Saint Motel with Leftover Cuties

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Saint Motel: With sophisticated savvy and singularity, the Los Angeles quartet Saint Motel has built a formidable reputation on the back of inventive indie pop and wildly-fun live shows. Mixing raw energy and rousing rhythms, Saint Motel's aural catharsis is pure bliss with a twist of cynical humor. According to A/J Jackson, singer and creative force behind Saint Motel, the band recently has expanded its repertoire to include “new elements that I would describe as tropical, Latin, big band, retro, that I don't think would have applied to our earlier music.” This is the way of Saint Motel, not to be held down by stagnancies, but to continue a natural progression. Once the listener is pulled in by the pulsating and joyous melodies, delight can be found in the surprisingly avant-garde lyrical subject matter. Voyeur is lush with stories that reveal themselves through thematic twists and turns with a narrative voice both subversive and sincere. With themes ranging from the lure of plastic surgery, to the dangers of honest feedback, to the taboo bonds of friendship within the Heaven's Gate cult, we end up with tongue-in-cheek notions strung together by honest motifs, delivered with charm, often leaving the song's meanings open to interpretation. Jackson admits “while all the songs are based on what many would call ?absurd' subject matter, many of the songs have various levels of subtext that I hope the listener will decipher with repeated listens. “And so, what might be easily perceived as sexy with one listen, with another might seem mean-spirited or flatly perverse. That is the flair of Saint Motel's rapturous pop and the graceful dichotomy of its existence.

Leftover Cuties: Some things are eternal. Love songs. California sunsets. The ukulele. Leftover Cuties embody all of that goodness on their debut album Places To Go. Produced by Tony Berg (Bob Dylan, Michael Penn, Jesca Hoop), the eleven breezy, sophisticated songs evoke a magic-hour stroll on the beach with a special someone. Who knows what year it is? Who cares when the songs are this sweet? To call Leftover Cuties retro or throwback would be too easy, and frankly dismissive. Sure, the music fits beside Billie Holiday, but it’s also current in its sex appeal, its sophistication, its confidence. The Cuties’ music – plied with upright bass, accordion, the brushed drums, and yes, ukulele – is not slavishly old-timey, but honors its forebears in the right way. Melody. Sharp playing. Stylized, confident, character-laden singing.