The Elvis Machine

by Kim Vodicka

The Elvis Machine is a book of poems inspired by living, loving, and hate-fucking in Memphis, Tennessee—a city still kissed with the 1950s. Forged in a dumpster fire of toxic Elvises, these poems are pornographic bad romances, psychedelic love dirges, and threnodies for sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. They'll make you laugh off the pain as much as you'll cry, cringe, and feel exposed in this 'No Boys Allowed' clubhouse of feminine rage and healing.

Genres: Poetry

196 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2020

About the author

Kim Vodicka is the spokesbitch of a degeneration, "a softer-spoken, more genteel Lydia Lunch," according to The Houston Press. For the past decade, she has toured the country performing sound poetry in bookstores, dive bars, art galleries, cafes, diners, festivals, pinup clubs, vintage clothing shops, rooftops, backyards, and places of worship. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections—Aesthesia Balderdash (Trembling Pillow Press, 2012), Psychic Privates (White Stag Publishing, 2018), and The Elvis Machine (CLASH Books, 2020). She is also the creator of a poetic comic book series, a chapbook of sound poems on vinyl, and an illustrated book of poetry. Originally from south Louisiana, she currently lives in Memphis, TN with her beloved cat, Lula. Cruise her at kimvodicka.com.

Reviews

[Kim Vodicka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shameless self-congratulation. Feel free to roast me as you wish. <333

[Andrew Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Elvis Machine is beautiful in its perversity and vivid in its vulgarity. This poetry collection is a fairly quick read, and I think given its content this is a good thing (the content is great, to be clear, but brutal and bleak). What impressed me most about TEM is how Vodicka seamlessly shifts a poem's tone from being genuinely sweet in one stanza to shockingly fucked up in the next to powerfully feminine right after, etc... If you prefer your eroticism to reside in a grime-filled gutter, then TEM is a must. Highly recommended!

[Lisa Flowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Elvis Machine' is not about how the world honors legends, but about the moment that a human officially becomes one ... that hymen-displacing, newly-burst pinata rite-of-presage on the proverbial golden toilet. Like Alejandro Jodorowsky in 'The Holy Mountain,' Vodicka is busily engaged in turning feces to gold throughout this extraordinary book. From dazzling wordplay worthy of Mina Loy ... "Lyre to me, spititual/lovesome in my head/my god of frick/not with child, but with flower" ... to a veritable sex farm of self-deprecating witticisms ... "There's a hard dick where my heart used to be/a widowmaker would probably feel amazing" ... this book pulls no punches, and no, um, appendages, either. It's also an incredibly moving ode to intimacy in 2020's era of widespread panic & death. "I wasn't half bad/at holding your head in my hands/while the world ceased to exist//knowing I'd survive/and you wouldn't," writes Vodicka."You put your arm around my cold shoulder/and we watched the world end." But anyone lucky enough to read this book will be able to enjoy a finale where everyone is fortunate enough to be able to "win without dying." Which is, after all, what we've always hoped to be able to do, in ghost or out.

[Charlene Elsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vodicka’s rhythm makes this book, which is a warrior cry for brazen hussies everywhere. Sex positive feminism for people who love musical language.

[Stina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get this book. It's punk, it's feminist, it's lit and it's literary, but that's not why I'm telling you to read it. I'm not even telling you to read it. I'm telling you to experience it. The experience of reading The Elvis Machine is like taking a wild, raunchy ride on the back of rapid-fire puns conveying blunt truths like you've never heard them conveyed. Really, like you've never. Her tongue is so far in her cheek it's pierced it, but she's authentic, too, still smiling, and choking it up for us, page after page, all this stuff women have had to choke down. I've been blessed to watch her perform some of this material, and if you can, get the EP, too, so you can hear her do it. Next best thing? Make sure you're all alone, prep yourself by reviewing all your worst and best sexual and romantic experiences, then read it, aloud, slowly, to your teddy bear or your ex's voicemail or the mirror or your cat.

Here, see for yourself:

"I spend most of my life
dangling like meat
before men
who are not going hungry."

&

"We'll queef out your cum
and flush it down the toilet
with our gel manicures,
and harvest your orgasms."

&

"If my own sister is to fuck me with the sword of the patriarchy,
...
I'd rather know she knows what she's doing, and means it,
while she holds me at cock-point
and watches me do it
to myself."

This book isn't easy. It's resistant and messy and insightful. Let it wash all over you, but you've been warned: it'll be a bit sticky.

[Jack Skelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hear language coinage clatter from the jackpot slot of The Elvis Machine. Jerk the handle & jolt in the mental/coital kitty that begets polyamorous re-combinations. (A DNA inverse of T&A.) Taste the breathy minting of idiom – cast in heartbreak and heart-eye emojis and caked in cum – as it tumbles to its DING DING DING. And venture into the depository of Vodicka’s Fort Hard Knox. Then gag & gasp at that glittery vault.

Forget bit-coin and NFT: This currency trades on the black market of Kim vim.

[Gina Tron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I consumed this entire book in one sitting. Kim's poems are clever, mesmerizing and best of all empowering.

[Joshua Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and brutality direct work from one of the sharpest poets in the game today.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best poetry book I've read in 2020 so far. Kim Vodicka's writing is 21st century modernism that puts the patriarchy on notice and gives no fucks about who gets offended along the way.

[Dunaway Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great post-modern sex-positive poetry in the tradition of DH Lawrence and Anais Nin. Kim Vodicka is one of the best wordsmiths in the mid-west.

[Nelson Pyles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across Kim's work via her current publisher Clash Books-run by the ultra dynamic Leza Cantoral. This third outing is absolutely stunning, hilarious and devastating all at one. Kim is an absolute wordsmith with zero fucking around. These poems have teeth. Sometimes they smile and sometimes they bite and more often than not, both at the same time.
This is not for the weak or sensitive (re:toxic masculinity.) I really love her work. Pick this up and dig it!

[Holt · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I recieved "The Elvis Machine" in the mail, the first thing I did as a visual artist was admire the cover for a few minutes. As I listed off the items, I thought I was back with my Louisiana-based friends on a drunk parade through the bars and the countryside (Machete, check! Shotgun, check! Dildo? ...Definitely check!) The colors popped and the cover fits perfectly with the poetry packed inside.

Upon reading the first pages, I felt a kinship and wondered why that is? Could it be that kinship that transplants away from our Louisiana homes feel, where despite being away we still want to be in that filth? Dig in the dirt? I'm not sure myself, but the scum, the grease, the blood, the semen, the anger, and the frustration cloud and coagulate around Vodicka's poems and I find myself planting my (thick) ass at a table with a bottle of cheap beer to listen in as she describes one night stands, bad lovers, and the dirt under her fingernails and between her thighs to another "one".
The words jump around and you follow her lyrical quality, at times at breakneck speeds, and at others slow to swim in the sentences. The imagery is amazing, top-notch, but take time to devote to what you're "seeing" whilst reading. The wordplay and rhyme is so clever I often had to re-read statements after laughing so hard the first time to understand the depth of Vodicka's skill as a writer. I started reading then when I looked up from the page 45 minutes had passed!

I would absolutely recommend this collection to those who want a kick in their chest when reading poetry, prefer an "underground" but skilled voice, and anyone wo has ever woken up in their clothes from the night before and looked at the person next to them and went "Oh hell." Relatable, hilarious, independent, raucous, but always confident. This is an achievement, I look forward from more from Vodicka!

[Greg Bem · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sprawling chapter following 2018's Psychic Privates. This is Vodicka's voice in full, just as her readers have come to expect. It doesn't hold back. It is intentionally extreme, and intentionally careful. It breaks and destroys and rebuilds. This is a feminism that is full and immediate, and long, the way it should be!

[Adrian Cepeda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kim Vodicka is a sultry seductive poetess who crafts raw poignant poems about love addiction. The Elvis Machine from CLASH Books is a collection of reflective morning after verses and happy ending odes to pillow princesses. One rendezvous read inside The Elvis Machine and you will fall for this orgasmic love poet.
⠀
Kim Vodicka, the voice of The Elvis Machine is an erotic blend Kim Addonizio, Anais Nin and Kathy Acker. This Memphis poet pens tempting carnal poems of passionate heartbreak. How can you resist a poetry collection filled with lines “when you engineer my pussy/ I believe in absolute exclusivity?”
⠀
The Elvis Machine is filled with seductive poems that will spark an instant addiction. Satisfy your poetic cravings, Vodicka’s memorable bittersweet love verses, will have you lusting for more.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does Graceland come with a love boat ride and a haunted heartbreak mansion? Is it open after dark? I've never been but I read The Elvis Machine in one sitting. After a while I could feel the machine come alive. Maybe I have a fever? Kim Vodicka writes like no one else. These poems are pop songs and greek tragedy and sharp like shattered mirror glass, funny and repeatedly deadly, like America. Definitely bannable, like all love poetry worth a damn.

[Josh Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A raucous, perverted stroll through experimental forms, this book is the antithesis of the lighthearted and good natured. As you read, you witness a new lexicon forming right before your eyes. A definite addition for those looking to “expand” their reading palette.