Entertainment Special: Motorpsychos
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For all Motorpsychos Press Check Out http://www.motorpsychosrock.com/mpress.htm
Entertainment: Th...For all Motorpsychos Press Check Out http://www.motorpsychosrock.com/mpress.htm
Entertainment: The Motorpsychos
Senior Writer, Jay Belfiore
The Steel City has bred a plethora of top-notch punk and rock bands over the past two decades and bands like The Motorpsychos continue to build upon and refine that tradition. There’s something about chicks, bikes, and rock and roll. It’s leather and lace, tough, and sexy, and uniquely American. It’s something the Motorpsychos know well. Veterans of many performances, both on the road and here in Pittsburgh, they are a hard working band in the true sense of the term. Their music and hard work continues to win the praises of publications on all levels, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to national magazine, ROCKRGRL, and international publications, Metal Maidens and Metal Maniacs. Working around the country from Chicago and Detroit to NYC, they really do get around, playing New York’s CBGB’s on October 22nd and opening up for the legendary Misfits at the Machine Shop in Flint, Michigan. They have also shred it on counteless beer-soaked stages with like-minded aggressors such as Broadzilla, Bottom, Honkey, Modey Lemon, Two Man Advantage, Harlow, Lo Pro and Bitchcat, to name a few. Here at home, the band exercises their self-described “iron clad work ethic” on the stage and in open competition. Winners of the 2004 Rolling Rock Hard & Heavy Rock Challenge (held at Nick’s Fat City), they bested nineteen other contenders and earned the respect of the Pittsburgh music community in a serious way.
Rock and Roll tours should be an adventure, and the Motorpsychos have had their share of them on the road, from minor run-ins with the law (“Amy got pulled over within the first five minutes of entering NYC!”) to the time Buddy Green was locked inside the Broadzilla RV and they had to rescue him by climbing through a window because Broadzilla was onstage. But anytime you can alter real estate values, you know you had a real impact. “We were in Chicago with Four Barrel Ghost. We stayed with Destroy Everything in a nice, quiet suburban neighborhood. We were hanging out drinking some beers with all of our equipment on the front lawn, getting ready to load up. Across the street, an agent was showing a house to a nice, white, well-dressed couple with a baby. What a sight it must have been for them: almost twenty black clad, blue-haired, Mohawk-sporting, loud, drunk, jingly-chained freaks with loud equipment sprawled everywhere! I’m sure the couple passed on that property. Wonder if it ever sold?”
And they are no strangers to change, welcoming new guitarist/vocalist Abby Krizner into the band in November of 2003. With the new lineup, were they looking to break new ground? “Absolutely. The extra vocalist is new ground for all of us. There are more back-up vocals and harmonies now. We didn’t want to change too much, but now some people say we sound even more metal. We wanted to come back more dynamic than before and were looking to sound better than we did with our original singer. Based on the reactions we’ve had, we pulled it off.”
When not on the road, they are busy in the studio, recording their newest release “Piston Whipped” at Soundscape Studios. Engineered and mixed by Kevin Facer, this album has a cleaner sound than their debut. They feel that they learned from their first recording and put that experience into “Piston Whipped.” The new album required a more subtle approach than their first. “We had to pay more attention to detail and there was more of a team effort during recording. It was a new experience with all three of the girls taking on vocals where as before, it was just instrumental responsibility and minor back-ups. This CD is a bit more diverse and multi-faceted than the first one because our individual personalities really stand out.” They also worked harder to avoid mistakes. “We were sure to proofread everything four times so as to avoid any typo’s!”
A sampling of the new release showed that the band’s “heavy wall of sound” approach is well represented by tunes like “Primer” which showed how far the band has come. Faster and tighter, they pack a metal crunch that rivals or even exceeds anything on their first release. Another song that really stood out was “Fries” the amusing and radio friendly story of a loser who “couldn’t even do drive thru.”
Piston Whipped’s release is scheduled for January 29th at the 31st Street Pub, with Evil Machine, a brand new band made up of members of Penance, Delian League, and Bottomfeeder. Abby feels Evil Machine is the band to keep an eye on. “These guys are definitely up and coming!” Motorpsychos are supportive of the local scene. Says Abby; “There are people in awesome bands living right next door to you.”
When you can’t get out to a show, you can hear the ‘Psychos on local radio shows such as the 102.5 WDVE Homegrown Show, the 105.9 WXDX Edge of the X Show, 88.3 WRCT Carnegie Mellon University and 91.7 WWVU West Virginia University. The band also gets TV Coverage, appearing on “Buck The System,” a cable television show which features an interview with bass player Amy Bianco as well as Rock Challenge performance footage of the band. The show airs each Thursday night at 11:00pm on Channel 21 PCTV, and can only be seen on Pittsburgh cable.
2004 was a busy year for the Psychos, and 2005 looks like it will be even more so. In addition to the new release, they have a full local tour schedule, with stops at 31st Street Pub, The Hard Rock Café, Annabell’s of Akron Ohio, The Smiling Moose, Excuses, and Gooskis. It looks like a good bet that the rest of the year will be busy.
They love the local scene, and hope you will come out to see them, as well as many other bands and love to hear from you. “We’re having a lot of fun and we greatly appreciate all of the positive feedback. It makes us play harder. Thanks and keep supporting all local music! See you at the pub on the 29th, you won’t be disappointed!”
THE MOTORPSYCHOS ARE:
Abby Krizner- guitar, vocals
Pam Simmons- guitar, vocals
Amy Bianco- bass, vocals
Dennis Brown- drums
Motorpsychos Pick Up New Piston
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MOTORPSYCHOS PICK UP A NEW PISTON By Ed Masley
They've only changed one member since their first,...MOTORPSYCHOS PICK UP A NEW PISTON By Ed Masley
They've only changed one member since their first, self-titled effort hit the streets in mid-2002, but the departure of Rachel Cassady has made The Motorpsychos change their whole approach to banging heads on "Piston Whipped."
They use to be a one-guitar band with a singer, after all.
But since replacing Cassady with Abby Krizner on guitar and vocals, everybody sings and the sound of the band has opened up with that second guitar.
"When Rachel left," says guitarist Pam Simmons, "we looked to replace her but couldn't find anybody we wanted. And my personal number one agenda was to be as good or better. I felt this divine intervention telling me to go in this direction."
With everybody writing songs and switching off on vocals, the sound of the band can change dramatically from track to track. The album kicks off, for instance, with "Primer," an aggressive metal-punk assault with growling, howling "I'll mop the floor with those losers in Kittie" vocals by Amy Bianco on bass and hardcore drums by Dennis Brown. But with the second track, they've shifted gears into a Krizner song that rocks its infectious garage-punk hooks like a female-led Mudhoney, followed by the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am approach of Simmons' post L7 rocker "Necrotina." And so it goes through such highlights as "Under the Knife" and "Fries With That." Without once going soft or sounding like a band that hasn't figured out which sound to run with.
As Simmons explains, "Although there are a lot of extremes on this record, there seems to be this integration of layers that maybe wasn't as strong on the first one. It's got a lot of variety in it, so it's different in that respect. But it's the first oppurtunity for everybody in this band to get their feet wet in different areas than before."
Although the other members of the band first resisted the notion of leaving Cassady's frontwoman post unfiled, they came around, says Simmons, when an oppurtunity arose to play an AC/DC tribute show at the 31st Street Pub in December of 2003.
They brought in Krizner for the Pub gig-rocking "Walk All Over You" and "Girl's Got Rhythm"--"and everybody had so much fun that they started reconsidering," says Simmons. "So we decided just to try it. And if it didn't work or anyone was uncomfortable, we would stop. But everybody's having fun, and we keep hearing that we're better. And that was our goal."
