Somewhere within the bowels of the post Sunset Strip Hollywood music scene, there is a band out there that still plays without the slightest reverence towards the corporate giants still scraping around for that last nugget of marketable gold. That band is Simpler Machine, and although they have a few years under their hormonally charged belt buckles, their 2007 debut album “2013″ is more of a testament to musical truth and artistic integrity rather than an audition to the Big Machine show. This 30 minute blast of sonic chaos is brought to you from the creative genius that is Jon Nicholson, the lead singer. All of the songs walk a very fine line between diversity and complexity. “Desiree”, the closest song to a single, exhibits this chaos within order music scheme perfectly. “Ratfuck”, arguably the best song on the album, reveals Nicholson’s ability to deliver the goods in the traditional sense as well. Aggressive and catchy, “Ratfuck” showcases the hidden truth behind the band’s collective genius. Highly structured in the classical verse/bridge/chorus style, it is delivered with a drunken wink by the Machine as if to say, “Happy? Good, now shut up. I’ve got other things to play.” Of course, all you have to do is look at the song titles if you want to know what exactly that is. No less than four of the songs drop f-bombs in their title, as if A.D.D. adolescents with girl trouble is their ideal demographic. Lyrically, the level of sexual angst is up there with punk, but the music isn’t nearly as simple to define. All the players seem to go off in different musical directions, and credit must be given to the drummer, Jason Brunk, for thundering out the cages to keep these cats in step. Although weak in tone, Nicholson does well in maximizing his range from wailing to singing to screaming. The low end is wonderfully supplied by Anoush Saboktakin on bass; his sound is full bodied enough to expose the metal side of the band’s schizoid personality. The main weakness of “2013″ is the collective guitar work of Isaac and Sanzhez. Two guitars shouldn’t sound like one all the time, and any soloing that exists is drowned out throughout the recording. This could be the mixers fault; though. The actual playing is exceptional. The genius of Simpler Machine collectively is in the balance of adding a lot of color and variety to their songs without sounding complex. At the same time, most of the songs are catchy, yet without any hooks, leading credence to the notion that “2013″ wasn’t made with anyone else’s expectations in mind. In my opinion, this is a win/win scenario for the band, for if they never get any farther than this their integrity is intact. If; however, they do blow up, “2013″ then becomes a work of genius.