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October 2013: Gold Motel – “Summer House”

Some bands are just so perfectly twee that you can almost hear their skinny jeans rubbing against their Keds while they bop to the beat. And it’s easy to make fun of this stereotype, but I think it’s mostly because it’s tough to do twee indie pop-rock very well nowadays. The difference between bad and good indie pop can be tiny, but it’s always there.

Gold Motel is an example of how to do twee right. Summer House (2010) is upbeat and adorable; singer Greta Morgan (once of The Hush Sound) and her bandmates are mostly Chicago natives who wrote the music inspired by their time in the Southern California indie scene, and it shows. You can almost see them performing a gig outside under the palm trees, with mustaches and ironic wifebeaters all over the place. Morgan’s voice communicates all the upbeat cuteness you could want out of a summer-y record like this; the drums are upbeat and the guitar riffs are catchy. Tracks like “Safe in L.A.”, “Stealing the Moonlight”, and “Don’t Send the Searchlights” are particular favourites of mine. If you’re looking for something to cheer you up as the winter slowly approaches, Summer House is a poppy, bubbly dose of sunshine.

Gold Motel on Bandcamp: http://goldmotel.bandcamp.com/album/summer-house

Twitter: https://twitter.com/goldmotel

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