Motorpsycho one of those bands that I should play once or twice, twist a wry grin onto my face as I smugly point out all of their straight-outta-the-seventies influences, tire of the sheer derivativeness of it all, and stash away amongst the throngs of cd’s on my shelf. There should be a slightly gnawing feeling of boredom, wondering when all this jamming will finally end. I shouldn’t like these guys as much as I do. But I like them a lot. As a matter of fact, I’m really kind of blown away by them. They shouldn’t be able to get away with having all of these hard-rock-from-the-seventies influences that they simply flaunt all over their albums. But they do. And you know why? Because they really freakin’ mean it.
Not in that Justin Bieber kind of way though. You know what I mean, that “I’m really serious about all of this you guys! I’m all grown up now and I’m totally out of control. I’m a fucking train-wreck, man! Listen to how much I’m super serious about shit” kind of meaning it. And not in that Creed sort of way either, which is just stupid. (Just a side note from the grammar police: If you are a Creed fan, or any other band for that matter, and you like to leave reviews on Amazon, here is how to spell definitely: d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y. It is not spelled d-e-f-i-n-a-t-e-l-y. The root of the word is finite – like “my intelligence is finite“. That’s a good way to remember it. Now stop spelling it wrong. I will never ever buy an album whose reviewers spell ‘definitely’ like that. Just sayin’.)
From the first notes of Still Life With Eggplant (which, by the way, is not one of the songs) I found myself utterly engaged. Here is how much of a geek I am: I have my speakers set up just so, to maximize their treble and bass response, and most importantly, their soundstage. I have my ergonomic back support for total comfort, which also puts my little ears right where they are supposed to be for my speakers. I sat next to my dog, who I believe was also pretty intrigued. I put on the cd, cranked up the volume, and settled back into my little seat, closed my eyes, and marveled.
Now, I’m going to make another confession: I absolutely love 70’s rock, and Motorpsycho seems to have learned from the best. It’s got its Dust, its Ten Years After, its Deep Purple (when they were good), they even throw in a little Aoxomoxoa era Dead for good measure. And yet, it all sounds completely fresh, like it was recorded in say, 2013, which is actually the date on the cd. Again, how do they get away with this? They convey the excitement of having discovered all of these sounds themselves. Who knows, maybe they did. (I remember a friend describing Jandek’s music to me for the first time: It is like he heard about these things called songs… and that people sing them while accompanying themselves on a guitar – which has strings. So, without hearing these so called “songs” , nor understanding that a guitar had to be tuned, Jandek shut himself in his bedroom and proceeded to record about 80 albums.) Whatever the story may be, Motorpsycho have recorded a damn fine record. Thus ends my very convincing argument about “Why You Should Listen to Motorpsycho”. I hope you have liked my report and that you have learned something from it.
Here is a photo of my dog while listening to this cd:
Mr. Peppers listening to Motorpsycho.
I know, to you he just looks like a dog sitting on a couch, but I can assure you, he was absolutely into it. It takes a keen eye to identify a dog that is just sitting there being a dog or a dog that is totally rockin’ out, you know, diggin’ on the lyrics and stuff. This dog was into it.
Now that you’re convinced of the utter awesomeness of the album I’ve so skillfully reviewed, here is one tune from Youtube:
In case you’re a geek like me and like to buy directly from the label (and here’s something exciting – you can pay in Nooks!) here’s the link for that too:
http://www.runegrammofon.com/artists/motorpsycho/rcd-2143-motorpsycho-still-life-with-eggplant-cd/
Bye for now, and happy listening.
lacunamusic 