New duo American Motors, which was established in 2023, begs the question: when you’re “post-” this that and the other thing shouldn’t you arrive at some contemporary descriptor? Instead of informing what you’re beyond, you land on whatever new territory you’re staking claim to. Easier said than done for the duo of Dustin Travis White (guitar/vocals) and Alex Steward (drums) who are aided here by Brad Williams (bass). On their debut album, Content, American Motors, as they claim in their bio, “aren’t re-inventing the wheel as much as they are smashing it to bits, reconfiguring those bits into something that is—what?—a new wheel? Why not?”
The band’s lyric/narrative-heavy, shoegazey noise rock certainly has precedents, but it’s hardly derivative. It’s a powerful and emotive mix of dynamic sounds ranging from raw and heavy to floaty and melancholy, both sparse and powerful. The eight-track Content was recorded and mixed by Jawbox guitarist/vocalist J. Robbins at The Magpie Cage in Baltimore, MD in April and May 2024 and mastered by Dan Coutant. It will be issued on vinyl and digitally via The Ghost Is Clear Records and Expert Works Records on October 4. You can preorder Content here or here.
This is what Dustin Travis White had to say about the band’s debut:
“The record is harsh and bleak, but the sort of bleak that lines Townes Van Zandt songs and is tied to that tradition lyrically. We play with repetition and minimalism. We tried to leave as much space as we fill. I kept referencing Terry Riley and La Monte Young as much as PiL while we were writing. I kept trying to make my guitar sound like the synth sounds I heard on self released new age tapes. I don’t know how much of that we achieved or if any of that is even evident. All I know is I couldn’t be more proud of this record and I think ultimately we managed to achieve our initial thesis: to merge a brutal repetitive rhythm section with ornate textures and sprinkle over it a dystopian take on Appalachian storytelling.”
