(Turn On) The Music Machine by Music Machine

(Turn On) The Music Machine was the Los Angeles band's debut album, rushed out on Original Sound in December 1966 to cash in on the runaway success of "Talk Talk". Fronted by songwriter and singer Sean Bonniwell, the Music Machine dressed head to toe in black and sounded just as menacing: fuzzed-out guitar, a woozy, hallucinatory organ, and Bonniwell's gravelly bark cutting through the middle of it all.

Bonniwell drilled his players hard, and "Talk Talk" had been nailed at RCA Studios in only a handful of takes, a tight, snarling blast of proto-punk. The album was thrown together fast, but it still did modest business on Billboard's Top LPs list, gave the band a second single in "The People in Me", and is now counted among the great garage rock records. The original lineup came apart before the end of 1967.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.