Search - Goddamn Electric Bill :: Swallowed by the Machines

The sounds of Goddamn Electric Bill were never meant to leave Jason Torbert's bedroom. But the one-man band, a propulsive blend of ambient electronic and post-rock music, made its way out to the world anyway. In its short lifetime, Goddamn Electric Bill has already been nominated for a San Diego Music Award, created a stir in the MySpace musical community, released a debut full-length called Swallowed by the Machines on 99X/10 Records (run by former Cure keysman Roger O Donnell) and been featured in San Diego CityBEAT and Music Matters Magazine. But Torbert isn't new to the musical arena. Torbert's suburban childhood was spent learning violin and trombone before he took off for University of Oregon, where he studied ethnomusicology. It was at University of Oregon that Torbert began his seven-year stint as the bassist for a popular punk outfit called Cigar. The band eventually signed to a label run by Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge and toured internationally before calling it quits. He tried his luck at a few other projects, including one band that recorded with At The Drive-In, Sparta drummer Tony Hajjar and signed to At The Drive-In, Sparta frontman Jim Ward s label, Restart Records, but Torbert quickly figured out that the band life wasn t for him. It was the sounds Torbert made on his own from bass, guitar, keys, Rhodes, sitar, mbira, percussion and bagpipes that turned into Goddamn Electric Bill. And it is those sounds that continue to cause a stir.