Motel Drive

Hop in your '64 Chevy Bel Air and go for a long drive down the Central Valley of California. What do you hear blasting out of your speakers? Motel Drive. Taking notes from rockabilly, surf and old school country, the band belts out songs of hardships, road trips and the hope for a better tomorrow. Burning up the road is what they do best, traveling literally up and down the state, from Eureka to Long Beach and everywhere in between. Even the snow covered mountains of Mt. Shasta got a taste of them. You can feel their pain and it’s obvious they play from the heart. Motel Drive is an honest band that makes an honest living the only way they know how: through music. - SanJose.com

The simplest words describe these guys best, they ROCK. Motel Drive is made up of three members- JD Goodwin, Chris ‘Rhinestone’ Estep and Jake Finney. They all hail from the Devil’s bellybutton, AKA Fresno, CA. The name of their band is a salute to a certain street in Fresno that is well-known for various types suspicious activity. However, these guys are the opposite of suspicious, they are talented, fun and can get ANY crowd going, and I do mean ANY. If you had to put a label on the type of music they play it would be a mash up of Punk inspired Rockabilly/Bluesy Country. Their second self-titled release dropped in early 2011 and has given fans much more of what they wanted from these guys, killer tunes. The track list is as follows: Trailer Park Queen, Baby I’m Through with You, Asshole of the Year, When the Lights Go Down, The Lucky One, Pictures, Long Tall Woman, Tell Me Why, Bedroom Eyes, Borrowed Time, Ain’t Got Nothin’, Drifter Blues (Live), Plastic Dashboard Jesus (Live). The CD is a fantastic mix of fast and slow-paced songs that are insightful, heart-felt, funny, and are highly relatable.

Motel Drive first caught my attention at a Battle of the Bands at CSU Fresno in April of 2010. I believe there were something like 6-8 acts and all of them were stereotypical and bland, that is until Motel Drive came on. If my mind serves me correctly they were the second to the last band that night and they blew the competition out of the water. After they played, it was crystal clear what band was going to win. The crowd, up until these guys played, was polite but not many were really into any of the bands, myself included. However, once MD came out and JD fired the crowd up, Jake busted out his upright bass and Chris got behind the drum kit all of that changed instantly. I think just about everyone in the room became fans of them that night.

Since then I have seen Motel Drive many times, pretty much any chance I get to make a show I am there. I have never once been disappointed. These guys are just impressive at working a crowd. They can easily read what pace of song the crowd is yearning for, offer jokes in between songs, and wow a crowd with their raw musical power. JD’s vocals are smooth and deep, Jake plays an upright bass faster and clearer than anyone I have ever seen and Chris pounds out the rhythm on the drum set so expertly you can’t help but move along to it. They also hold another key to winning over fans, they actually ARE having fun playing on stage. Too often bands can play well but they just stand there and make it look more like a chore than fun. These guys are definitely not like that! They are probably one of Fresno’s most well-known bands, packing a favorite venue, Audie’s Olympic, every time they play there. They also played at SXSW this past March and were very well received. Here’s to hoping for more exposure to these guys, they deserve it! Take a listen, I know you will dig what you hear. - Badass Bands Blog

Every once in a while, I encounter a band that I like immediately. After hearing Motel Drive on Radio Free Bakersfield, I contacted the band about its most recent album. Well, it didn't take long to really enjoy the album that kicks off with "Trailer Park Queen." The upright bass in this song gets the pace going as the singer sings about a woman with bleached blonde hair and tattooed thighs. The couple gets into a silver Airstream and heads to Tennessee for a "white trash wedding." It's a great uptempo song with a great story, and it is bound to get your toes tapping.
That certainly isn't the only song that will get your toes tapping. "As----e of the Year" is another great song that will get you moving. This song has a rockabilly/western swing feel to it. In this song, the singer ponders, "Ain't it funny how one beer can turn to 22?" Yeah, it's one of those songs where the narrator pays more attention to the bottle and the honky tonk than he does to his girl. Don't be surprised if you find yourself singing along. Another song about imbibing more than a sensible amount is "Borrowed Time." But hey, at least the narrator in this song is responsible. He crawls home every night because he is in no shape to drive.
In addition to the toe-tappers mentioned before, the band also performs some songs like "Tell Me Why" that would get people two-stepping at a place like The Swallows Inn in San Juan Capistrano. Also included on this album are two live tracks: "Drifter Blues" whose energy brings Cowboy Mouth to mind and "Plastic Dashboard Jesus."
This album is part country, part revved-up rockabilly, and part western swing. The band sings about a lot of familiar themes (drinking, poor relationships, not wanting to stay in one place) but does it in its own way. "Long Tall Woman" reminds me of "One Time for Me" by Reverend Horton Heat, but other than that, while it sounds familiar, it doesn't really sound like any other band. Did I mention that I immediately liked this band? Maybe I tipped my hand a little when I included this album in my favorites of 2010. Are you still just sitting there? Go get this album already. Call it a Christmas present to yourself. - Examiner.com