Photo: Jerome Brock
Cutting a fresh reputation built on the sounds of the 80s underground comes Dallas’s MOTORCADE, ready to whisk you away to the lands of dark, smoky bars, equally smokey eyes, and plenty of scuffed leather. After members spent time touring with prolific acts like St. Vincent, Apples in Stereo, the War on Drugs, and Daniel Johnston, the group came together to noodle around with some things guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist James Henderson had been whipping up, and as it tends to go when congruent music minds are put together, a few pieces of songs turned into the group’s debut album.
“Desertion” opens with a bouncing synth line that initially sounds like you’re being ushered into the 8-bit world, but takes a hard turn down the 80s post-punk rabbit hole as soon as it’s met with darker synth sounds and smooth-spinning vocals. The song’s arrangement leaves a lot of room to air out the layers, allowing you to take it head on and at its face value: Motorcade aren’t here to reinvent the wheel of alt-rock, they’re just reveling in one of its greatest sounds.
“Desertion” appears on MOTORCADE, out this Friday via Idol Records.
-Taylor Wallace// Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli