An Introduction To Motorpsycho

Anyone who knows me, knows that I've become completely obsessed by a Norwegian trio named Motorpsycho. They are the biggest band in that country and have been since the mid 90s. Yet they have never had a single album released on this side. They've only played a handful of shows in the United States including a SXSW in the early 00's and Terrastock this year. It always seemed that if you had to have heard the band, you probably heard about the band either from me or from one of my friends, complaining to you about my obsession.

A former roommate a German exchange student introduced me to them in early 2000 with the release of their 9th studio album, Let Them Eat Cake. There wasn’t anything particularly new or inventive about this band’s sound. The trio wore their love of music on their collective sleeves from the pop of the Beatles and Beach Boys to the southern fried rock of The Allman Brothers Band to the harder rock of Zeppelin, Sabbath and Judas Priest.  

Let Them Eat Cake was the beginning of a period for the band, of expanding their sound, cleaning up some of the dirty edges of their earlier work with some finely crafted material.  Throughout their first nine years, singer/bassist Bent Saether always had a knack for writing memorable pop songs. May of these songs like “Wearing Yr Smell”, “The Nerve Tattoo”, “Sinful, Windborne” and “Starmelt” all were wrapped in a tangle of gut-wrenching bass and drums and screaming guitars that fit their legendary, long, loud and intense live sets.

But with Let Them Eat Cake things began to become is distorted and more focused as the focal point for the material was like a cross-section of AM radio from the early 70s. “The Other Fool” features a beautiful string quartet accompanied the driving guitar lead, as well as drug references and a name drop of Pink Floyd. Guitarist Snah’s “Upstairs-Dowstairs" features acoustic guitars and the Jaga Jazzist horns ushering in a more laid-back sound. Throughout album, Motorpsycho add elements of jazz and psychedelic to their immense musical oeuvre. The instrumental “Whip That Ghost” makes more than a passing musical nod to The Allman Brothers’ “Jessica”.  “Big Surprise” is pure hard candy confection, while “Walking With J.” hints at some left-leaning religious musical inspirations.  All in all an amazing record that even eight years later still overwhelms me.

Here's a video clip for "The Other Fool":