Tammany Hall Machine
SXSW Showcase Reviews
Reviewed by Michael Bertin, Fri., March 16, 2007
Photo By Mary Sledd
Tammany Hall Machine
Maggie Mae's Rooftop, Wednesday, March 14
It's the Mooney Suzuki meets Ben Folds. Or maybe it's Pulp hybridized with Billy Preston. Austin's Tammany Hall Machine sounds strikingly similar to so many things, but its main virtue is that it doesn't sound precisely like any of them. After plowing through a muddy mix for the first few songs, the local fivepiece kind of hit stride with a trio of transistor-tinted songs from its latest, sophomore effort, Amateur Saw. "The Jesus Chrysler" and "Mega Lamb" came off like outtakes from a happier version of Beulah's Handsome Western States (and that's not just the trombone talking) before singer Joel Mullins broke out his best falsetto Jon Brion for "Farrah." By then, anything marred by the early mix was long forgotten. (A bass player decked out in a Sifl & Olly T-shirt was enough to get absolution.) So while it's easy to make musical marriages that kind of get you close to target, the least surprising thing might have been the band closing with a cover of the Beatles' "Dig a Pony."
