TVD's Daily Wax | The Motors "Tenement Steps"

My buddy Shark owned the Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records (pictured below, bottom left) which ostensibly became our go-to Bible regarding all sorts of Punk/Post Punk and New Wave band and record release ephemera. This handy reference guide put to rest many an argument back in the day. Once "slippery fingers" Ben "borrowed" the Guide and man, there was hell to pay in the house. After several tense phone calls, Ben admitted he had "borrowed" the book (without asking, natch) and it was returned to me in a nondescript brown bag ala contraband. The thing was GOLD.

So, it cracks me up to think that Ira Robbins--editor of the Guide and one of the founders of Trouser Press Magazine--and I probably wouldn't...get along. In polite company, we'd be hurling insults and trash-talking each other's taste in music for certain. (And I'd welcome it, because well, I'm a reluctant fan.) Now, after yesterday's rebuke of Spacehog (a band admittedly I wouldn't go to the mat for) he offers this take on today's LP:

"The Motors effectively disbanded after (their) second album. Garvey and McMaster continued working together using the group name, eventually engaging Jimmy Iovine to produce their next album in New York. Tenement Steps, the unfortunate result of far too much time spent in the studio, is an appalling, overblown mess, reeking of self-indulgence and artistic confusion. The chorus of the best-known track, "Love and Loneliness," sounds exactly like Steve Stills' "Love the One You're With" — and that's as good as the record gets."

Well, it ain't that bad. Sure, the keyboards on "Love and Loneliness" are a bit much...yet all these years on, I'm still singing the song in the shower. And that says something, yes? (Just don't say it to Mr. Robbins.)

The Motors - Love and Loneliness (Mp3)
The Motors - Metropolis (Mp3)
The Motors - Tenement Steps (Mp3)
The Motors - Here Comes the Hustler (Mp3)
The Motors - That's What John Said (Mp3)

Tickets. We get 'em.

...and now you will too, loyal TVD reader. We're giving away two tickets courtesy of The Frontier Brothers for their show TONIGHT at Iota in Arlington, VA. Most convincing plea for these passes either in the comments section or to us directly gets 'em -- but the contest closes at 3:00EST, so get those pencils moving.

Born in space, razed in Fort Worth, and now regenerating in Austin, The Frontier Brothers have only just arrived, yet early notices are truly something for the E.T.s to phone home about. "The Frontier Brothers cover the wicked terrain between The Beach Boys and The Kinks with just a touch of mad Syd Barrett," says Vivien Goldman (BBC America). While the Fort Worth Weekly declares, "(The Frontier Brothers) have a love for the pure pleasures of music-making." Individually known as Marshall Galactic, Brett Moses, and Travis Newman, TFB craft a new breed of danceable indie-pop inspired by artists ranging from David Bowie and ELO to Wilco and Arcade Fire. However you describe them, The Frontier Brothers are simply out of this world. The trio is currently on tour recruiting more terrestrial visionaries for their intergalactic exchange program.

The Frontier Brothers - Everyones A Neutron Bomb (Mp3)
The Frontier Brothers - Space Punk Starlet (Mp3)
The Frontier Brothers - Take It For Love (Mp3)



Update: We have a winner. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.