Led Lips sail Secret ships

According to the Secret Machines' Web site (thesecretmachines.com) the band is "the latest link in the loose-knit chain that connects Pink Floyd, Neu!, Cau, Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, La Dusseldorf, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, the Band, My Bloody Valentine and Spiritualized." This is all good and well, and if it's the way they or their publicists feel -- cool -- but to be obtusely accurate, the group sounds far more akin to Led Zeppelin circa Led Zep II and the Flaming Lips of '93 or '95 with no chains left untethered.\nThe trio, from New York by way of Dallas, consists of brothers Ben and Brandon Curtis (the former on guitar and vocals; the latter on bass, keys and vocals) and drummer Josh Garza, all of whom apprenticed with Tripping Daisy, UFOFU, Comet and Captain Audio during the '90s. With Now Here is Nowhere the band has made its full-length debut following the well-received EP, September 000, and it's a doozy. That's not to say it doesn't have its problems, it does -- namely the solid in spite of being overlong opener ("First Wave Intact") and closing title cut, but all in all what's here is pretty killer.\nLead singer Ben Curtis croons his way through the record sounding like the love child of Robert Plant and Wayne Coyne, and Garza's drumming more often than not boasts the bombastic beats of a baby Bonham -- nowhere more so than on the appropriately-titled, "The Road Leads Where It's Led."\nGarza has been quoted as saying the following in relation to the Secret Machines' music, "It's about looking back at the Band, looking back at Zeppelin, looking back at all those bands and saying, 'What did they do, and why did they do it?' As opposed to saying, 'Let's try to mimic, let's try to do what's already been done.'" Sorry to break it to you, dude, but you and your bandmates are mimickers … masterful ones.