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Integrating
pop melodies with socially voyeuristic lyrics in Kurt Vonnegut
style prose, The Motion Sick leaves you thinking beyond usual
romance parameters with their second CD release, The truth will
catch you, just wait…, due out January 1, 2008. Lead singer,
Mike Epstein observes, "Vonnegut approaches almost all
of his stories with a sort of self-deprecating confession of
the whole plot right away and then weaves together the revealed
pieces. You're never really reading the book waiting to see
what happens, but rather waiting to see how it happens. The
tone of his wit is something I admire and strive for and his
narrative writing fits with the fatalist concepts woven throughout
this record."
Named
SPIN Magazine's "Band of the Month" for their first
release, Her Brilliant Fifteen, Epstein (Guitar, Vocals), Matthew
Girard (Bass), Patrick Mussari (Guitar) and Travis Richter (Drums)
draw parallels to Vonnegut with lyrics ringing of social commentary.
Never too serious while slinging weighty subject matters and
unconventional musical themes, the band remains profoundly simple
in the melodic nods to their literary muses and societal inspirations.
Songs like "Jean-Paul," a schizophrenic, splintered
conversation on the murder of French revolutionary Jean-Paul
Marat, reside comfortably next to "30 Lives," a baba-ba
filled ditty in which the protagonist utilizes a video game
code to spend 30 lives with his partner. Literary or technological,
modest or fantastical, inspirations for the band lay in those
with the ability to speak to listeners.
Drawn
to musicians who tell a compelling story while carrying a bit
of venom cause artists like Nick Cave, Bright Eyes and Modest
Mouse to resonate with the band. "I really like musicians
who are tough, but vulnerable," Epstein reflects. Emitting
inspiration from the television show "Twin Peaks,"
the band referenced the lyric in their song "The Owls Are
Not What They Seem" for the title of their CD, The truth
will catch you, just wait… Revolving around the show's
premise of the futility of resisting fate, the song and the
album as a whole perpetuate the theme of uncontrollable universal
clockwork (death and rebirth, gravitational forces, heavenly
bodies, unstoppable violent revolution). Some of the songs approach
this as gravely serious, some as satire.
The
album's title speaks of some ominous, impending event, which
led to the release date of January 1st. Epstein says, "I
think we all have a fear that at midnight of the new year, there's
always a chance the world might end." So it goes.
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