The Giant Panther

I was just rummaging through my collection to find something to blog about and came across a song I really liked from 1993. You remember 1993 don't you? C'mon, it was only 16 years ago now. It was the year of brilliant songs like The Breeders' Cannonball, The London Suede's Animal Nitrate, Beck's Loser, New Order's Regret, Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box, Pearl Jam's Daughter, Smashing Pumpkins' Cherub Rock, Belly's Feed The Tree, Mazzy Star's Fade Into You, Liz Phair's Fuck and Run, Urge Overkill's Positive Bleeding, Juliana Hatfield's My Sister, Elastica's Stutter, Soul Asylum's Black Gold, Bjork's Human Behaviour, James' Sometimes (Lester Piggot), Porno For Pyros' Pets, Alice in Chain's Rooster, King Missle's Detachable Penis, Radiohead's Creep, The Screaming Trees' Nearly Lost You, Stereo MCs' Connected, Midnight Oil's Truganini, Stone Temple Pilots' Plush, Cracker's Low, Grant Lee Buffalo's Fuzzy...heck even Sting's If I Ever Lose My Faith in You. Solid year no?

One song that is long gone and forgotten that I loved from that year is a song called "Butterfly Wings" from Industrial Rockers Machines of Loving Grace. They took a page out of the Nine Inch Nails playbook for certain, but they are slightly more melodic than NIN pound for pound. Industrial Rock, as we have discussed previously in the space, does have its detractors. I never quite made the Industrial Rock distinction when I was soaking up everything within earshot back then. If it was good it was good and this song was great. The Machines of Loving Grace were a Tucson, Arizona band that formed in 1989. They weren't around very long, but they did release three records before disbanding in 1997. I have just learned from our friends at Wikipedia that the song I am posting was featured on the original soundtrack to the movie Punisher: War Zone. I've never seen it, but it's probably one reason some of you folks might recognize this track. I could swear I heard them perform it live at The Hatch Shell in Boston many moons to the south, but I have no proof.

I was going post a link to their web site, but it turns out some guy who collects old typewriters, apparently machines of loving grace, has what should be their URL. How funny is that? I'm sure that why they broke up (he said facetiously). I wish I could think of the next big phrase, company, technology or product name, buy the naming rights and force them to pay for my summer and winter homes in order to get it back. Oh wouldn't that be sweet? Unfortunately my hindsight is better than my foresight and I'm just not that smart. If I had that kind of insight into the future I'd just save it for Mega Millions and be done with it. As for the real Machines of Loving Grace, they gracefully bowed out of the game over a decade ago and haven't been heard from since. They have a My Space page I noticed, but that could just be another unofficial fan generated page. As I've said many times before though; it's better to have one great single than to have none. Hope you like...

Machines of Loving Grace - Butterfly Wings.mp3 YSI