The Class Machine

The Class Machine
By Hilly Town, on July 9th, 2010

Now that the site is in order, don’t mind if we do a little bit of catchup here!

Even though the state of Maine’s music scene can feel pretty small at time – especially if your primary interested is the indie/experimental world – it can still take some time to catch an act. I’d known about the Class Machine for a while before finally catching them during the Free Range Music Fest in Belfast back in April, but they were well worth the wait. A few weeks later they were down in Portland to open for Drink Up Buttercup at SPACE Gallery.

HillyTown contributor Katie Fuller explains why her dad would like this duo from Belfast (and, in turn, so should you)….

Nate Raleigh and Cody Tibbetts are the Class Machine. It’s a fitting name for a band that seems to tackle the work of making music with an almost engineer-like precision and zero pretention. They describe their own sound as “Irving Berlin trying to light a cigarette while running a chainsaw.” The two lovely gentlemen drove down from their neck of the woods to play a Monday night show at SPACE. Opening for Dead Man’s Clothes, and Drink Up Buttercup, Nate and Cody play three (maybe four?) instruments collectively between two people (although at moments Tibbetts’ solos are so ripping that I swear there’s an extra musician hiding out somewhere on stage when they play). In some ways, Class Machine is, at least for me, a quintessentially Maine band, just playing whatever instruments they get their hands on to the best of their ability, and letting the music (and the smart, smart, lyrics) do the talking (and we all know how much good Maine people love to talk, which is, really, not much. I mean, at least my Dad would rather be on his land in Phillips every day of the week hunting turkeys than actually talking to people. With that being said, my Dad would like Class Machine, and I think he’d like the guys in it as well). If anything, Dad would appreciate their work ethic- Class Machine is efficient to say the least (they ripped through their set with lightning speed). Nate and Cody have been together since 2005, but the crew from Drink Up Buttercup took notice, inviting both of them up on stage for a guest appearance on moroccas on a tune I hear they often play off stage and in the audience. If the crowd had been bigger, perhaps Drink Up Buttercup would have joined us on the floor, but seeing as Dr. Dog lured many down the street for their gig, it didn’t seem forced to have Class Machine, who they’d never seen before, join them on stage. (Class Machine also joined Drink Up’s seriously duct-taped instruments…duct tape- how very Maine of them). By the end of the guest appearance, it didn’t really matter that Drink Up Buttercup and Class Machine were the only people on the stage- at that point, we were already up there with them. - Hillytown

The Class Machine: Two guys from Belfast, one hellacious, rocking sound. Bass player and lead vocalist Nathan Raleigh is a towering mountain of rock, while drummer and guitarist Cody Tibbetts — yes, he plays them at the same time — is one of the best multi-taskers you’ve ever seen. Falling somewhere in between the White Stripes, Motorhead, Queens of the Stone Age and The Black Keys, the Class Machine is a muddy blues-informed rock band with trappings of heavy metal. Totally killer. - Bangor Daily News

Sometimes I like to do searches in the Bangor Daily’s in-house article database for certain words, phrases or names. For instance, in our newspaper’s hallowed 120-year history, not once has the name Lemmy Kilmister been printed. Thus, with that preceding sentence, I’ve changed the BDN forever. Or, at least, made it more punk rock.
And I’m happy to report that the only reason I have to bring up Lemmy, he of Motorhead, Hawkwind and legendary mutton chops fame, is because I’m writing about an awesome two-piece band from Belfast by the name of the Class Machine. The first thing I thought of when I listened to the songs from their debut EP, “Uproot,” was Lemmy. The second thing was that this is a band that’s after my musical heart.
“I was trying to think about what we sound like, and I decided on a combo of the Stooges, James Brown and Morphine. Definitely Motorhead, too,” said bass player and vocalist Nathan Raleigh, who with guitarist and drummer Cody Tibbetts make up the Class Machine. “I really like stripped down, gritty, punk trash. But I also like it to be funky.”
The Class Machine will play with Portland rockers Honey Clouds and Huak at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on a three-band showcase at Roots & Tendrils, the music venue, art gallery and shop on Cross Street in downtown Belfast. It’s a night of fantastic Maine rock, so those interested in original music and heavy riffs would be smart to check it out.
Raleigh and Tibbetts have been making music together since 2005, when they were messing around, seeing if Tibbetts could play guitar and drums at the same time while Raleigh played bass and sang. Yes, that’s right: Tibbetts plays guitar and drums at the same time. Sounds like it might not work, but trust me, it does. Think about the White Stripes or the Black Keys. Two people can rock just as hard as three.
“We just jammed on a simple blues riff for like six months. We made a lot of noise,” said Raleigh. “Then it just started to evolve into songs and a more cohesive sound. At that time, I was conceiving of it as more of a theater piece — like we’d be characters with a back-story and songs that explain the relationships between the characters. That kind of wore itself out there. It wasn’t really viable for us.”
Raleigh and Tibbetts toned down the conceptual aspect of their band and upped the rock ’n’ roll and the songwriting. In 2007, a handful of songs began to congeal — the songs that eventually came to be included on “Uproot.” It’s dirty, it’s fuzzy and it’s heavy, but more than anything, the Class Machine writes some really good songs.
There’s a good reason for that. In addition to his rock influences, Raleigh counts his girlfriend, vocalist Kristen Burkholder, as an inspiration. Burkholder sings with local jazz and tango groups, and her love and appreciation for good songwriting has rubbed off on Raleigh.
“My girlfriend is a true student of the great American songbook,” said Raleigh. “She sings with jazz groups and knows all these great, classic songs. I don’t think the crafting of a good song is any less important now than it was 50 years ago. I might love to experiment, but I also really love to write good, strong songs. I’m not afraid of pop music. I just want to turn it on its head.”
If there’s any place in Maine where a band such as the Class Machine is to be nurtured, it’s Belfast. For a city of fewer than 7,000 people, it’s quickly becoming a hotbed for interesting music.
“It’s becoming a cool thing to say you’re from Belfast,” said Raleigh. “There are so many bands from so many styles and disciplines. It’s very eclectic. It’s especially nice to play at Roots & Tendrils, which is actually a music venue, and not a bar where you’re competing with alcohol for attention. People come to listen.”

- Bangor Daily News

In a throwback to early British rock, The/Class/Machine open up stripped-down and unadorned on their seven-song debut Uproot EP. The vocals have a bit of a chorus on them, and the guitar and bass are made more throaty, but this disc is about rhythm and a good, old-fashioned gut punch.....
Some of the lyrics recall early Kinks, like the anti-establishment "Company Man" and "The March," which wonders, "Did you ever try going without it?/Did you ever try that?" That latter is nothing but bass and vocals for the first two-plus minutes, both of which are handled by Nathan Raleigh; then there's a nice back fill by drummer/guitarist (wonder how that works live) Cody Tibbets.....
Later in the record they try a bit of white-man's upstroke ("Heart Attack") and deliver a great bass melody on "For a Song": "I feel so handsome when I'm on my knees." Essentially, they have good variety while keeping their sound consistent and they're yet another band re-embracing rock in this town and nationwide.....
- Portland Phoenix

Three exceptionally charismatic young acts opened for bands from Philadelphia on Congress Street Monday night. I managed to catch most of all of their sets.

Belfast’s Class Machine are Nathan Raleigh and Cody Tibbetts, a devil-may-care duo who played at SPACE. Tall and well on his way to a Ronald McDonald ’fro, Raleigh plays a pedal-warped bass while Tibbetts pumps out aggressive, hi-hat-heavy beats on his Spartan drum kit while resting a guitar on his lap. The short, often pulverizing rock music they make necessarily recalls the early brio of the White Stripes, though it occasionally bumbles into funk/reggae territory. Raleigh, singing for a dozen people early on, howled like he was playing for a thousand times as many, and his effortlessly charming vocals (“rhythm is a nasty habit,” he bellowed to open the set) are difficult to resist.

Read more: http://thephoenix.com/Portland/music/102200-review-class-machine-lady-lamb-the-beekeeper-de/#ixzz0og7BXHSN
- The Portland Phoenix