Memory Motel

Memory Motel are a Reno, NV group, and judging by the name and the test-pattern aesthetic of the cover, you’d think they were a chillwave thing. Fortunately, they’re not – they play a hazy psychedelic pop spiked with electronic elements. This short little 7? contains only two songs, the first of which is “Wasted Days,” which features spacey keyboards and gentle, chiming guitars. It’s all held together by a pretty cool drum loop – it’s reminiscent of BOARDS OF CANADA, but maybe with the DEERHUNTER guy singing…but imagine that guy didn’t suck so badly. It’s pleasant to listen to, and builds nicely to an actual riff without devolving into a smear of instruments, and without coming off like a gimmick. It’s a pretty solid track.

The B-side is called “Lost Souls”, which doesn’t quite work as well. The guitar part the beginning is built on is really nice, but the keyboards are relied upon too much – it feels about twice as long as it actually is. It feels very, very heavily influenced by Radiohead’s “Exit Music For A Film,” but there’s not quite enough going on here to keep my interest, though the whistling is nice. This band does a good job of mixing electronic elements with non-electronic elements, and knows how to create a lush soundscape, for sure, but with time, the songwriting is sure to get stronger. - Wax Trash

MEMORY MOTEL is still a fairly new band out of Reno, Nevada. They’re a spaced-out group of youngsters (as young as 16 years up to 20) specializing in a hazy strand of conflicted space-rock.

As they promised, it actually is quite difficult to pin any old genre to the sound we’re hearing on their debut single. Both of these songs are filled out with a troubling atmospheric haze with crystal clear guitars floating on top. These guys seem to pay awfully close attention to small detail, resulting in lots of little subtle sounds and colorful effects to intensify the tripped-out rhythms (see “Wasted Days”) – this certainly helps create the mesmerizing trip-hop backdrop you are hearing. Suddenly the track changes momentum right in the middle, throwing us into a ground shaking tom-tom roll that eventually pops off into an electrified guitar breakdown riddled with all sorts of swirly, kaleidoscopic effects – bet you didn’t see that coming.

On the B-side, “Lost Souls” is a chilling tune, with light, frothy guitars and a thick atmosphere that makes for a peculiar dichotomy, while Chris Gibson’s quivering vocals sound high-pitched and spectral. The lazy, crystalline guitars smoothly glide through this haunting landscape, creating a colorful swell of texture a bit before the 2:30 minute mark. The track wraps up with that unexpected whistling tune, but words really don’t do it any justice. You should probably just listen to these tracks right below. - Styrofoam Drone

Artist: Memory Motel

Title: Wasted Days / Lost Souls

Released: August, 2012

Label: (self-released)

Format: 7” vinyl (limited ed. of 500 in color!)

Genre: space rock, garage rock, folk, trip hop

I’m sure the aforementioned genre description is throwing you for a loop. Trust me, it’s all of that combined and more.

This is the band Memory Motel, a young band (most of the members have yet to reach 20 years old) and yet they have this uncanny knack for blending numerous styles together to create an amazing two song single. This 7 inch will be their debut on the physical format, pressed on colorful splattered vinyl, limited to just one pressing of 500 copies.

Side A: “Wasted Days” is our opener. This piece strongly exemplifies the blending of the genres; maybe we’re seeing a birth of a newer genre here… who knows. Either way, this’ll be THE piece all future tracks of this type from any artist will be judged. The instrumentation is flawless and so expertly crafted, blended and brewed that it’s taken me well over a week to form the right words for it. And just what are those words? Effortless, skilled, perfect and cosmic. Lyrically, this is a strong track. So, you get the best of both worlds here, musically. You can’t ask for anything more.

Side B: “Lost Souls” leans a lot more on the guitar and the vocals. It’s a real change of pace after the A-side, but that actually works. Soon, the affects and cosmic instrumentation roars in and ebbs softly away, allowing for the guitar and vocals to return. This pattern continues through the track, acting like the tide coming in and out from the shore. The lyrics here are quite poetic but easy to follow. It’s easy to see what’s going on here and it’s quite a relatable track. Perfect.

Final thoughts?

The band shows amazing talent despite being so young. Seriously, I wish my music sounded that good when I was their age. Comparatively speaking, it’s like putting The Flamin’ Lips, BRMC, Pink Floyd and a drop of Night Kings together in a blender, and then adding a bit of outer space. If this single doesn’t generate a lot of attention, then I’ll be quite surprised. This is something you shouldn’t pass up. - tuningintoobscure

Dream-Pop artistry is the flashing florescent sign on the door, Memory Motel`s insistent melodic throb and self-confessed eclectic tendencies are overwrought with familiar intoxicating styles. Two tracks so differing in their outlook and delivery, `Wasted Days` is double dipped with a lush Trip-Hop backdrop, be prepared for a subtle psychedelic ambiance, progressive synths and lavish distortion cutting loose towards the end of this wonderfully smooth track. The flip-side `Lost Souls` provides devilish reverb over a deeply mournful undercurrent, the orchestral half beats and unassuming grace inject the vision of a Tarantino movie gently panning across it`s panoramic closing title. - Mojophenia

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Una de las cosas que más me gustan de escribir aquí sobre música es, curiosamente, una de las que menos esperaba: al poco tiempo de empezar con esta historia del blog, empecé a recibir a través del formulario de contacto un montón de propuestas musicales de todas partes, con enlaces a canciones de jóvenes grupos que tratan de dar a conocer la música que hacen a través de internet. Si he de ser sincero, me encanta que lo hagan, pero siento que es algo a lo que aún no me he acostumbrado, por distintos motivos: el primero de ellos sería tal vez lo modesto de este blog, escrito en castellano, con poca intención de convertirse en un medio de difusión “serio” y que se reconoce abiertamente como subjetivo. Pero quizá lo que peor llevo sea lo de verme jugando en una posición que no es la mía: acostumbrado a ser simplemente receptor compulsivo de música, di el paso de convertirme con este blog en “señal repetidora” de propuestas musicales más que asumidas, descubiertas por otros para mí. Lo de ser altavoz para nuevos grupos, ya es otra cosa.

El párrafo anterior sirve para justificarme, de algún modo, ante ese puñado de bandas que mandan a este y otros muchos sitios el fruto de su esfuerzo, y con gran ilusión (supongo) esperan una buena crítica: intento mandar un mail de feedback, siempre que puedo, y del modo más educado posible mostrar la envidia que me da lo que hacen. Y, volviendo a lo del primer párrafo, bueno, pues también me sirve para explicar que es normal que no hayáis oído hablar de Memory Motel (sí, como una canción de los Stones), porque es uno de esos grupos a los que casi nadie (aún) ha tenido ocasión de escuchar.

El caso es que no sé si ha sido alguno de los hermanos Ashlock (Ben y Sam), o Christopher Gibson quien a raíz de la publicación del post de Lawrence Arabia, se animó a mandarme un link a sus canciones, y ¡vaya! resulta que aquello sobrepasa el habitual “no está nada mal” que podría esperarse. Pese a su nombre, el trío de Reno (Nevada) no hace rock garajero, sino un pop psicodélico más difícil de etiquetar que de escuchar, con influencias que irían desde los Pink Floyd del “Dark Side of The Moon” hasta los mismísimos Tame Impala.

Los estadounidenses se autoeditaron a mediados del año pasado 500 vinilos bastante apañados, en los que han planchado dos temas, de los que creo que vale la pena destacar “Wasted Days“. Puede que la segunda canción también tenga su punto, con esa intro de guitarras a lo “XX meets Chris Isaak“, y su silbido bien surtido de reverb, pero creo que el plato estrella lo sirven en la primera pista: es algo así como Air circa “Virgin Suicides” (o sea, Pink Floyd) y luego Portishead y luego Flaming Lips y luego otra cosa que no sé qué es, pero me gusta mucho.

Memory Motel aún no tienen sello y se lo han montado en plan DIY. Esperan publicar su debut (ya tienen hasta título provisional: “The Great Television Factory Explosion of 1962“) en este 2013, y mientras tanto se apañan con su bandcamp, en donde podéis pagar lo que queráis por descargar sus canciones (o haceros-un-Radiohead directamente, si eso no os hace sentiros unos miserables). Y yo creo que sí, que deberían seguir haciendo música, de modo que aquí está este -muy pequeño- empujoncito. Y también pienso: deberían mejorar el tema de las letras. Y le doy otra vez al play y pienso que sí, definitivamente, que me pone cachondísimo pensar lo que podría hacer alguien como Dave Fridmann con un grupo como este. - The songs we love

Got an email a while back from the guys in Memory Motel, a trio out of Reno, Nevada whose members are just barely out of their teens and are creating a huge, spaced out, modern electronic psych sound well beyond their collective years. An incredibly solid single experimenting with a range of complex sound, from atmospheric shoegaze to electronica rock.

"Wasted days" opens with a backwards shuffling rhythm and gong crash under a warbling phasery moog or farfisa organ, getting right to an eclectic mix of instrumentation, all skillfully woven together and actually sounding like it all makes sense in their weird psych universe. Ben Ashlock is tackling his drums, heavy and complex with one of those crafty high hat patterns, ultra jazzy, as the organ keys get to twinkling behind it. The guitar is bouncing around under a huge hall delay, while CJ Gibson has all kinds of subtle effects on his vocal tracks, there's a kind of fading backmasking sound playing into the breathy, chopped up Thom Yorke style vocal, even getting into that same delicate falsetto. Sixteen year old Ben drops the track into a tom rhythm and the keys turn into a glassy chime as they build this back up. This is a futuristic psych… a Flaming Lips, Radiohead combination of anything goes with genre's along with something that marks the current state of technology, but not completely dated either, Memory Motel is using the classic parts of this stuff in completely new sounding ways which is hard to do.


"Lost Souls" on the B-Side features a minimally plucked warm electric with CJ under a slight reverb, delivering his vocal in one of those cold, hard, massive rooms… he's a great vocalist, belting out a massive range of dynamics, really unaccompanied in this space without any sense of imperfection. He should be out there by himself, working this vague sense of tension that should be blowing up any moment but never rises above this ultra slow almost nonexistent tempo. The handle they have on production is pretty nuts, it's already working in the way a band gets to about halfway around the time they have to reinvent themselves. They became successful doing one thing, but they can't keep playing songs from those first few albums, night after night, so they get advice from producers, and those alientating electronics, guiding them through those layered foreign sounds. Memory Motel is already there. Seriously impressive stuff already…way beyond where any normal barely out of high school band should be. These guys are focused as hell and have to be insanely knowledgeable in production, or someone's dad is a real big shot. This track ends whistling along with this surf, Ennio Morricone, lonesome guitar sound right after a wash of arpeggios in the string section, everything is game for their electronic psych, and that's the kind of classy package you're going to get from these guys.

Self released, from the Memory Motel bandcamp page, splatter vinyl, 500 of these. - 7 inches

Memory Motel is a young band from Reno, Nevada who are heavily embracing a highly eclectic sound. It is seriously impossible to label Memory Motel's music with any specific genre. Sure, their music is almost many genres, but not enough of any one to be able to call it as such. Is this making sense to anyone? I'm even confusing myself. Here's the best way that I can possibly try to sum up whatever it is that Memory Motel has created: psychedelic, garage, space rock, orchestral, trip-hop, lo-fi, shoegaze, experimental, indie rock. Long story short, it's a little bit of everything and 100% amazing. Each track creates such a mood of uneasiness, you find yourself completely tense throughout the entire song. What sounds will you be experiencing next? The unnerving effect is fantastic thanks to Memory Motel's excellent production and arrangements. This is the point where music and contemporary art collide, and it's bands like Memory Motel that keep me inspired to blog. Memory Motel will be releasing a 7" vinyl of Wasted Days and Lost Souls on August 9th. The release will be limited to only 500 copies of multi-colored, splatter vinyl, so get a head start and preorder the 7" over at Memory Motel's Bandcamp. Stream Wasted Days below, and check out Lost Souls over at Soundcloud. - Therecordstache.com