This Machine
This Machine
Tim Timebomb & Jesse Michaels and More from the 2023 Celebration of Terry Hall
Venmo @musack or:
This Machine Changes Lives!
Q: What do you do when a rash of teen suicides infects your old high school?
A: Start a charity that supports music programs there.
Q: What do you do when that charity starts to work and needs money to operate?
A: Throw an annual Rock n’ Roll carnival in your backyard with great music, comedy, and art and then invite everyone you know to come and hang and donate money.
Q: What do you do when the kids you’re supporting graduate from high school and your programs are successful?
A: Set up college scholarships and expand as fast as you can. Start spreading the music from coast to coast! Raise more money and buy more guitars!
That’s what this is. Since 2009, we've made it our mission to give kids and teens a voice through music by providing guitars, drums and support for music teachers. Musack makes music happen with programs in Nantucket, Los Angeles, Compton, Appalachia, Australia, Alaska, New Mexico, and Haiti, all with huge support from our annual Rock n’ Roll Carnival backyard music festival featuring our talented musician and comedian friends. To Woody Guthrie, "This Machine Kills Fascists!" To us, "This Machine Makes Music Happen!" What is this machine to you?
Carnival Home
Carnival Home
How We Do It
We make music happen with support from people like you! But we like to have fun while doing it and enlist the help of our talented friends.
Every year we throw our own mini-Coachella, complete with bands, kids' activities, food, art, comedy, and a silent auction of rock n' roll memorabilia in a sprawling Los Angeles backyard.
Past lineups have seen acts like She & Him, Rancid, Fishbone, English Beat, Weird Al, Superchunk, Yo La Tengo, Deltron 3030, Billy Bragg, DJ Lance Rock, Tom Kenny (Spongebob), Lisa Loeb, Childish Gambino... the list goes on and on.