence of Brian Jonestown Massacre [link to BJM coverage], that band of modern psychedelics that lose their way at times by being anti-audience, always a turn off to me. The lyrics of the Tickles are party-wise, the sound is of a simpler moment when it’s wise to dance and sweat (such as tonight in this venue), but on a recording, can prove to be well-mulled wine.

The moment Clark P descended into the audience a small female mosh pit starts to twirl around, and if this was not a rainy mercurial night, I would expect the venue would have been jumping more, as if the infection of being on the stage spreads faster if you’re lead by by a talented hand.

One of our friends decided it prudent to strip off his shirt and join the fray. Later he had his back signed by the band, immodest but heartfelt as is our blessing to participate in debauchery when a moment occurs.

Much later we ran into Tom, the lead singer by our apartment, for no reason other than the soon to be washed streets of New York, and promptly decided that some absinthe and beer will round off our night with the rest of the band as they prepare for their “most of US” tour in support of their new release, Blew It Again.

It is this evidence that I submit to support the claim that very dangerous tunes are going to come from this group within the next year, so don’t let them pass you by. - Sentimentalist Magazine

Part of me is absolutely smitten with this band from New York and their self-released debut, Blew it Again. They just look like trouble, don’t they? They sure know how to pick cover album art too. The band is touring the hell out of the US for the next two months and will hit San Francisco’s beloved Thee Parkside on November 11. Their album will soon be available on InSound, but until then you can grab these free MP3s or nab one of their limited 500 vinyl albums. Check their MySpace page for more tour dates. - The OCMD

Electric Tickle Machine - "Gimme Money"; In this time of recession I thought more bands would have tried to take on the capitalist downfall but so far not many have. Here Electric Tickle Machine present a biting look at self-interest and the pratfalls of such things. It's a rocking tune for sure.
Grade: B+ - Pop Tarts Suck Toasted

No time like the present for Electric Tickle Machine.

Electric Tickle Machine’s ascent out of nowhere is impressive. The ease with which the New York City band scored on-air time at Seattle’s respected radio station KEXP, gained a mention on ABC News’ blog and booked a nationwide tour barely a year after forming seems kind of ludicrous—maybe, even, a little too easy?

“There’s no mass-marketing campaign behind us—no ACORN funding,” jokes singer/ guitarist Thomas Olivier from a crash pad in suburban Detroit, preempting accusations that their success is anything but hard-earned.

Well, OK. Lady Luck played a minor role. Olivier briefly toured as a solo-acoustic artist under the name Electric Tickle Machine before returning to NYC, where he rather fell into a full-fledged band in Ryan Renn (keyboards), Adam Kautz (drums) and Clark Phillips (percussion)—friends of friends whose instant chemistry shines through their debut full-length, Blew It Again, a fast-and-furious album with a number of tracks that stick on first listen.

The handclap-driven “Part of Me,” is especially infectious, with its lyrics speaking to a generation of bright, young things raging against familiar bourgeois concerns—i.e., getting a real job, settling down, etc.

Olivier sings the track rapidly, almost slurring his words: “See me Friday I’ll be looking more presentable/ Wake up early, take a shower, got an interview/ We all surrender to the worries of the ones we love/ questions propel the universe (don’t tell me what to do!)/ Every day we get a little more miserable/ except last weekend when we partied that was super cool.”

It’s a cathartic number, one that demands to be placed on repeat. That the album features several equally solid songs bodes well for the group’s longevity. It helps that they draw on a well-rounded palate, from high-energy indie-garage-rock to psychedelic barroom-blues.

They also have an introspective “Everybody Hurts” moment on “Find a Home” about a wayward girl on the run. Its heartbreaking sentiments provide some insight into the creative process that precedes the band’s frenetic onstage performances.

“The album and the live show exist in two different worlds,” Olivier says. “Personally, for me, the happiest time is in the studio at four in the morning and seeing the songs develop. Live, we allow ourselves a certain amount of freedom—to be able to perform the songs instead of over-thinking them. I basically black out for 30 minutes and wake up in a ball of sweat.”

Electric Tickle Machine give their all because they can—because they’re at their prime, with little to lose. And, on the road, “every show is an opportunity to make five fans,” Olivier says.

Back home, the band fights to stand out among, “probably 200 bands playing across the city on any given night.” This constant struggle, though, isn’t a deterrent. If anything, it fuels their creative drive.

Phillips, a Utah native who moved to Seattle before relocating to NYC to pursue fashion design, likens the intense circumstances to growing up gay in a Mormon household.

“I was always fighting for who I was and who I wanted to be,” he says. “That same drive is still present. Here in New York, you have the opportunity to really shine as an individual. The energy and the vibe —that’s what makes it all worth it.”

In other words, forking over $1000 a month for a shoebox studio is a small price to pay to walk downstairs, mingle with the masses—eat or be eaten.

“We all came to New York for a reason,” says Olivier, who grew up in nearby Long Island. “It’s a laboratory of modern invention—a giant hodgepodge that inspires a sense of urgency.”

He realizes, of course, they can’t keep this pace forever:

“Hopefully, in 10 years I’ll be in a French cottage.” CW - Salt Lake City Weekly

The dudes in this band are sexy men and they went with a sexy album cover that's kind of like the Ween cover except it's wonderfully color-coordinated and you actually see a nipple. It's wimpy and fun with deeply yearning vocals and high energy. Teenage outcasts who find their first love will be using this as their soundtrack. - Vice Magazine