photo credit David Seelig
TYCOON MACHETE’s “Electro-Medicine” video uses clips from the lost sci-fi masterpiece, “Attack of the Cockroaches”. The film was pulled at the behest of the US Department of Homeland Security because it was claimed that the cockroaches bore an uncanny resemblance to members of the Trump Administration and their ICE agents. The film’s writer-director, John Whipple, was reportedly deported to Uganda. Tycoon Machete has reassembled some of the clips as part of an ongoing protest on behalf of free speech in the United States.
Salt Lake City, UT – XENOBLASTER is TYCOON MACHETE’s concept album based on the exploits of American hero, John R. Brinkley, who rose from poverty in the last century to become the wealthiest practitioner of “alternative” medicine of his time. His revolutionary procedure for impotence involved xenotransplanting goat testicles into sad men who suffered from “flat tires”.
Though scientists concluded that the treatment did little other than give patients nasty infections in very sensitive areas, Brinkley made a fortune. He then built himself a radio station to attract new customers to his procedures and potions. When the Kansas “deep state” pushed back, he ran for Governor. The election was rigged against him, of course, but he was not defeated. He moved his radio station across the border into Mexico. His Border Blaster was licensed for a million watts so people could tune in as far as Iceland. Besides his bad medical advice and occasionally fascist rants, he offered airtime to a variety of quacks, preachers, psychics, cultists, scammers, and even some talented country musicians like the Carter Family. Sadly, mainstream media and the medical deep state caught up with him and he was ruined by “very unfair” prosecutions and lawsuits.
Salt Lake City’s psych-art rock band, Tycoon Machete, follows our hero’s journey through various genres from old time roots to funk to rock to industrial to country. John R. Brinkley’s rise to fame and fortune serves as an allegory of the ever-present alignment of stupidity and power that is as true for America in the 2020’s as it was in the 1920’s.
XENOBLASTER is available for purchase on the group’s Bandcamp: tycoonmachete.bandcamp.com/album/xenoblaster
Founded by two Salt Lake City musicians, J. P. Whipple and James Perry, Tycoon Machete was created to explore the frontiers where flesh meets the machine. They are joined by synth master, Sean McCarthy, and local artist Erin Stout on bass and singing saw.
Avoiding conventional rock band format, the band features an eclectic mixture of instruments including a 1942 lap steel, 1890’s plectrum banjo, musical saw, synthesizers, and samplers. Live performances include psychedelic visuals from SLC artist, Murray Resinski.
visit TYCOON MACHETE online:
Website: https://tycoonmachete.bandzoogle.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tycoonmachete
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tycoonmachete/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JPWhipple
Bandcamp: https://tycoonmachete.bandcamp.com
Subvert: https://www.subvert.fm/tycoon-machete/xenoblaster
Tidal: https://tidal.com/@jpwhipple
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/tycoon-machete/1499749205