Motel Matches, S/T, 1995
Bottle-fed on The Beatles, weaned on XTC and Squeeze and deflowered by NYC funk-rock, Motel Matches pumps out smart, hyperactive pop with a cynical twist. I love it, but I am a music critic and this is critic’s music. I can’t imagine who else would get into this stuff; it’s too edgy for the oldsters and too competent for the slacker set. Don’t believe me? Ask Adrien Belew how his last record did. On the other hand, the biz is all a-buzz about Skeleton Key, another Manhattan act mining similar territory to Motel Matches, so perhaps their time has come. We’ll see, I guess.
— Jim Santo’s Demo Universe
PERSONNEL:
Scotty Conant: vocals, guitar, bass
Andy Elder: drums, percussion
Engineered by Jed R. and Steve
TRACK LISTING:
Side A
Elevator Man
Sugar & Spice (And Dirty Device)
Meantime
Stealer
Listening again now, with the benefit of two decades’ hindsight and more research than was practical in 1995, I’m struck that my original review didn’t pick up on the significant metal influences here. It would have made sense if I had; drummer Andy Elder came to this project from the Brooklyn-based thrash metal band First Order, and stringman Scotty Conant later appeared on 2010’s Patience and Perserverance, by retro metal heads Gypsyhawk.
And that’s about it for Motel Matches; aside from my own reviews in the DuBase, and uh, this cassette on my desk, I couldn’t locate any evidence of this quote-unquote band’s existence. Their time never came. It’s a shame; this is a terrific recording from start to finish, top to bottom. Wish I knew more about it.
p.s: Motel Matches’ contact address in 1995 was an apartment on MacDougal Street in New York City’s Soho neighborhood that recently sold for $675,000. Times change.