Bradley's Buzz

Bubbatunes Motels - Rooms 1 & 2

We here at Bubbatunes – you know my bedroom/office – have started our round up of our Motels reissue and let me just say I had forgotten how great these early albums really are. What’s even better than reaching back a few decades to capture 80’s classics is the fact that these albums stand up very well. Martha Davis and her boys had their dark wave ideas down to an art that Miss Davis appropriately calls ‘music noir.’ The dark and seedy underbelly of love and the city are reflected in just about every little ditty they’ve done and though the central themes are there in almost all of their songs, each song has a very big hook that is all its own. So let’s take a look at our first two re-issues in our Motels catalog.


bub 76 – Motels – Motels (1979; March 20, 2007)
The debut album that Martha still states as her favorite since it is the only one she envisioned from start to finish without those pesky record execs on her back. The album launched the debut single “Total Control” – the breathy and brooding pseudo ballad that has some of the best lyrics ever, “I’d sell my soul for total control over you…” The second single launched was the arty “Closets & Bullets” that stands proud with Martha’s interpretation of the word ‘mirage’ – she makes it all her own. But Motels also captures three of the very best songs the band has ever done – the abuse anthem “Celia” with complete imagery of the poor girl – "I heard him talking/I heard him say/he wasn’t gonna kill you/ he was just gonna fuck up your pretty face” which is important as its one of the first songs I remember using the word ‘fuck’ in its lyrics an apparently the record company wanted her to change it to ‘he was just gonna cut up your pretty face’ which she replied, “oh yeah that’s much better” in a very sarcastic tone. "Kix" is a rip roaring fast paced new wave classic with slamming drums and Martha declaring, "they go downtown to find some more kix/ what the hell you do with these kix today? / what the hell you do with these kix today..../ Kix..." It's great and one that righteously ends up on their endless compilations. “Counting” is the final track on the debut album and it’s the perfect Motels formula with its sad lyrics longing and wondering what’s ahead and what’s going on and it also mentions a gal named Sally who shows up repeatedly in Martha’s lyrics, in “Counting” Sally isn’t as much as fun as she used to be as she’s just waiting for someone to tell her why she’s there. “Love Don’t Help” is another highlight with its changing melody and its plain yet interesting lyric, “Love won’t help you win at the track” and it was the B-side to the “Total Control” single. Songs like these are the very reason Capitol has been crazy to not reissue these early classics. Luckily we have Bubbatunes and because I’m such a completist, I’ve added bonus tracks that were hidden until Martha ventured into her vault and released the double disc set Anthologyland in 2000 that was comprised of outtakes, b-sides and live tracks, so with her help we add on two outtakes from the debut album sessions – the frolicking rock of “Boys” and the much better “Amigo” which is a surprise twist of fun I’m surprised didn’t actually make the cut. We also have live versions of “Total Control”, “Celia” and “Counting” all from 1979/1980 concert dates and we end it with a demo of a song called “Every Day Star” that was recorded around 1974/75 when Martha and a few other members were known not as The Motels but as Warfield Foxes.
Motels - Motels (bub76) track list -
01. Anticipating 02. Kix 03. Total Control 04. Love Don't Help 05. Closets & Bullets 06. Atomic Cafe 07. Celia 08. Porn Reggae 09. Dressing Up 10. Counting
Bonus Tracks -
11. Boys 12. Amigo 13. Total Control (live) 14. Celia (live) 15. Counting (live) 16. Every Day Star (demo)

bub 77 – Motels – Careful (1980; March 20, 2007)
For their second album Careful, Martha, Tim, Marty, Michael, Brian brought in a couple more hooks to their avant-garde arty styling and the result is a much better album in my opinion. Not to mention one of the best album covers ever and if you don't believe me pick up a book about the best album covers and I bet you'll see it in there. The music is still moody and brooding but with Tim McGovern, Michael Goodroe and Marty Jourard more involved in writing, the resulting songs they came up with add a new texture to the Motels sound – the first single “Danger” (Davis/McGovern) is still on my favorite songs by the band – “Danger/your love is like a stranger/your so close/ yet so far away…” before the chorus kicks it up a few notches, “Late at night when I want you/ I just close my eyes and I pray/late at night when I need you/ I just stop to me I say…” The song is something Divinyls might have put on their debut album - so enticing and fun, “Envy” is my all time favorite song on the album – it’s a throwback to “Love Don’t Help” which is to say it’s a 2 minute fast fight with Martha cooing some intense and hilarious lyrics and a change in melody as well – “everybody wants my car/ so they can drive like I drive/ everybody wants my car… you better leave it alone…” Of course you know she’s going to head into “everybody wants my baby/ everybody wants my man..” and she tells them “you better leave him alone…” with a wild drumming and soft bass behind her – it’s very threatening and I’m sure that’s exactly how she meant it. The title track is one of their more famous cuts if not for the fact it appears on almost every one of their compilations – it’s a winding synth driven track once again full of foreboding with Martha practically hiccupping through it, “but just don’t leave me/ please don’t leave me/ your way/ careful/ I’m indicating/ my way…” “Bonjour Baby” and “Cry Baby” punch up the hook laden part of the album and they’re two very fun tracks full of new wavey fun, while the single “Days Are OK (But The Nights Were Made Love)” starts with a chunky mellow opening before rock guitar and drums kick in for the chorus and the boys help out by making man “oohs” and “aahs” on the chorus – it should’ve been a huge hit but instead never even makes it onto their hits collections. One of my favorite singles from the band is also from the Careful album, “Whose Problem?” is a mid tempo popper with some of the best lyrics – “You didn’t have to adopt me/ you could have very well left me outside the door" and my favorite - "Anticipating the matter will never be heard/ I know you wanted perfection but I' lost my nerve/ so whose problem am I?/ whose problem am I?/ whose problem am I / if I’m not yours?” The whole Careful album is great from one song to the next, with the whole thing ending on a bittersweet moody confection called “Slow Town” which Martha describes as sounding like heroin haze. To add to the benefit of all, the bonus cuts include early alternate versions of “Danger” and “Careful” though I must admit they aren’t all that different from what ended up on the album, they are just a little more loose and moody – if that’s possible. The Careful reissue ends with a live version of a song that never made it onto any album “The Big Hurt” recorded in New York on June 16, 1980 captures a wilder side of Martha and the gang in their early live show. Though I’m not a huge fan of live recorded performances, the recording is actually really great as it’s a very intense performance.
Motels - Careful (bub77) track list:
01. Danger 02. Envy 03. Careful 04. Bonjour Baby 05. Party Professionals 06. Days Are OK (But The Nights Were Made For Love) 07. Cry Baby 08. Whose Problem? 09. People Places And Things 10. Slow Town
bonus tracks -
11. Careful (alternate take) 12. Danger (alternate take) 13. The Big Hurt (live)

As the weeks progress we’ll get to visit more of the Motels music noir when we unleash the reissues of the band’s popular phase with 1982’s All Four One which includes all of the songs I could find that were supposed to make their third album Apocalypso, then there’s 1983’s Little Robbers and the very hard to get Shock from 1985… until then, I'm sure I'll come up with something else to blog about.

Labels: Bubbatunes, Careful, Danger, Martha Davis, Motels, Music Noir, Total Control

posted by swivek @ 11:43 AM