Punk band operates like a 'Machine'

The Suicide Machines made one of the great sellout records with their 2000 self-titled punk-pop classic. On that album they backed off their strident political rhetoric and started singing about girls and other general confusion.\nOf course, "great" and "sell-out record" are an oxymoron, and the record flopped. Their 2001 follow-up Steal This Record was almost as good and got even less recognition. People's distrust of punk-pop had grown so huge they were unwilling to believe a band in the oeuvre kicked ass.\nSo for the first time in their career the Detroit quartet -- no, Detroit doesn't only produce garage rock bands -- is on an independent label, and they are back to making political records. The songwriting has suffered a little with some seemingly unfinished tunes.\nIt's hard to make singing about acid rain and affordable health care sound hooky, but the Machines do fine with it. Their sound is one part hardcore, one part punk-pop and one part ska. Purists to any of these subgenres might object, but tell that to those in the Warped Tour mosh pit. When the Machines sing about war making politics more meaningful among young people, the mosh pit is all the violence the audience will want.