{"id":22225,"date":"2026-08-29T07:11:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T12:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=22225"},"modified":"2026-08-29T07:12:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T12:12:33","slug":"music-review-tycoon-machete-xenoblaster-album-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=22225","title":{"rendered":"MUSIC REVIEW: Tycoon Machete\u00a0 \u201cXenoblaster\u201c Album July 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XENO.avif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22226\" style=\"width:404px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XENO.avif 700w, https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XENO-300x300.avif 300w, https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XENO-150x150.avif 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>I have to thank Alex Zander for introducing me to Tycoon Machete. We recently had frontman J.P. Whipple on the MKULTRASOUND PodCast and he was a GREAT interview! Aside from being very intelligent and funny, he and his bandmates have made some amazing music as an art-collective, currently based in Salt Lake City, Utah.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their latest concept album, &#8220;Xenoblaster&#8221;, explores the &#8220;Border Blaster&#8221; legend John R. Brinkley, who was a grifting, unlicensed medical \u201cdoctor\u201d, peddling an expensive treatment that involved transplanting goat testicles into both men and women, during the early part of the 20th century. The man ran afoul of the law multiple times, as he traveled all over the country, eventually ending up in Texas \/ Mexico, where he took to the radio airwaves to promote his phony cures and some early country musicians in the 1950\u2019s. Each song on the album explores the many themes related to Brinkley\u2019s infamous adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The songs are well-written, poetic elegies to the good \u201cdoctor\u201d. As J.P. explained, many of the themes still resonate in our current societal and political climate and the parallels are often uncanny. The music ranges from a vintage old western style on \u201cBundle of Joy\u201d,&nbsp; to a more rock feel on \u201cBorder Blaster\u201d, \u201cPatent Medicine\u201d and \u201cElectro Medicine\u201d, to more funk-based, heavy guitar and bass style on \u201cPartners In Crime\u201d. The album isn\u2019t just referencing the tragically interesting journey of John R. Brinkley, but it also takes the listener on a multi-layered musical journey through the wide range of styles this band clearly excels at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The videos for each song are also visually engaging and very artistic. \u201cElecto Medicine\u201d, \u201cPatent Medicine\u201d and \u201cPartners In Crime\u201d, with their creative animations and claymation sequences totally reminded me of the kind of thing you\u2019d see on MTV\u2019s \u201c120 Minutes\u201d and \u201cLiquid Television\u201d, back in the day. J.P. said he was very influenced by both of those shows, as well as old cartoons from the 70\u2019s that he grew up watching. As a fellow Gen-Xer, I could absolutely see those influences at work in his videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After listening to \u201cXenoblaster\u201d and some of their earlier work, I can now say that I am a total fan of Tycoon Machete. I\u2019ve always been drawn to artistic, alternative bands and these guys hit the bullseye. In many ways they remind me of Talking Heads or Living Colour, thanks to their unique vision, astute lyrics and incredible depth of style, which I feel is sorely lacking with a lot of today\u2019s music. Take some edibles or a few puffs of a blunt (or not), give this album a listen and let it take you on a truly fantastic journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8211; Ellen \u2018the Felon\u2019 Marshall<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BANDCAMP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tycoonmachete.bandcamp.com\/album\/xenoblaster\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.tycoonmachete.bandcamp.com\/album\/xenoblaster\"><strong>www.tycoonmachete.bandcamp.com\/album\/xenoblaster<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YouTube<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/johnwhipple\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"www.youtube.com\/user\/johnwhipple\">www.youtube.com\/user\/johnwhipple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have to thank Alex Zander for introducing me to Tycoon Machete. We recently had frontman J.P. Whipple on the MKULTRASOUND PodCast and he was a GREAT interview! Aside from being very intelligent and funny, he and his bandmates have made some amazing music as an art-collective, currently based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=22225\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">MUSIC REVIEW: Tycoon Machete\u00a0 \u201cXenoblaster\u201c Album July 2026<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-reviewz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22228,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22225\/revisions\/22228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}