San Antonio Punk Trio Powdered Wig Machine Marks Debut with 'It's What I've Always Wanted’
Photo by Alejandra Sol Casas
Brandon Pittman sits in a director’s chair, clad in a green moth dress from Fashion Brand Company and sipping on a Karbach Rodeo Clown in the foyer of Michelle Delgado’s 19th century home turned art studio. The room is brimming with painted canvases, wood panels, bottles, brushes, tubes of paint, and paper sculptures. Delgado is standing in front of Pittman, setting up a ring light and arranging eyeshadow palettes and makeup brushes. These two have been friends for about five years now, with Delgado occasionally handling Pittman’s on-stage makeup for his punk rock act Powdered Wig Machine, and most recently for the cover of the band's inaugural full-length album.
The album, titled It’s What I’ve Always Wanted marks the fusion of various vintage musical genres and retro futuristic visuals while keenly taking note and observing the world’s current events. It is the culmination of Powdered Wig Machine’s transformation from an art collective to an eccentric online web series and now, a psychedelic punk musical endeavor.
As the title implies, Pittman reveals, “I want to do this, and this is all I'm really thinking about– making records and performing.”
The inception of Powdered Wig Machine dates back to 2018 when Pittman was part of the Black Sheep Performance Art Collective, a troupe that included muralist Mauro De La Tierra and Vincent Garlisi of The Wizard. The group donned costumes and presented audience-interactive performances with political and satirical themes, such as destroying a Donald Trump doll or assuming the personas of hyper feminine executioners. Pittman, notably, carried out most of the performances in drag.
The group was promoting a Valentine’s Day show when De La Tierra approached Pittman with an idea he had for a video flier. Together they came up with the character that Pittman would portray named ‘Patricia’.
“Patricia is a cooking show host on YouTube. A failed, I'll say a failed cooking show host on YouTube who is also moonlighting as a serial killer.” Pittman laughs. “And she decided after getting knocked up by the devil and giving birth to a monster baby named Toby to become a rock star. So she abandoned him and this is kind of where we're at here now.”
Delgado, who is now applying glittery orange and yellow eyeshadow on Pittman perks up and chimes in to share a photo frame featuring herself and Toby, a large omphalocele fabric doll that spent the early part of 2021 being fostered by 30 artists locally and as far as New Orleans.
In the web series, Pittman played an array of characters, but introduced Patricia in the ninth episode. The series was named Powdered Wig Machine, after a Desert Sessions track.
“The song itself is very groovy and mechanical. I just kind of pictured a conveyor belt with wigs just being stamped down.”
Each episode of the web series pulled inspiration from some of Pittman’s favorite films, such as David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, Jean Luc Godard films, cartoons, especially Bugs Bunny, and his desire to convey dark, twisted humor.
The physical manisfestation of Patricia dons a blonde, 60’s style, beehive wig covered in cockroaches, colorful splotches of makeup, and bold printed mod dresses.
“I kinda like the aesthetic of, just looking like this insane person.”
Drag has always been an integral part of Pittman’s performances. He admits that he’s never performed out of costume. For him, it's war paint, a switch-flipper that bolsters his confidence when recording an episode or performing
“I've always been insecure with the gap in my teeth. But when I'm Patricia and I see myself in photos of my teeth out I feel like it is a strange transcendence.”
Although the web series is currently on hiatus, the friendships and collaborative community it fostered encouraged Pittman to pursue music despite prior failed musical endeavors. He admits that at first he was hesitant to front a new project, but recruited his Black Sheep partner, Garlisi on bass and Daniel Raigoza to join him on drums.
“You come to realize at some point that when you have so much passion for [making music], sometimes you have to push yourself to go that extra step to be like, ‘alright, I'm going to sing, I'm gonna get out there and I'm gonna look insane,’” he said.
He categorizes the music as psychedelic punk, but draws inspiration from various genres such as jazz and country, with artistic influences from classics such as Ella Fitzgerald, Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age, Angel Olsen, Fiona Apple, Bongwater, Built To Spill, and Wire.
The first single that was released off the record is titled Death, Destruction, Decay off of a line in the song that says, “lazy neglect of all who I care. The TV's on, the volume's down. You gotta love the hum of death, destruction, decay” which observes the colorful nihilism in a world that is largely consumed by tragedy portrayed daily in the media.
Brandon’s Texas Music Recommendations:
“Beyond Listening to my collaborators in The Wizard and Honey bunny, I’ve been listening to Being Dead, Chavela, Gult, Favorite Son, and Holy Wave. Butthole surfers, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Spoon, Tripping Daisy, The Black Angels, ZZ Top, The Octopus Project, and 13th Floor Elevators will always be touchtones of inspiration for me.
Pittman holds special pride in the song Holiest Bones. “The climax of the song is something that makes me feel like, ‘OK, I think I'm doing this right. I think we're making something interesting, we're making something cool.’”
The album was recorded in Garlisi’s studio and released by his label, Fuzzy Cat Records. It features guests such as Honey Bunny’s Bridgette Norris-Sanchez and Lloronas’ Amanda Vega. Local tattoo artist Azure Sky has provided visual art for every track and Ursula Zavala aka Acid Winzip is art directing the music video for Death, Destruction, Decay, set to be released soon.
“I'm really happy with the whole record, really. You know, just being able to create something… where you can tell the story with songs in some way, even though… it's not a concept album at all.”
Delgado finishes applying lip gloss onto Pittman’s overlined red lips. She holds up a handheld mirror for him to observe her work and cheerily coaxes him to put his wig on, which has been sitting on a coffee table behind him, to complete the look.
Pittman obliges and adds, “It's cool to work with somebody and also be friends and meet each other on that professional level and also be able to enjoy each other's company.”
He then escorts me upstairs behind the foyer, followed by Delgado’s three curious cats, up to the balcony for some photographs. Before wrapping up, he shares some of his unconventional creative practices, including drawing inspiration from novels and picture books by letting them fall onto a random page and seeing what ideas emerge.
It’s What I’ve Always Wanted will be released this Friday, October 20th. In conjunction, Powdered Wig Machine will be performing at Slab Cinema at Blue Star the same day, starting at 8 PM, with indie rock ensemble Grrrltoy opening the night.
You can listen to Powdered Wig Machine on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
